A new study of Britain’s most popular and highest achieving secondary schools shows that house prices in their catchment areas are, on average, more than 20 per cent higher than those just outside.

The findings suggest a greater than ever squeeze on family homes near the best state schools. Some have catchment areas, according to the study, of as little as 600 yards causing a frenzy when houses come on the market.

Research by the Good Schools Guide and Savills estate agents shows that on average parents are prepared to pay an extra 22 per cent to live close to some of the best state secondary schools, which are often grammar schools.

In one case, Savills discovered that homes sharing a postcode with one girls’ grammar school in south Manchester were worth a staggering three times more than the price of an average house in the same local authority. One girls’ grammar school in north London – which is regularly rated the “highest performing” state school in the country – has seen houses in its vicinity worth two and a half times the average for the rest of the local authority.