According to a study from full fibre provider Hyperoptic, poor peak-time broadband speeds is the biggest bugbear for home-movers – even topping noisy neighbours and an unresponsive landlord.
The survey revealed that 12% of Brits are planning to move home in 2017, with 37% looking to buy and 63% looking to rent. The research was commissioned to get an insight into what unexpected issues are most annoying for UK home-movers.
It found that:
- nearly half of renters (48%) would have avoided renting a property if they had known that it had poor broadband speeds at peak-time;
- 36% said a flaky mobile signal would have also been a deal breaker;
- a third (33%) said an unresponsive landlord is their biggest bugbear;
- noisy neighbours accounted for 32% of concerns, followed by just over a quarter (26%) being put off by loud road noise.
Homebuyers are less likely to be concerned by slow broadband speeds, with 39% saying it was a deal breaker, followed by mobile phone signal issues (22%), noisy neighbours (32%) and road noise (19%).
A spokesman said: “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.”
