Letting A House Across The Road From A School?

FreshFruit

It's a 3 bedroom property with a large front garden and average/small-ish rear garden, enough to sit outside and have a BBQ with 5-10 people in comfort, 3 decent sized rooms, 1 bathroom. The property itself is a little bland and has been abused by a previous tenant. The last tenant was paying £550 a month but they were 'mates rates' and I believe the house alone could have fetched £600 quite easily.

One thing about this property, it's literally across the road from a school, it's near the end of the road (dead end road) but it's about a 30 meter walk to the gates, the school is a primary school (up to 4-12 I think?) and is rated 'outstanding' by offsted, the highest rating. There's also a church on the road very close with no bells/chimes. It's in a really quiet spot and the only busy times are school term times when its pickup/drop-off time, otherwise it's got almost 0 foot and road traffic. Has a driveway for maybe 2 cars as well...

To the best of my knowledge it's worth at least 120k and probably a bit more but there's been no sales activity on the street in a long time. Rightmove estimates 135-155k but i'm not too sure about that...

Anyway. I've got it in my head that there's a family out there that would pay handsomely to live a stones throw away from their kids school, if the house was to be renovated (new carpet, bathroom, kitchen, almost everything) and assuming the house alone could fetch £650 on a normal street, how much more do you think could be achieved given it's location?

Anyone had experience with homes located close to schools? Posting from UK.

markin

Even with a kid going i wouldn't want to have to put up with being trapped at 8am and 3pm, and disturbed by the break times if i was at home. The will be many homes around within a 10 min walk that don't have the problems.


The are plenty of old threads you can look up about this problem.

[Deleted User]

Why not ask local EA/LA ? We are just people on the internet who don't know the local area, can't possibly assess how demand may or may not affect what you could ask for.

You could also look on right move for rental properties in the area, to get an idea what local charges are.

I am afraid I think you need to look at how you are approaching this. You've had a bad situation with a relative renting from you, now you are asking strangers on the internet what you should charge. Renting may be a bit too full of pit falls - if you want to run a letting business you need to have a stringently business type approach.

Yalpsmol

I live near a school (not 30m away- there is a road and a park and then a small wood between me and the school). I would say maybe 150m. It would be really really loud living 30m away. And a nightmare from 8.30-3.45 for parking. I live in a quiet village down a one way lane. Footfall is also very high at peak times due to the school- kids screaming and dogs barking etc etc walking by on their way in.

If I had a kid there it would be convenient but I dont see how being 30m away would be better than being quarter or half a mile away. Walking distance is walking distance (IMO).

anselld

Probably less rather than more.
People pay some premium for being in catchment of an excellent school but being in catchment is more of an advantage than being on doorstep.

Davesnave

In a nutshell, views about this will be polarised, so the close proximity will work against the advantage of virtually certain access to an outstanding school.
However, we all know 'outstanding' may become 'good' at the next inspection, or when a charismatic Head moves on....and from there it could go either way!

AnotherJoe

FreshFruit wrote: »

assuming the house alone could fetch £650 on a normal street, how much more do you think could be achieved given it's location?
.

Probably a bit less than one a street or two away not on a direct route to the school which won't have a queue of cars coming and going parking blocking and spewing fumes in the morning and afternoon, morning being more problematic in case you got blocked in going to work, unlikely to be an issue at say 330pm for most commuters.

scottishblondie

I would in no way pay a premium to live next to my child's school, so if you're thinking you could charge more than average I'd forget that. Having lived next to a primary school in what was essentially a dead end road, it was a nightmare at drop off and pick up times. The catchment was not huge so really it was easily walkable for 90% of the families, but they still drove to the school so traffic was nightmare.

If I needed to come or go during those times there was no way I was getting my car moved. The parents who waited in the cars would completely ignore the "no idling" signs and sit there for 20 minutes with the car on. The parents who got out of their cars would stand around chatting while waiting for kids, many of them smoking and dropping cigarette ends all over the place. Then there were the kids running around in and out of the garden, dropping litter.

The noise at break times was incredible. It was impossible to sit with the windows open and the double glazing only managed to take the edge off otherwise. The summer holiday was the best time of year when I would get to enjoy peace and quiet for 6 weeks.

The school closed a few years ago and moved to a new building a few streets away. The building (a lovely Victorian one) was converted to flats and the surrounding environment is now significantly nicer. I would not live that close to a school ever again.

mirko

I live a 3 minute walk from my children's school, I would not want to live much closer.

Some of the people who drive to school are the most selfish people you could ever hope to meet.

Although, if I were young and working a normal job living next to a school would be fine as I'd leave to work before the kids got there and be home after they'd all left.

If you're retired or work a lot from home I can imagine a school would likely to be quite disruptive. (Although even where I live now I can hear the school, kids playing, to me, is a nicer sound than many I've experienced!)

davidmcn

Nobody's going to pay more than they would for any other property within walking distance of the school.

Many people would never be disturbed by the playground/traffic during normal school hours if they've already left the house for work.

Though bear in mind schools are often used at evenings/weekends too.

babyblade41

My house is right by an outstanding rural school but thankfully you can't drive down this access track so no trouble with cars . It's a back entrance so only the most hardy will use is as the hill is steep,

As for the noise it's not really a problem as it's only at break times through the spring and summer terms that the weather is good enough for them to be outside and long summer hols when not a peep.

I'm pretty sure though if I was looking for a rental would I pay more for it