Sydney real estate: Cheapest home prices in Sydney’s best school catchments revealed

Some of Sydney’s top ranked schools boast catchments with surprisingly affordable homes. See how home prices near the top 150 schools compare.

Parents intent on sending their kids to a top-rated public school are running out of options for suburbs with an affordable cost of living.

A review of how much it costs to live within the catchment areas of the 150 top ranked public primary schools in Sydney showed house prices averaged under $1.4m near only 14 of the schools.

Buying a house near the bulk of the top-rated schools required spending more than $2m, on average.

And in nine of the top school catchments house buyers needed a budget of at least $4m, according to the analysis of property prices near the top 150 schools ranked by researcher Better Education.

Rim Rizk, with sons Ali and Amir, bought a home in Picnic Point specifically because of the top rated public school. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Most catchments near the top rated public schools were also low-density suburbs with few apartments and only a handful of rental properties.

It comes as Finder.com.au research showed Sydney families are increasingly pulling their kids out of private schools and going public to cushion the soaring cost of living.

About 14 per cent of Sydney families polled said they had taken their children out of private – nearly double the figures for Victoria and Queensland – while 20 per cent said they were considering it.

Within this environment, demand for homes in the catchments of the best public schools has become highly competitive and kept a floor under prices.

Westmead Public School is one of the cheapest top ranked primaries to live near. Picture: Monique Harmer

Most of Sydney’s cheapest top school catchments were in Western Sydney.

The only school with a catchment where the median house price was under $1m was Quakers Hill Public in Blacktown suburb Quakers Hill. The median house price was about $979,000.

Greystanes Public and Girraween Public, both in the Greater Parramatta region, had marginally higher median prices at about $1m and $1.05m, respectively.

The cheapest catchments to buy an apartment were also in the Parramatta area.

They included Westmead Public, Darcy Rd Public in Wentworthville and Burnside Public in North Parramatta. Unit prices in these suburbs averaged $555,000-$590,000.

Finder.com money expert Sarah Megginson said last year’s flush of interest rates rises was encouraging more families to go public and there was a recognition that not all schools were equal.

“The best public schools are often in the most expensive suburbs,” she said. “You will usually pay a high premium to live in the catchment.”

LJ Hooker Padstow director Lush Pillay said some savvy families had discovered the top schools that were marginally cheaper and purchased their homes in these areas precisely because of the schools.

One example was Picnic Point, where the median house price was $1.37m. “Most families buying there are doing it for the school. That’s the reason they’ve chosen the area,” he said.

Rim and Firass Rizk recently purchased a house near Picnic Point Public and said it was difficult to get into the suburb.

Patrick and Kay Yang, with daughter Cecilia, purchased a house in St Ives because it is teeming with top schools. Picture by Damian Shaw

“We actually started with a list of the top schools, looked at what was cheapest and that’s how we ended up in Picnic Point,” Mr Rizk said.

“It was took us a long time to find something. All the families are also trying to buy a house near the school, but they’re aren’t many and there’s almost no rentals in the area.”

St Ives resident Kay Yang sends her 8-year-old daughter to Pymble Ladies College but has been tempted to move her to a public school due to the soaring cost of living.

“We’ll see how it goes,” she said, adding that a good public school came with its own pressures.

“The best schools are almost always in extremely expensive areas,” she said.

Ms Yang said it helped to be in St Ives, where there are three highly rated public primary schools. She is banking on them boosting the value of her property when it came time to sell.

“We wanted to make sure we were making a good investment with where we bought and having all these schools nearby made St Ives a good choice,” Ms Yang said.

Parramatta Public School is a top ranked primary that’s cheaper to live near. Picture: Angelo Velardo)

McGrath-St Ives agent Brooklyn Zhu said increased migration could put additional pressure on demand for properties in top school catchments.

“A lot of the buyers we get in St Ives are new migrants from Asian countries that really value education,” he said.

“They aren’t always familiar with the area at first. They come here because they see St Ives North in a list of top ranked schools.”

Mr Zhu said the school’s top ranking has transformed the local housing market. “Things really kicked off in 2016 when the school was ranked number two in the state. Before that, you didn’t get too many (migrant) buyers in the area. Now they make up 80 or 90 per cent.”

Originally published as Sydney real estate: Cheapest home prices in Sydney’s best school catchments revealed