Survey Claims Brits Will Pay GBP1514 Extra for Full Fibre Houses

A new survey of 2,026 UK adults, which was conducted by Censuswide for UK broadband ISP Zen Internet, has found that 75% of respondents would not buy a home if they knew the local internet connectivity was poor. The survey added that people would be willing to pay £1,514 extra for a house that has FTTP broadband.

The survey noted that 25% of respondents plan to buy a new-build property in the next 12 months (25% were first time buyers), whilst 72% cite the pandemic as a factor encouraging them to move. On top of that 27% said their current home isn’t fit for purpose any longer, as due to COVID-19 they plan to work from home for the foreseeable future (this could be just as much about the need for space as it is for good connectivity).

Unsurprisingly, the majority of respondents (91%) stated the consistency and reliability of their broadband connection is now more important than ever in the home-buying process, while 79% of homebuyers are calling for housing developers and estate agents to offer broadband quality tests before they move in (consumers can also look at local network availability themselves).

Indeed, 68% of respondents believe housing companies and estate agents should ensure broadband is ready on move-in day, much like other key utilities (electricity, water and gas). However, respondents revealed they waited nearly 6 days on average for their broadband to be connected, from previous moving experiences. During this time, 44% realised how dependent they were on the internet, 31% were frustrated they couldn’t look things up online, and as a result 17% ran up a higher mobile-data bill (average of £28 extra).

Steve Mariner, Sales Director at Barratt Homes, said:

“We have certainly witnessed a shift in homebuyers’ priorities when considering a new home. Now more than ever, buyers not only need practical and comfortable living spaces but also reliable broadband, in order to be able to work-from-home. At Barratt Homes, we’re pleased to be able to offer a new unified service to ensure that ultrafast full fibre broadband is installed as standard across all of our new developments.”

Unfortunately, Zen’s press release doesn’t state how the £1,500 figure was derived or what proportion of the survey sample supported it. As it stands most of the currently available evidence for the impact of broadband speed on house prices remains fairly anecdotal. We know it’s a key element for the majority of people, but what they will tolerate in terms of connection speed or quality vs house price vs other factors can vary.

Equally, other factors can weigh into such decisions, such as any significant differences in terms of local council tax bands, school catchments, quality or size of housing, availability of gas, crime rates etc. Assuming that broadband is the only factor in all this would be risky, hence why correlation is not causation.

Ultimately the decision about how much you pay for a house will always come down to a matter of personal choice, which is of course different for everybody.

UPDATE:

After a bit of nudging we were informed that £1.5k was the average (mean) figure from the 2,026 respondents when asked “How much more, if anything, are you/would you be willing to pay for a home that had full fibre broadband?.” We’d quite like to know what the high and low ends of this were too.