Buying or Renting for a NSW School Catchment: The Proof of Address Schools Ask For

If you are buying or renting this spring with a school in mind, the catchment map tells you which public school goes with an address. It does not tell you what the school will ask you to prove when you enrol, and that is where a well-planned move can come unstuck.

If the school you want is near capacity, it will check your address with a 100-point document test. A contract, a lease and a few bills sound like plenty. Under the actual scoring they often are not. Here is how the points work for a buyer or a renter, with worked examples you can check against your own paperwork before you sign.

Your address is what gets you the place, so the school checks it

Under section 34(2) of the Education Act 1990, a child is entitled to enrol at the government school designated for the intake area their home is in. That is the guarantee families buy and rent for. Section 34A(1) gives the principal the matching power: they can require proof, to their satisfaction, of the child's identity, date of birth and home address.

How hard a school checks depends on how full it is. The Department's 100-point residential address check is used by schools above or near their local enrolment buffer, meaning they receive more non-local applications than they have places outside the buffer. The buffer is a share of places held back for local families who arrive during the year. It is set by the principal, approved by the Director, Educational Leadership, and reviewed every year.

In practice, the popular schools that families move for are the ones most likely to run the full check.

How the 100-point check adds up

The check has 3 groups of documents. Every document must show the full name of the child's parent, and generally the address of the parent or carer the child lives with.

Only one 40-point document counts

This is the rule most families miss. Group 1 is scored as "only one of", with no extra points for extra documents. A buyer who hands over both a council rates notice and the contract of sale still has 40 points, not 80.

That means every family needs at least 60 points from groups 2 and 3. The cheapest routes are:

• 3 group 2 documents (60 points), or
• 1 group 2 document plus 3 group 3 documents (65 points), or
• 4 group 3 documents (60 points).

For most people that means an updated electoral roll entry, plus bills, a licence and insurance at the new address.

Will your documents reach 100? Four situations

Here is how the scoring plays out for the moves families make most often. The combinations use only documents from the Department's list. Your school may accept less if it is not near its buffer.

The pattern is simple. Group 1 gets you to 40. What decides whether you reach 100 is how quickly your bills, licence and electoral enrolment catch up with the move.

Buying: when a contract counts before settlement

An exchanged contract of sale is a group 1 document, but only with settlement due within the school year the child is enrolling for. For a 2027 enrolment, a contract that settles during 2027 fits that wording. If settlement falls outside the school year, ask the school before you rely on the contract. A signed offer that has not exchanged is not on the list.

The catch is the other 60 points. The check verifies that your child lives in the intake area, and most group 3 documents show a service or home address. Until you move in, your bills, licence and car registration will still show where you live now. Building insurance on the new home is 1 document that can show the new address before you move in.

Schools generally start taking enrolments for the next year in the second half of the year before the child starts. If you are buying for a 2027 start, talk to the school about timing. Ask when it wants the documents and whether it will enrol from the contract and follow up once you settle.

Renting: agent lease, private lease and the bond receipt

Renting works well for catchment purposes if the paperwork is right:

• A lease through a registered real estate agent for at least 6 months is worth 40 points.
• A rental board bond receipt is also worth 40 points, but it sits in the same group, so a lease plus a bond receipt is still 40.
• A private rental agreement for at least 6 months is worth only 20 points, in group 2.

If you rent privately, the bond receipt matters. With it, a private renter can reach 110 points. Without it, all 100 points have to come from groups 2 and 3. That is possible (private agreement 20, electoral roll 20 and 4 documents at 15 each makes 100) but it leaves no room if a bill is in your partner's name.

A 3 month or month-to-month arrangement does not meet the 6 month minimum in either group.

Just moved in: the three-month problem

Utility bills, phone and internet bills, and driver licences only count if they are up to 3 months old. That works against families in both directions. Bills from your old home stop counting, and your first bills at the new address may not arrive for weeks.

Things that help in the first month:

• Update your electoral enrolment straight away. The statement is worth 20 points.
• Update the address on your driver licence and car registration (15 points each).
• Set up electricity, gas, internet and contents insurance in the enrolling parent's name, because documents must show that parent's full name.
• A statutory declaration about the child's address is worth 15 points and can fill a gap while you wait for a bill.

Families in some situations do not have to meet the standard list. The enrolment procedures, version V03.0.1 dated 3 September 2026, let principals waive or vary documents for Aboriginal families, refugees and newly arrived families, families experiencing homelessness, relocating Defence members, and children in out-of-home care.

Do not stretch the address

Some families are tempted to use a relative's address, or a short-term rental they do not really live in. Under section 34A(4) of the Education Act 1990, an enrolment can be terminated if it was obtained with false information or a false document. The check verifies where the child actually lives, and the school can act on it after the child has started.

If the address is marginal, the honest routes are an out-of-area application or choosing a home that is genuinely inside the boundary.

What to do before you sign

Before you exchange or sign a lease:

1. Check that the exact address is inside the catchment for the year level your child needs, because primary and high school boundaries differ.
2. Count your likely points for the first 3 months at the new address using the table above.
3. For a purchase, confirm settlement falls within the school year you are enrolling for.
4. For a private rental, make sure the bond is lodged and you get the rental board receipt.
5. Have the child's birth certificate or identity documents and their Australian Immunisation Register statement ready for the enrolment form.

Then compare the local school with the others near the address. The catchment guarantees a place at 1 school. It is still worth knowing what the rest of the area offers before you commit to a home for the years your child will be at school there.

Official references

• NSW Department of Education: Residential address check (100-point check) (accessed 24 September 2026)
• NSW Department of Education: Enrolment of students in NSW Government schools procedures (accessed 24 September 2026)
• NSW Department of Education: Primary school enrolment (accessed 24 September 2026)
• NSW Government: Enrolling your child in a NSW government primary school (accessed 24 September 2026)