Could the value of a house be affected by its access to decent broadband?
Article
Rightmove adds Point Topic broadband speed data to property listings | ThinkBroadband
From the horse’s mouth
Rightmove
My Comments
When one is considering property, an issue that may come up is whether there is access to broadband Internet with a decent bandwidth at that property. This is due to the Internet being considered a commodity especially in those countries like the UK and France where there is competitive Internet service overseen by pro-competition government telecommunications authorities that have teeth.
Now an online property-listings service operating in the UK is listing the Internet bandwidth available at that property alongside factors like number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms and existence of a garage. The data is being based on a snapshot of what is available at June 2013 but would be considered dynamic due to various broadband-improvement projects taking place around the country.
Personally I see this kind of listing as being able to vary a house’s price not just on location, view or kind of house but also the kind of Internet service available to the prospective householder. Even factors like a property being wired for Ethernet, recent AC rewiring (conducive for proper HomePlug AV operation) and/or the vendor showing a Wi-Fi “heatmap” that is strong for the whole house may also be seen as important to the prospective buyer / tenant.
This trend may also extend to other estate agents and property-listing services where a property’s suitability to “online life” may be seen as a selling point. It is more so as people start to work from home such as through telecommuting or running a small business; or want more out of an online-driven personal life.
As for local government (who are dependent on their local property taxes), they could see these resources as a way to encourage the deployment of high-speed broadband to all of the properties. It is more so in Europe where local and regional government is able to plough public money that is under their remit towards broadband-improvement projects in a similar manner to other local infrastructure.
Of course, maps offered by ThinkBroadband (UK), DegroupNews (France) and similar comprehensive Web resources will earn their keep when you assess a target area for broadband availability.
