Can internet access affect the value of houses in the UK?

According to the latest annual reader survey conducted by ISPreview.co.uk to study the affect of super fast internet access on the value of a house, it is revealed that if a good broadband, especially a super fast broadband service is available it would add value to your home.

The study revealed that about 80% of the UK’s internet users would postpone their purchase of the house they intend to buy if it lacks a good broadband connection and almost 57% of internet users are willing to pay more for a house with super fast internet access (25 Mbps).

The survey revealed that 80% of the respondents are of the opinion that broadband is ‘critically important’ to their home lives and 18.5% said that the broadband is of ‘average’ use and only 1 % of the respondents said that it is not at all ‘important’.

Ofcom’s November 2011 data reveals that the 7.6 Mbps is the average broadband download speed in the UK and majority of the respondents to ISPreview.co.uk want to buy a house with even faster broadband services. 48% of the surveyed said that they are interested in ‘real speed’ between 20 Mbps and 40 Mbps rather than advertised speeds.

When a question about the minimum REAL speed that would be accepted with a new home was asked, the answer was like this – 10 Mbps – 30.7%, 20 Mbps – 25.4%, 40 Mbps – 22.9%, 5 Mbps – 15.8%, 2Mbps – 3.2% and I don’t know – 1.6%.

Mark Jackson, the founder of ISPreview.co.uk said that the demand for super fast broadband is increasing. He added that many of the respondents often visit ISPreview.co.uk for choosing a new ISP and most of them are willing to pay even extra for a house with good broadband connectivity. The slow connectivity in the rural areas will definitely have implications in the rural areas.

Ofcom’s national UK average download speed is 7.6 Mbps but about 80% of the people are interested only in houses with broadband speeds above 7.6 Mbps. The UK government is trying its best to provide super fast services to at least 90% of people by 2015. The most remote areas – the difficult spots – would be provided with at least 2 Mbps.

The real estate agents like RightMove have started referring broadband capacity when it comes to sales. The study reveals that many real estate agents miss their opportunity since they fail to include the details of broadband capacity or the availability of alternative services.(Fibre optic, cable or wireless)

Jackson concluded that at this stage it is very difficult to assign a specific financial value to the broadband when it comes to the purchase of a home. Requirements of the people and value of property varies from people to people and place to place. Though the indications are clear, at present available evidence is based on hearsay.