The price growth of properties in multiple suburbs surrounding some of Perth’s most in demand schools has far exceeded the average growth across the city over the past 30 years, a new report has revealed.

But not all suburbs near those schools saw a significant spike, proving that while what parents’ perceive to be a good school does concentrate demand, other factors are also in play according to the buyers’ agency that compiled the findings.

Buyers Advocate Perth pulled data from the Real Estate Institute of WA on the median house price across six public and private school precincts between 1995 and 2026.

Suburbs surrounding Christ Church Grammar, Hale School and St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School were all analysed, as well as suburbs around Shenton College, and both Rossmoyne and Applecross Senior High School.

Those schools were chosen as they were well established, providing consistent data over the long term, and because they experienced consistently high enrolment demand.

The results reveal a pattern, according to company director and licensed buyer’s agent Ray Chua.

Chua said while schools were rarely the sole driver of property prices, suburbs associated with strong school catchments had generally experienced stronger long-term performance than Greater Perth.

“A good school gives families another reason to compete for a limited number of homes and families, they’re not just choosing a house, they’re choosing a lifestyle, and schooling can be a major part of that decision,” he said.

“But schools don’t create demand on their own. They concentrate long-term owner-occupier demand into neighbourhoods families already aspire to live in.”

Christ Church Grammar has long been associated with one of Perth’s most established family precincts, Chua said.

Families drawn to the school were choosing an area characterised by “mature streets, established homes, lifestyle amenity and limited opportunities for significant new housing”.

The nearby suburbs of Claremont, Swanbourne and Nedlands all substantially outperformed Greater Perth over the study period.

Turning to Hale School, and the results across Wembley Downs, City Beach and Floreat produced the same story, alongside Karrinyup, Trigg and Gwelup close to St Mary’s.

Private schools do not have a catchment area, so Chua said he had chosen to look at the suburbs closest to those schools.

“You don’t necessarily have to live next door to attend, but the proximity still matters for school runs, transport, friendship groups, and just the lifestyle that people look for,” he said.

Chua said one of the more interesting findings from the research was that highly regarded public school precincts also demonstrated strong long-term performance.

However not all suburbs held the same value. Chua used Applecross Senior High School as a case study and found some suburbs within its catchment recorded more modest results.

“So Applecross, Ardross, Mount Pleasant – they all performed very strongly over the long term, but Booragoon, and Winthrop recorded more modest results,” he said.

“That was a useful internal control because it just tells us that the school isn’t enough. So schools can reinforce good fundamentals, but they don’t replace those fundamentals – the amenities and the neighbourhood.”

Chua also looked into how suburbs surrounding the six schools performed during a downturn in property prices recorded across Perth between 2014 and 2019.

“Everyone talks about how much property goes up, but I was interested in what happened when conditions became difficult,” he said.

“Some of these schools associated suburbs showed greater resilience than the general Perth market either falling less or holding up better, but again, it wasn’t universal.

“That’s important because the scarcity and the family demand it actually matters more.”