UK People Could Spend GBP14K More on Homes with 100Mb Broadband

A new survey of 3,000 Brits commissioned by Hyperoptic, which is deploying “hyperfast” (1000Mbps) Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP/H) broadband services around a number of UK cities, has claimed that people would spend 8% (+£14,000) more on a new home if it came with a 100Mbps+ connection.

The survey also reveals that 61% of respondents now check their potential broadband speeds before renting or buying a property and apparently anything less than 6Mbps would stop a potential mover, with 14Mbps being considered the bare minimum; sadly no figures are included to support the latter two claims.

On top of that the survey also found that 31% try to hold off moving into a new property until their broadband line has been activated. Elsewhere 58% agreed that having 100Mbps+ broadband is more important than an extra bedroom and 62% believe it’s on par or more important than having nice neighbours, as well as other things.

The Opportunity to Receive 100Mbps
• 32% rated it as equally or more important than off-street parking
• 41% rated it equally or more important than a gym
• 48% rated it equally or more important than a swimming pool
• 58% rated it equally or more important than a extra bedroom
• 62% rated it equally or more important than nice neighbours

Admittedly Hyperoptic have a vested interest in the outcome of this survey and their press release doesn’t reveal precisely how the questions were asked or where it was conducted, although we have learnt that the responses were collected by LM Research during March 2015.

So far the provider has already made their service available to well over 100,000 premises (mostly larger buildings like Multi-Dwelling Units or office blocks) and they aim to reach 500,000 by 2018. The majority of these are in London, as well as others in Cardiff, Bristol, Reading, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Birmingham, Glasgow and Newcastle.

Steve Holford, Hyperoptic’s VP of Products, said:

“This study categorically proves that broadband has become a key deciding factor when moving home. Ultrafast broadband makes a property more marketable; people are increasingly reliant on their connection and need it to cope with their current and future bandwidth demands. However, it is prudent to check before you move – there are a number of websites, such as Rightmove, that enable you to see your expected speeds.

Broadband not-spots still exist in city centres – if you want to get the best broadband on the market, it’s worth considering contacting the companies directly and checking which properties they serve.”

It’s worth pointing out that ISPreview.co.uk conducted a similar survey in May 2015, which supports some aspects of the above study (here). The outcome also hints that many of those in more rural or digitally isolated urban areas could suffer lower house values due, at least in part, to slower broadband lines.

However the decision about how much you pay for a house will always come down to the simple matter of personal choice, which is different for everybody, although for most people access to superfast broadband is clearly now a key part of that equation.

One other thing that’s worth considering is that once FoD2 returns then many people in FTTC areas might also be able to have an FTTP line built to their property for way less than £14k. At present BTOpenreach’s FTTP maxes out at 330Mbps, but trials are underway to hit 1Gbps in the future.

Note: the figure of £14,000 reflects 8% of £181,619, which is the average price of a UK home according to the Government’s July 2015 data (here). We’d also urge caution when using property sites like RightMove, as recommended by Hyperoptic above, as their performance reports tend to use some very out-of-date data and often fail to correctly reflect the full availability of different broadband services.