A new survey of 3,000 Brits by urban fibre optic ISP Hyperoptic has claimed that slow broadband speeds at peak-times (i.e. the busy evening period after work) are the top unexpected bugbear for people trying to move house, while flaky mobile signals and unresponsive landlords follow close behind.
The survey suggests that 12% of Brits are “planning” to move home in 2017 (37% of these are looking to buy and 63% will rent). However nearly half of renters (48%) would have avoided a property entirely if they had known that it had poor broadband speeds at peak-time. For over a third (36%) flaky mobile signal would have also been a deal breaker, followed by an unresponsive landlord (33%), noisy neighbours (32%) and loud road noise (26%).
The results for buyers were a little bit different, with only 39% saying that poor broadband speeds at peak-times would have put them off if they had known about it in advance and this was followed by mobile phone signal issues (22%), noisy neighbours (32%) and road noise (19%).
Meanwhile most of those who didn’t plan to move in 2017 said, unsurprisingly, that it is because they are happy where they are (46%). Elsewhere 38% said they didn’t plan to move due to money concerns (too expensive) and for others it was the simple fact that they couldn’t face the hassle of moving (16%).
For the 4.4% of Brits that are planning to buy a property in 2017, the key drivers are: a better location (49%), a better price (27%) and more space (24%).
Steve Holford, Hyperoptic’s Chief Customer Officer, said:
“We are hitting one of the busiest times of the year for moving home, but ironically for many the speed of the market won’t be matched by the speed at which they can connect to the Internet when they get into a new property. The average property broadband speed that is given from a property website is basically misleading since it does not factor in how much a Fibre-to-the-Cabinet broadband service can reduce at peak times.
It is time that the property sector woke up to the fact that broadband is not just a standard property amenity – it has the power to turn off a prospective renter and buyer altogether. Brits want and deserve to know how their broadband will perform at the time they need it most.”
It’s perhaps worth pointing out that not even ultrafast FTTH/P/B broadband networks are completely immune to the problem of peak-time network congestion. The degree to which congestion impacts your service performance can also depend upon your choice of ISP / package and location, which makes this a factor that can be quite tricky to pin down beforehand.
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