MANCHESTER parents who want to move to Trafford to get their children into the borough's high-performing schools can pay up to £75,000 extra to live in the area.

A national study by The Halifax bank has revealed that the prices of houses in areas with the best schools are on average 12 per cent higher than in neighbouring areas.

But in Trafford, where the average house price is £206,542, families would have to fork out an extra 62 per cent than those in Manchester, where the average house price is £129,082, to benefit from the borough's schools.

In Trafford, which has a grammar school system, 63.8 per cent of pupils achieved five or more passes at GCSE, making it the fifth best LEA in the country for GCSE results.

In Stockport, where the average house price is £164,734, 53 per cent of pupils left with five or more GCSE passes, but in Manchester, only 39.5 per cent of pupils did. The national average for is 53.7 per cent.

The average house price in the North West is £141,643, which means it costs £64,899 extra to live in the catchment area for Trafford's schools than anywhere else in the region.

The only other LEA to make the Department for Education and Skills' table of the country's top 50 performing LEAs at GCSE is Cheshire, where 60 per cent of pupils got five or more GCSEs and the average house price is £195,244.

Halifax group economist Tim Crawford said: "Good local schooling clearly matters to families when they purchase property. High standards of education and high house prices do seem to go hand in hand."

The study also confirmed the existence of a north-south divide when it comes to house prices. In Gateshead, near Newcastle, which is the tenth best LEA in the country for GCSE results, house-buyers can expect to pay only half of what they would pay for a house in Redbridge in east London, the country's top performing LEA.

The most expensive homes in the country are in Kensington and Chelsea, where 55.8 per cent of pupils meet the national benchmark, with homes costing an average of £603,406.

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