Irish Schools House Price Report 2016 | Daft.ie

When people pay for a home, they are paying not only for shelter and space but also for location. Economists have long realised that the differences in the value of a location can reveal important signals about what people want in their day-to-day lives.

Differences can be huge, with the average value of a three-bedroom semi-detached house in South County Dublin currently almost €500,000 compared to less than €100,000 in most of rural Munster and Connacht.

Buyers pay a premium to live close to a secondary school

An obvious amenity that people pay for is proximity to jobs. This is why, as a general rule, the closer you are to a city centre, the higher the price. But other things matter as well, including being close to schools. This report uses leading research methods to investigate how proximity to schools affects house prices in Ireland.

In particular, we wanted to answer the following three questions:

  • What is the price premium paid for living close to a secondary school?
  • Does this "school premium" vary by region?
  • And is this premium different if you are close to a 'good' secondary school, compared to others?

This study has examined whether proximity to secondary schools is reflected in the value of homes. Overall, a home that is 100m away from secondary school is worth on average 2.6% more than one that is 1km away. In the current market, this translates into an average "school premium" of €5,600.

The premium is largest in Leinster and smallest in Connacht-Ulster - it was also bigger in the boom. The premium is much bigger for schools where most pupils go on to higher education than where less than half progress. All in all, this report will be useful not only for prospective buyers and sellers but also for policymakers and planners.

The premium for being close to a secondary school

It shows that the investment by taxpayers in new schools is reflected in the value of the property nearby. In other countries, property tax is used to capture this value and fund schools - with this report, a similar approach could be adopted in Ireland.

This would help ensure that Ireland continues to enjoy a good-quality education system.