One of the hot topics in the media lately has been the impact of public schooling on the property market over recent years. According to a Domain report, property prices in catchment areas for popular public schools have been among the fastest growing in the country.

Some families who can no longer afford to buy in coveted areas are going to extreme lengths to guarantee their child’s enrolment. These include attempting to squeeze whole families into one bedroom apartments or taking out a lease on an empty house, just to have a qualifying enrollment address.

But while public schools have been discussed at length, the changing face of private schooling has also had an effect on nearby suburbs. Take, for example, the prestigious St Joseph’s College at Sydney’s Hunters Hill. At its inception in 1881, every student at the school was a boarder, a practice that continued uninterrupted for more than a century. Many of the students were from rural and remote areas, the children of wealthy farming families. In 1996, the school opened its doors to day students for the first time. The change was forced by declining demand from a struggling rural sector and a corresponding increase in the number of Sydney families who wanted their school-aged children to live at home while attending the school. 20 years ago, the most common postcode for St Joseph’s students was Dubbo. Today, it’s the school’s own postcode of Hunters Hill.

With St Joseph’s families at least having the financial capacity to pay considerable fees for private schooling, there’s no doubt property prices in the area have already and will continue to be positively impacted by the shift. These areas include Hunters Hill, Gladesville, Putney, Drummoyne, Russell Lea and Abbotsford.

It’s common advice for property investors to consider the impact of infrastructure improvements on property prices in various areas. The infrastructure we usually think of includes planned roads, public transport, hospitals, shopping centres and public schools. But changes to private infrastructure can have an equal or even greater effect, particularly when taking into account the demographic of those affected.

In the case of Hunters Hill, we’ve seen what was effectively a sleepy peninsula suburb become highly gentrified with better restaurants, cafes, landscaping and services.

We should also remember that as cities continue to grow and suburbs effectively grow their own legs, we’re seeing the emergence of markets within markets. The recent sale of a million dollar plus property at Mt Druitt in Sydney’s west is a good example of how growing wealth may be re-invested by residents who choose to stay in areas that are not traditionally seen as blue-chip suburbs.

The St Joseph’s motto was the only fitting header for this post. In Meliore Contende – to strive for better things.