Superfast broadband could boost UK house prices – survey


14 Feb 2011

Most people value broadband internet access so highly they would even pay more for a house just to receive faster connectivity, a new survey suggests.

The availability of good broadband internet access can add value to a home, ISPreview.co.uk‘s latest survey of 733 people in the UK has revealed.

Sixty-nine per cent of UK internet users would be put off from buying a beautiful new house if it lacked a fast broadband connection and half would pay more for a house with faster connectivity than the home they currently own.

Seventy-four per cent of respondents said they felt broadband was now “critically important” to their home lives, with 24pc describing its importance as only “average” and less than 2pc claiming it was “not important” at all.

“Clearly a strong appetite for faster connectivity exists within the UK,” said ISPreview.co.uk’s founder, Mark Jackson. “Homes that are able to offer this kind of access, especially through the new generation of superfast (25Mbps+) ISP products, potentially stand to gain in value by being significantly more attractive to an increasingly internet-addicted population.

According to Ofcom’s May 2010 data, the average broadband download speed in the UK is 5.2Mbps, yet in ISPreview.co.uk’s December 2010 poll, only 37pc of people described their broadband performance as “good”.