Slow broadband could knock £46,634 off your house value!
Fast internet is one of the top three priorities for prospective house buyers. Would-be purchasers would consider slower speeds but only if the property price was reduced by a whopping 19%.
Those are the revealing findings from research conducted by Compare Fibre, one of the UK’s leading broadband comparison sites.
With the current stamp duty holiday planned to come to an end on 30th June 2021, Compare Fibre set out to understand the current state of the mindset of potential property buyers and what they value most in their criteria for a next dream home.
What is the most important feature for home buyers?
The independent study of UK residents asked respondents to rank the most important criteria for their next house purchase.
Garden
Perhaps unsurprisingly, a garden came top of the list with 53% of people identifying outdoor space as their most important thing to look for in a new house. Research has found that a neat and tidy garden can add up to 20% on to the price of properties for sale.
Open Plan Living
Second was open-plan living at 32%. Open-plan living has been an interior design trend for some time, but heightened by the current climate.
Now more than ever we need to be able to use our indoor space for multiple purposes. Lockdown life led many of us to double dining areas as home offices, living spaces as home schools and spare corners as exercise areas. Open-plan interiors allow for flexible and adaptable use of space.
Buyers are increasingly looking for usable space in a house. It is estimated that a 10% increase in available floor area can add 5% to the value of a property. An open plan kitchen and dining area are now a must for home buyers and can increase the value of a house by six percent.
Why fast internet is so important for home buyers
A fast and stable broadband connection has never been so important. We browse and we stream TV and movies more than ever but the internet is now an essential for those who work or learn from home.
24% of respondents to the Compare Fibre survey stated that speeds of 30Mbps or greater would be on their list of features considered essential in a new home.
30Mbps is the rate that Ofcom considers to be “superfast” broadband yet only 69% of British households can achieve this speed. 27.8 million households in the UK, that’s 8.6 million homes, are not able to enjoy speedy WiFi connections. Around 1.2 million houses are sold each year in the UK so nearly a third come with slower broadband for buyers.
Even more astonishingly…
Two percent of survey respondents said they would consider buying a house with fast broadband to be more important than an indoor toilet, and seven percent would rate speedy WiFi as more important than a garage.
Slow broadband lowers the value of your house
This is the bottom line on broadband.
The average house price in the UK is £245,443 (as of October 2020).
Respondents to the survey were asked to place a figure on the amount they would offer on a house with slow broadband.
The average price reduction a buyer would expect when considering purchasing a new home was 19%.
That means a slow internet connection could wipe £46,634 off the value of your house.
Let’s put that into perspective. Studies have shown the following:
- Living next to a McDonald’s can knock 24% of a property’s price
- Living next to identifiable “nuisance neighbours” could cost you 13% off your home’s value
- An unkempt front garden instantly wipes 5% off the price a buyer will pay
- Living in a house unluckily numbered 13 knocks 4% of its value
What does seem certain, is that fast broadband is increasingly likely to be a deal-breaker when it comes to selling houses.
Fast Broadband Is Becoming a Necessity
What this research demonstrates is that fast internet speeds are increasingly considered an essential.
Buyers expect fast broadband – estimates suggest that the existence of a superfast connection will add 3% to the value of your home. But if the absence of it knocks off a huge 19%, then that suggests viewers will simply walk away once you reveal your sub-par speeds.
If you are selling a house, be as prepared to have to explain to viewers the megabits per second rate of your property as well as the energy efficiency rating, council tax band and detailed description of how lovely the people next door are.