Britons borrow £16k for a good school

Britons are prepared to add as much as eight per cent onto their mortgage in order to buy a house in an area that is near to a good school, according to research from the Royal Institution for Chartered Surveyors (Rics).

This equates to an extra £16,000 that parents are ready to spend to make sure their children get a place at their desired school, pushing property prices up in areas near schools with a good reputation.

Jeremy Leaf, a spokesperson for Rics, said that it was usual for potential buyers to check the local Ofsted reports before they looked at the details for a property. It meant that property prices, and mortgages, were pushed up well beyond the normal school run boundaries, the organisation said.

At £16,000, the extra amount that parents were prepared to pay has remained static from three years ago, when this amount represented 12 per cent of property prices.

The research demonstrates just how much Britons are willing to buy-in to their dream lifestyle when it comes to house buying.

A Halifax report recently found that consumers were prepared to pay more to live in a spa town than in a surrounding town.