BEST SCHOOLING DISTRICTS IN SA

Now is the perfect time to start searching for a new home if you’re hoping to move in time for your child to be enrolled before the start of the 2021 school year. The process of selling your home can take between three to six months. Thereafter, registering a sale at the Deeds Office can take anywhere around three months.  

Kevin Jacobs, Broker/Owner of RE/MAX Premier in Claremont, Cape Town, explains that buyers normally begin enquiring about properties near their desired school district closer to the beginning or end of the school year so that they won’t have to pull their children out of a school before the year is out. For buyers in Cape Town who are looking to purchase in a good schooling district, Jacobs suggests that they get in touch with his office. “Our office, which is near to many sought-after private schools such as Herschel Girls Senior School and Bishops, starts getting incredibly busy with these sorts of buyers usually around August or September. This tends to be the best time to find a home if you’re hoping to enrol your child in a new school for the following school year,” he explains.    

If you find yourself in the Gauteng region, Frikkie van Eeden, Broker/Owner of RE/MAX Advantage in Rosebank, suggests that the northern suburbs of Johannesburg hold prime examples of desirable schooling districts. “Blessed with a number of good schools, families and investors are flocking to these suburbs. Upper Houghton and Houghton Estate currently have a booming high-end rental and sales market; partly because of their proximity to the commercial hubs of Johannesburg, but also because of the surrounding schools such as King Edward VII and St John’s College. Parkview and Greenside have also been very popular with Afrikaans-speaking households who are lured to the area by schools such as Jan Cilliers and Helpmekaar,” van Eeden explains.

Van Eeden adds: “In all of these suburbs, we have experienced a much steadier market despite the fact that the Johannesburg property market has been a little flat in recent times. Investors should always be acutely aware of schools as we have found that, in many cases, this seems to be the deciding factor when families go house-hunting. With a steady flow of interest in these areas, it then follows that your investment is less effected by market volatility when investing in property around top schools,” says van Eeden.

For those in Durban, Shane Pearson, Broker/Manager at RE/MAX Address in Hillcrest, agrees that being near to good schools attracts more buyers. “Often, clients are drawn to the area purely owing to the lure of the top-quality private schools in the Upper Highway area, such as Kearsney College, St Mary’s, Thomas More, Curro and Highbury,” explains Pearson.  

“Owing to entrance requirements based on proximity, many buyers with young families choose a suburb purely based on the schooling district they want to be in and will refuse to look at any properties that lie outside of these areas. For this reason, those who are looking for properties purely based upon investment value ought to consider properties within one of the catchment areas of a reputable schooling district as the demand for these properties will always exist as long as the school maintains its reputation,” concludes Adrian Goslett, Regional Director and CEO of RE/MAX of Southern Africa.