The Effect of Bilingual Education on Housing Price-a Case Study of Bilingual School Conversion

This paper presents a case study of the impact of bilingual school designation on housing price by analyzing the case of school conversion from a monolingual school to a bilingual school in Melbourne. We find that house price within the pertinent school catchment area responds positively by 7.8%–8.7%. Moreover, we find no significant response in the unit market where residents are less likely to be households with children. Analysis with substituted control groups such as the test catchments with extended surrounding areas, other bilingual school catchment areas, and school catchment areas of public schools with a similar level of academic performance confirms that bilingual education is positively capitalized in the house submarket.