The national closing date for secondary school applications in England, for places starting in September 2027, is 31 October 2026 — a Saturday this year — with offers on National Offer Day, Monday 1 March 2027. Your own council’s published deadline is the one that applies, and a few councils have set a slightly different day, so check yours now and don’t leave it to the last minute. For many families this is also the point at which a house move gets serious — so we used our new schools and house prices data to ask how much more homes near the best-rated schools really cost.
About 7% more near an Outstanding school
We looked at every state secondary and all-through school in England whose latest graded Ofsted inspection still gives an overall grade, and took the median price of homes sold within half a mile of each school between 2015 and 2026. Comparing schools within the same council area — so that London is compared with London and Leeds with Leeds — homes near a school rated Outstanding sold for a median of about 6.9% more than homes near a school rated Good. That held in 63% of the 111 councils that have schools with both grades.
Near schools rated Requires improvement, homes sold for about 4.2% less than near Good schools in the same council (76 councils).
Why the national averages mislead
Across England as a whole the gap looks far larger: the typical median near an Outstanding secondary is about £315,000, against about £232,000 near a Good one. But that mostly reflects where Outstanding schools are — a higher share are in expensive areas — rather than the school itself. Comparing within each council strips most of that out, which is why the like-for-like premium is so much smaller.
What the numbers don’t tell you
- Correlation, not cause. Areas around popular schools often differ in other ways — housing type, transport, local amenities.
- Distance is not catchment. Living within half a mile of a school does not guarantee a place. Admission criteria such as siblings, faith, feeder schools or selection tests can matter more. Check each school’s admission policy and your council’s admissions booklet, which is the authority on dates and rules.
- Grades are changing. Since November 2025, newly inspected schools receive an Ofsted report card with grades for each area and no single overall grade, so this comparison covers only schools whose latest overall grade still stands.
- Prices span 2015 to 2026, so they are a guide to relative cost rather than today’s values.
Check the schools near you
Every school page shows the sold prices around that school, prices by property type and year, the most recent sales, its latest Ofsted outcome and the other schools nearby. Search by school name, town or postcode, and read our guide to buying a home near a good school before you apply.
Method: 1,589 state-funded secondary and all-through schools in England with a current overall Ofsted grade under the pre-November-2025 framework (Ofsted management information as at 30 September 2026) and at least 150 sales within half a mile. Sold prices from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data (January 2015 to July 2026); school locations from Get Information About Schools; postcode locations from OS Code-Point Open. Premiums are the median, across councils, of the difference between the median school-area price for each grade. Contains HM Land Registry, OS and Crown copyright data, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.