The average London property price near an ‘outstanding’ state primary school is £693,849, according to research from Portico.

Schools rated as ‘outstanding’ – the highest Ofsted grade – are highly sought-after, and homes near these top-rated schools usually come at a premium.

The London estate agent revealed that there are 342 outstanding state-funded primary schools in the capital, and analysed the property prices surrounding all of them to determine which boroughs are most affordable and which are the most expensive.

Of the 32 London boroughs with outstanding primary schools, it found East London’s Barking and Dagenham offers the best value for money. Here, parents can expect to pay an average property price of just £307,463, which is less than half the average London property price of £618,587.

At the other end of the scale, Kensington and Chelsea ranks as the most expensive borough. Home to 14 outstanding primaries, living in the vicinity of one of these schools will set parents back an average of £1,739,268 – nearly a million and a half more than in Barking and Dagenham.

When looking at specific outstanding schools across the capital to find the ‘real’ bargains, Portico discovered that Hounslow in Greater London offers the best value local property prices near an outstanding school in the whole of London at £233,615.

Following this, Bexley, Greenwich and Ealing have the third, fourth and fifth most affordable areas near an outstanding primary school.

London’s most expensive catchments overall ranked as:

• Westminster’s St Peters Eaton Square Corn Primary School on Lower Belgrave Street – £3,184,784.
• Kensington and Chelsea’s Christ Church CofE Primary School on Robinson St, Chelsea – £2,589,755.
• Camden’s Primrose Hill School on Princess Rd in Primrose Hill – £2,573,738.

The research has shown that the price paid to live near an outstanding school can vary wildly across London boroughs. Interestingly, though, the price divide between outstanding local areas within boroughs is also extensive.

For example, Primrose Hill in Camden (listed above) has the third most expensive local property prices out of London’s outstanding school zones, but Kingsgate Primary School located in the same borough is a staggering 77% cheaper, with a much lower average property price of £578,896.

“Each year, parents across the nation fight to get their children into the right school, and we see many families moving purely to be in the catchment area of a specific school,” says Fiona Veitch, marketing director at Portico.

“Living near a state-funded primary school with an Ofsted ‘needs improvement’ rating costs even less. In fact, the average property price near a school that ‘needs improvement’ costs £540,638 – which is over 22% cheaper, or over £150,000, less than an ‘outstanding’ school area.”

She concludes: “Despite there being such a strong correlation between house prices and top-rated schools, we hope our research will help the parents who are looking to move to an ‘affordable’ area near a top-rated school see what options are available to them.”

You can view Portico’s full research here.