Parents looking to move into a preferred school feeder zone before the 2020 school year should be making the move now, says Rudi Botha, chief executive of bond originator BetterBond.
This is because it currently takes between three and four months to sell most homes, and an average of three months to register the transfer of a new home.
Parents should count on a six-month process to secure a new address in the feeder or catchment area of their chosen school, he says.
Many school governing bodies have written admission policies that give preference to applicants for whom the school is literally the nearest one to where they live, on a first-come-first-served basis.
“Parents increasingly prefer to live close to the schools their children attend,” says Botha. “Since online applications in some provinces are closed and most schools won’t consider late applications or transfers after September, get going now if you want to apply for 2020 or 2021.”