Slow broadband is more annoying than noisy neighbours for people moving home in the UK and many would not have done so had they known that their broadband would not be fast enough.
Movers also said that information about broadband is not as readily available from estate agents and letting agents and should be on the property details when viewing online.
Some 34% said they wanted to know what broadband speeds they would receive at peak times when considering a home to buy or rent, according to the research from Hyperoptic.
The survey also found that mobile phone signal is another key concern which is hard to find with 18% regarding it as a top issue while only 6% rate noisy neighbours as an issue.
The research also found that 12% are planning to move home in 2017 and of these some 37% are looking to buy and 63% are looking to rent and for both poor peak time broadband speeds is the biggest bugbear that would have put many of them off moving into their new property altogether if they had known about it in advance.
Some 48% of tenants would have avoided a property entirely if they had known that it had poor broadband speeds at peak time and 36% would have felt the same about a poor mobile phone signal. Other issues were unresponsive landlords, cited by 32% and loud road noise by 26%.
Poor broadband was a deal breaker for 39% of those buying a home while 22% cited poor mobile phone signals and 19% noise from traffic.
One home mover, orchestra conductor David Atherton, said he has found it very hard to find out broadband speeds in locations where he is looking to buy. ‘I know what it’s like to live with broadband speeds that are marketed at one speed, but disappear to nothing at peak times and are utterly unusable,’ he said.
‘With a possible house move in mind I have spent an inordinate amount of time researching what speeds I would actually get in practice, a task made more difficult by absent/inaccurate broadband speed statistics on most housing websites that don’t give you an insight into how much they can fluctuate,’ he added.
The research also found that for people not planning to move in 2017, the main reason is that they are happy where they are with 46% saying so while 38% cannot afford to move, and 16% can’t face the hassle of moving.
For the 4.4% that are planning to buy a property in 2017 some 49% are doing so to find a better location, 27% are seeking a better priced home and 24% want more space.
‘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,’ said Steve Holford, chief customer officer of Hyperoptic.
‘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 as it has the power to turn off a prospective renter and buyer altogether,’ he pointed out.
