School catchment zones becoming “number one priority” when buying homes in Geelong, driving up house prices

Geelong’s highest-performing schools are in the sights of family homebuyers. Here’s how every Geelong public secondary schools results and what it costs to get into those zones. FULL LIST

Geelong families are making school catchment zones their “number one priority” when buying new homes, with property prices rising more rapidly in areas with better performing public schools.

A Geelong Advertiser investigation has found median house prices rising rapidly within the catchment zones of the highest-performing public secondary schools across Geelong – with Belmont High School and North Geelong Secondary College zones experiencing the highest housing demand.

Belmont High School’s catchment zone has become hot property. Picture: Glenn Ferguson

And real estate agents have revealed they are receiving more and more inquiries regarding catchment zones, as the Melbourne practice of catchment hunting moves to Geelong.

Out of nine Geelong public secondary schools, the two schools with the highest percentage of study scores over 40 last year also experienced two of the highest median house price rises.

How does your school measure up? See the full list below >>

Belmont High School was the region’s best performing public secondary school in 2021 with 4.3 per cent of all study scores over 40.

The impressive VCE performance helped to drive median house price from $680,000 in 2020 to $840,000 in 2021, with the 23 per cent increase the third highest of the nine school zones.

North Geelong Secondary College rates highly for study scores and the catchment presents strong property value.

The second highest median house price increase occurred in the North Geelong Secondary College catchment, where prices jumped by 24 per cent from $515,000 to $638,000.

The popular public school also ranked second for the percentage of study scores over 40, at 3.8 per cent.

Harcourts North Geelong director Joe Grgic.

Harcourts North Geelong director Joe Grgic said the widespread practice of buying within preferred school catchment zones was no longer confined to Melbourne.

“The talk about ‘being in a catchment zone’ has grown over the last 10 years, whereas previously I had only heard of families moving to Melbourne and needing to be in specific locations to be in the zones,” Mr Grgic said.

“As Geelong grows, it is definitely following suit and the value of being in the zone will grow. So we will see that trend continue to grow in Geelong as Geelong continues to grow.

“Belmont High’s catchment zone has over the years had the strongest inquiries, it is well known in the industry, North Geelong to a lesser extent, but more recently we’ve helped several families move to be in the zone.”

Buxton Highton director Tony Moorfoot said house hunters were asking about school catchment zones on a weekly basis when approaching his agency.

“People are looking to be in those areas because schooling is important to a lot of families who want to make sure their kids are in the right areas to actually get into those schools,” Mr Moorfoot said.

“It’s always been in the back of people’s minds where they want to be.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria president Adam Docking last month told News Corp house buyers had school zones “front of mind”.

“In a lot of cases, it would be the number one priority after they’ve decided the house is nice,” Mr Docking said. “And it does add both financial value and opportunity to a property.”

Originally published as School catchment zones becoming “number one priority” when buying homes in Geelong, driving up house prices