UK House Buyers Pay £5.3K in Property Prices for Every Megabit

A new survey by UK estate agent Springbok Properties has examined the broadband ISP speeds across every constituency and how house prices in these areas corresponded, which among other things has revealed that people in Liverpool Walton come out on top (average speed of 61.2Mbps and an average house price of just £75,000).

In other words, home buyers looking to purchase in Liverpool, Walton would pay just £1,223 in property prices for every Megabit of speed. Kingston upon Hull East was the next best value (£1,253), with Burnley (£1,585), Great Grimsby (£1,605) and Aberavon (£1,624) following close behind.

The data further suggests that on average, across the United Kingdom, home buyers are paying £5,324 in property price costs for every 1 of the 48.79Mbps of broadband speed (average). However the report notes that the lowest average property price is, perhaps oddly, found in areas with the highest broadband speed (i.e. average of £189,077 for homes with more than 70Mbps).

Predictably some parts of London, which is notoriously expensive for home buyers, don’t fare too well due to that imbalance. The City of London and Westminster both rank as the worst constituencies for broadband property price value with an average house of £1,115,000 and a dire average broadband speed of 24Mbps (i.e. £46,458 in property prices for every Megabit of speed!).

On a regional level, London is also the worst value at £9,066 for each Megabit, while the North East provides the best value at £2,670.

Shepherd Ncube, Founder and CEO of Springbok Properties, said:

“It’s amazing how something like broadband has become such an integral part of our day to day lives that it now influences everything from political promises to home buyer choice, but while good broadband can clearly influence a buyer’s decision, it seems that the homes that benefit from the very fastest speeds are actually the most affordable of them all.

This suggests that although broadband speed is important, it isn’t the most influential bargaining chip when it comes to negotiating price as long as you aren’t stuck in the dark ages or in a Wifi blackspot.”

Unfortunately the PR we were sent doesn’t clarify what kind of speed data they’re looking at, such as whether or not they’re considering all of the available local networks or only looking at local speedtests from consumers. The latter would not be a reliable gauge due to how many things can influence speedtests, such as consumer package choice, slow WiFi and home network congestion etc.

However the study represents a perhaps overly simplistic way of looking at the data, not least since it doesn’t tell us the whole story. For example, there could be significant differences in terms of council tax bands, school catchments, quality or size of housing, health, availability of gas, crime rates etc. Broadband is just one of these considerations but it’s an important one, as is personal preference.