Poor Mobile Network Signals Discourage UK House Buyers

It’s not just slow broadband that can discourage people from buying a new home. A RootMetrics survey of 2,135 UK adults, which was conducted by YouGov during October 2015, suggests that having a good mobile signal (34%) is now more important than the quality of local schools (23%).

The survey also claims that 83% of people have experienced poor signal strength at their home and 54% have had difficulties with their mobile Internet connection. Likewise almost half of people (47%) claim to have experienced poor call quality at home.

Apparently 66% have also considered switching their mobile provider just so they can use their phone properly at home. Elsewhere 30% said that had they known about the problems with their mobile performance before moving then it would have discouraged them from buying or renting the property.

Scott Stonham, General Manager of RootMetric’s Europe, said:

“We now rely on our mobiles as much as our TVs and computers at home, and we are seeing the importance of having good mobile experience shoot up the list of priorities. It seems many have moved to a property and found they are having recurring problems with their current operator.

The property market has rarely been more heated and the shortage of homes is only heightening people’s desire to move up the ladder, but buyers and renters should be taking into consideration every factor before making a decision, including the quality of their mobile signal at home. A very simple way of doing this is by remembering to run a quick test on the mobile performance whilst viewing a property, just as you would check the broadband speeds.”

Apparently 41% of property sellers say they would now promote having a good mobile phone signal as part of their overall push to find a buyer, although a lot of estate agents still don’t provide much information on this aspect of connectivity.

In fairness mobile quality is very variable and difficult to judge, although you can usually keep an eye on the signal while viewing a house to see how it fairs as you walk around. Mind you it helps if those taking part in the viewing are on different networks as this will give you a better picture of the situation.

We would however advise that people don’t rely on the overly optimistic coverage checkers that Mobile Network Operators put on their websites.