News - Fast broadband could boost UK house prices...maybe

[HEXUS]

Survey demonstrates how much the internet matters to home owners.

Read more.

[Steve A]

It does matter, i am house hunting at the moment and i have checked postcodes of suitable houses to check how far it is from the exchange and weather Virgin has lines installed .

But then that just me

[MSIC]

I'm struggling to work out how valuable this particular study is though - they havent linked (that I could find) exactly where or how they polled these people.
If, as I suspect, it was of people who already visited "ISP review" then surely such a study is biased by the sort of people who would visit it, and therefore like asking buyers of chocolate if they like chocolate?

That all said, I also would factor it in. But that's just me, my wife thinks differently.

[Funkstar]

I didn't factor it in, if I did, I may not have moved to the village I currently live in (although I was pleased to see I could probably lob a rock at the exchange from my bedroom window ).

[TheAnimus]

To me its quite important to have a fairly low latent link for work. Thing is its not hard to find that nowadays. Back when I was just an anoying 16 yo, who has no say over were he lives really, yes it would have mattered.

[Percy1983]

I am looking at houses and haven't even considered it.

[Caesium]

It wouldn't alter a decision on it's own for me, but the first thing I did after viewing a house I liked in Solihull recently was check how far from the exchange it was and whether Virgin was available. It was, and they're due for 100Mb upgrade in June, just in time for me to move in! Offer put in and accepted btw

[riviera76]

Atleast I'm not the only one! Was really happy to know that I was connected to one of the 24meg exchanges when I moved house. Was very dissapointed to find that I could only get 4.5meg. Should probably have checked before moving, not that it would actually have had much influence on my decision. Admittedly, it is the reason why I won't move to any of the villages nearby.

[PeteSmith]

I hate the fact that someone has suggested this. It sickens me. Aren't UK house prices inflated enough already.

[MSIC]

I hate the fact that someone has suggested this. It sickens me. Aren't UK house prices inflated enough already.

As I read it, this isn't going to push up average prices, but is more about redistributing the worth centrally around exchanges (amongst many other variables).
So, if I'm correct, it doesn't have to 'sicken you' since you can use it to your advantage to get a cheaper place.

[Kumagoro]

If you look at it from the other way places which dont will be cheaper.

I also take into consideration what the internet connection will be like

[Peter Parker]

Sounds silly to me. Assuming you're buying a house for at least a few years, then if you care about broadband you'll probably want fibre to the cab/kerb/home/premise or something, which means distance to the exchange is meaningless.

And the actual practical loop length can vary a lot regardless of physical or even street distance to an exchange that this isn't always a good measure of performance. That's why there's problems with current predicted broadband speeds. Imagine the trouble if people attribute say £2k of property value to being 250m from an exchange and then still only get 4kbps ! OMG call a lawyer

[cordas]

Its been a factor for me for the last 10 years.... If I couldn't get broadband then I wasn't interested in the property.

If I were to move now not being able to get 8mb broadband would stop me buying. Not sure I would pay more for faster... as faster is always going to be a moving target... if you can get 8mb now then you are going to keep getting faster connections on a regular basis.

[PeteSmith]

As I read it, this isn't going to push up average prices, but is more about redistributing the worth centrally around exchanges (amongst many other variables).
So, if I'm correct, it doesn't have to 'sicken you' since you can use it to your advantage to get a cheaper place.

By getting a place further away from the exchange? Oh and BTW it won't be 'cheaper', it will be the same high price. It's just now the houses closer to the exchange 'could' be more expensive. That's how i read it.

It's nice to see that out of all the compromises we have to make when looking for a property (1st time buyer perspective), broadband could possibly be another factor weighing the odds against you.

Personally i can't see it happening, but the fact that someone wrote this in the 1st place, sickens me.

[miniyazz]

By getting a place further away from the exchange? Oh and BTW it won't be 'cheaper', it will be the same high price. It's just now the houses closer to the exchange 'could' be more expensive. That's how i read it.

It's nice to see that out of all the compromises we have to make when looking for a property (1st time buyer perspective), broadband could possibly be another factor weighing the odds against you.

Personally i can't see it happening, but the fact that someone wrote this in the 1st place, sickens me.

You're muddling up correlation and causality.. or something. Broadband is desirable. Thus, houses with faster broadband are worth more than houses with no broadband. Hardly rocket science, and it's nothing to do with what someone writes. It's a simple bit of market economics - a house is priced at what it's worth to buyers, ideally, and it's worth more if it has faster broadband and worth less if it has slower broadband. Commenting on the prices of houses being affected by broadband speed is hardly sickening, any more than the prices of houses being affected by local schools.

[PeteSmith]

No i'm really not. Locality to schools, is different entirely. I think it's a pretty poor comparison.