Education an increasingly critical driver of demand in UK prime residential markets
16 November 2017, Singapore — Knight Frank, the independent global property consultancy, today launches the 2017 Education Report, which examines the housing market around key schools in the UK.
The report shows that good schools are a key driver of the housing market. With wealthy parents from a growing number of countries choosing to educate their children overseas, understanding local property market dynamics is becoming ever more important.
Liam Bailey, Knight Frank’s Global Head of Research, says: “Good schools are a key driver of the housing market and their presence often helps to drive local property prices. The world’s wealthy want their children to be global citizens with school careers often spread across multiple locations whilst they gain insight into different cultures and languages.”
Key findings:
• The Knight Frank Attitudes Survey 2017 revealed that on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 = very important), ultra-high-net-worth individuals in Asia cited 8 being the level of importance education is when choosing somewhere to buy.
• Prime property prices around key London schools have risen significantly over the last five years, highlighting this trend:
o London: Highgate School: +54%; St Paul’s Girls’ School: +45%
o Home Counties: Eton College: +45%; Wellington College: +46%
• The Wealth Report this year revealed that 38% of ultra-high-net-worth individuals in Asia were more likely to look abroad for a good school.
• Some families that used to send their children to school in the US are now instead looking to send their children to school in the UK – which now offers better value after the recent fall in the value of the British pound.
• Global demand in UK schools has risen over the past 10 years. The number of students from Asia joining UK public schools between school year 2005/2006 and 2015/2016 increased by 41%. On a country basis, there was 191% rise in the number of students from Mainland China.
