Nearly a quarter of parents have moved house to be within their desired school catchment area, a survey has found.

Some 24% of parents with school age children have either already bought or rented a new property to secure an address near where they want their child to be educated, Santander Mortgages found.

Those families willing to move are prepared to pay a 12% premium for their desired catchment area, equivalent to an extra £26,800 in the current property market.

This is just under the average full-time salary in the UK, at £28,2133, Santander said.

Just over half (51%) of families who have moved to be within a catchment area had sold their previous property, but 30% said they had bought a second home.

Nearly a fifth (19%) of those who moved to be in a catchment area rented a property to secure their desired address.

The study suggests that the moves made by many of these families are temporary. More than two-fifths (44%) of those who moved to be within a catchment area expect to leave as soon as their child has secured a place, rising to two-thirds (66%) of parents in London.

More than 4,000 people were surveyed for the research.

Here are the percentages of parents with children aged four to 18 who have bought or rented a home to be in a school catchment area, followed by the typical premium that parents can expect to pay to live within their desired area, according to Santander Mortgages, based on average house prices and the premium parents said they were prepared to pay or had already paid, on average:

• North East, 37%, £18,200

• North West, 17%, £20,300

• Yorkshire and the Humber, 33%, £15,800

• East Midlands, 28%, £21,800

• West Midlands, 29%, £20,300

• East of England, 12%, £28,700

• London, 33%, £81,800

• South East, 21%, £28,800

• South West, 18%, £24,600

• Wales, 15%, £12,100

• Scotland, 21%, £17,300

• Northern Ireland, 29%, £6,400