Slow broadband can hurt the value of your home...

[Edwin]

Thought this article was interesting
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/02/fast-broadband-vital-to-homebuyers

Especially the part where not having access to broadband could knock 20% off the value of your home.

Makes me think that it could be beneficial (if you're trying to sell your house) to subscribe to the fastest broadband available for your area, then get your estate agent to do a speed test (SpeedTest.net or similar) when visiting your property to take particulars, measurements or photos and ask them to certify the actual broadband speed in the property description.

Not sure on the wording, but maybe something like "We tested actual broadband speed at the vendor's property on DATE using TOOL. The average over 5 tests was X Mbps."

That way, you potentially stand out from other properties in the area, who almost certainly won't have gone as far as that.

 

[Edwin]

BTW, don't just rely on Rightmove's estimates (they've started incorporating a postcode checker into their listings that gives a suggested broadband speed) because they could be much lower than reality because the tool relies on reported "average" speeds so the result is pulled down by all the people testing low tier broadband packages.

For example, Rightmove suggests our postcode gets an average of 4.51Mbps connectivity, but I tested just now and got an actual speed of 107.68Mbps!

 

[ian]

It certainly has some merit, we'd not move to a house which had a slow connection, as we presently suffer from speeds around 1-4Mbps and it does effect daily life to an extent. Fortunately after years of asking, we should have fibre in a few months time!

 

[namealot]

Gimmick people want to know about crime, schools, transport etc but that would put many off so what’s the least likely to put people off as they say “The speed data used was based upon real broadband download speeds where possible or calculations based on the distance from the exchange” also last year so about as accurate as asking a estate agent anything ?

 

[martin-s]

Sorry, this is bullshit

 

[Retired_member41]

Sorry, this is bullshit

+1

Another load of rubbish.

 

[max_rk]

+1

Another load of rubbish.

Not if you like to live in country house and work from home.

Patrick a member here said to me, that that biggest problem for him living in the country is broadband speed.

I cannot comment about Rightmove but checking nearest exchange and what speed it has, if optics or other networks available in the area is a must for internet user when searching for home in the country.

All this boils down to that homes without good internet get less interest from buyers.

BTW I did not read the article.

 

[Edwin]

It's not a new concept. There have been similar reports going back several years. But the significance of having good broadband seems to be on the rise...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...Slow-broadband-wipes-20-off-house-prices.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property...e-important-to-house-buyers-than-parking.html

Two separate polls from 2012
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/20...s-could-benefit-from-superfast-broadband.html
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...-to-good-broadband-boosts-uk-house-sales.html

etc. (I found the above links in about a minute of Googling)

Now whether any of it is "true" I couldn't say - though personally internet speed and location were the two key criteria we considered when we went property hunting a few years ago (no kids so we don't care about schools and other related stuff).

 

[diablo]

Article has now been corrected:

"This article was amended on Sunday 2 March 2014. Ofcom figures show that 73% of the country is currently able to access download speeds of more than 30Mbps, not 19% as we said. This has been corrected."

Like Edwin, one of the first things I ask when looking at a house is broadband speed. When you work from home and like rural life it is a huge consideration.

 

[martin-s]

The reason that I say "bullshit" is that if you're buying a home, the number of options that will match what you're looking in terms of location, price and size are incredibly limited.

Then you'll add specific features that are important to you: garage, road noise, garden, etc.

By which time there will probably be, over the course of a couple of months, 2 or 3 serious options for you to consider.

If broadband speed is super important to you, it might restrict the type of home search you adopt (rural properties in particular), but otherwise the typical buyer will be either oblivious or resigned to the fact.

 

[stellar73]

I'm living with my parents at the moment (in the sticks) due to mother's illness. Now have much slower broadband than I had when I lived in London and agree that it's a massive pain working from home (and we had to go with BT as only viable option here).

If I was ever buying this would certainly be one of the first questions I would ask along with which mobile networks get the best reception.

 

[martin-s]

It's a more realistic consideration for renters than buyers.

 

[monaghan]

Some of the rural properties as very bad with regards to connectivity, some we looked at had no broadband as they were too far from the exchange. Many rural exchanges are a long way behind in the roll outs as they only serve a handful of potential customers so not classed as a priority. It would appear that rural broadband is only about getting fibre to villages, not to rural properties outside a village. Satellite is often the only viable option and that's no good if the kids want to play games due to the latency or you want to run a lot of data (working from home or streaming). 1 place the wife found on a search was idyllic but it had no broadband and only a 2G mobile signal (according to the EE, Vodafone and O2 maps) so no way I could work from there.

 

[Edwin]

It's a more realistic consideration for renters than buyers.

Not at all.

Imagine a situation where you want to live near City X (within a 30 minute commute) but in a nice country village. There are 12 such villages, all picture postcard perfect, within that radius...

... but only 7 of them have broadband available - the other 5 are too far from any telephone exchange.

If broadband mattered to you at all then you would restrict your property search to those 7 villages and ignore the other 5.

Across all property buyers, this translates to slightly more interest in properties in the 7 villages and slightly less in those in the other 5.

And that means somewhat higher prices in the 7 and lower in the other 5 (demand and supply) all other factors being equivalent.

 

[martin-s]

I work in property, have done for nearly 10 years now, and "broadband" just isn't a factor for 99% of properties in England. Next-gen cable is a different issue currently, but only for a few more years.

Areas of Wales are a little more of an issue.

 

[Skinner]

Seems ironic that this guy http://www.channel5.com/shows/ben-fogle-new-lives-in-the-wild/episodes/episode-4-524 lives in a house on his own island using solar power no mains, and his partner talks about skyping her friends, so dude literally challenges "no man is an island" and has fast enough speeds to skype yet people who live on a mainland struggle ?

 

[diablo]

map of UK showing areas with no or very slow broadband

http://www.broadband-notspot.org.uk/coverage-map.html

 

[scottmccloud]

It's definitely a consideration if you have kids, especially teenagers on XBox Live etc. Moving into a property with no prospect of decent broadband speed would cause some serious aggro!

 

[AssetDomains]

Think this all depends on what you do for a living. If your work requires you to spend lots of time online then its a definite consideration.

I certainly wouldn't consider a house with a poor connection. The problem is these tools can be quite inaccurate.
I put my postcode in the not spot one above and it said I'm in a slow area which is a load of rubbish as I'm typing this on my virginmedia 120mb connection. Cable broadband has been available on my road for many many years so they need to update there database for sure.

 

[Edwin]

I put my postcode in the not spot one above and it said I'm in a slow area which is a load of rubbish as I'm typing this on my virginmedia 120mb connection. Cable broadband has been available on my road for many many years so they need to update there database for sure.

That's what I was explaining earlier in the thread... Because the tool's database is based on averages not peaks, your 120mb connection is buried in amongst all the readings from people scraping by on the slow ADSL available in your area. While Virgin have great penetration in some parts of the country, they still only have a small slice of the whole market so their cable's speed effect on average speed tools is relatively low.