Super-fast broadband can help the sale of your rural property, but if BT is dragging its heels, try cutting out the middle man.<\/p>\n
When Philip and Claire Bull moved into their five-bedroom house, The Gables, in the village of Stoneleigh near Coventry, they found they had the broadband speed of a sloth. They contacted BT, who said they would have to dig a whole new line for them and the cost would be prohibitive. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want to upgrade our village because they said it wasn\u2019t economically viable,\u201d said Philip.<\/p>\n
Luckily the village was enterprising. It applied for a grant from the Rural Broadband Community Fund, a pot of money set aside for hard-to-reach areas, and in September last year the 300 households of Stoneleigh turned from a broadband not-spot into a broadband hot-spot.<\/p>\n
Philip and Claire have had no problem selling their home through Knight Frank, and as they look for a new house they won\u2019t look at anything without speedy broadband.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe days of logging on just to check emails are over. We want to download masses of data, films, and get constant news updates. It is ridiculous that BT has been contracted to produce a universal service but won\u2019t do it when it is not worth their while. It isn\u2019t as if we live on the side of a mountain. We are four miles from Coventry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The thirst for fast broadband is increasingly becoming a stumbling block for house buyers, particularly those moving from London to the country who hope to work from home. Knight Frank\u2019s recent Rural Sentiment Survey found that around 70 per cent of those questioned thought it was a big issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWork which involves moving large amounts of data can be tortuous, and watching television online is frustrating without fast broadband,\u201d says Andrew Shirley, head of rural research at Knight Frank, who carried out the survey. \u201cGiven the growing number of people who would like to work from home, and the increasing volume of entertainment that is delivered online, good broadband will become ever more important to property buyers.\u201d<\/p>\n
So important is it that the website Rightmove has added broadband speeds and availability to its lists of houses for sale, and the information is attracting 400,000 page views per month. Around 3,000 of its users have reported that speedy broadband is now more important than transport links or schools. One estate agent moaned recently that a buyer pulled out of bidding on a \u00a36m house in the Cotswolds because the internet access was so poor.<\/p>\n
In north Somerset, where recent floods emphasised the need for digital communications in times of crisis, residents have set up a private community company called Wansdyke Telecom CIC (Community Interest Company), which recently dug the first trench to supply fast broadband to Newton Farm Shop in Newton St Loe. \u201cGovernment money available is not being given to small alternative network providers,\u201d says director Matt McCabe. \u201cWe want to raise money from the local community to provide the service. You can raise private sector or hedge fund investment; in Durham they have set up a cooperative. Our goal is to fibre-up every property in north-east Somerset in the next few years. We have a small army of champions for the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the past decade, Somerset has attracted wealthy buyers. \u201cThe Chew Valley is hoping it could be a new Silicon Valley, as it is a fantastic place to live and work once it gets good connectivity,\u201d says Matt, who runs a smallholding on the edge of Englishcombe, just outside Bath. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to get left in the digital slow-lane where broadband speeds are so low that kids can\u2019t play on their Xboxes, parents can\u2019t Skype and videoconferencing is awful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The problem is that BT has a monopoly (Virgin Media offers super fast speeds, but in limited areas) on delivering faster broadband and has directed resources to urban rather than rural areas, leaving parts of the countryside with chronically slow speeds. BT is also intent on providing fibre-to-the-cabinet, which serves the street or area, but then relies on old-fashioned copper connections to reach individual homes. Small-scale alternative providers believe fibre-to-the-property provides a much better service.<\/p>\n
Lincolnshire (apart from the North East) has the slowest broadband in the country \u2013 so slow it could take 25 hours to download a two-hour film \u2013 and estate agents have noticed that it puts a brake on house sales. \u201cSome buyers have the broadband tested and subsequently pull out because it isn\u2019t fast enough,\u201d says Rupert Fisher of Savills in Lincoln.<\/p>\n
One Lincolnshire village, Ashby de la Launde, invited an outside company to lay a fibre optic ring main around the streets after BT had said it was not economically viable to do so. The village set up a company, Fibrestream, to manage the project, which cost \u00a3100,000. This will be recouped by residents contributing \u00a3125 each to connect, plus a small monthly payment. \u201cThe 100 Mbps network speed in Ashby de la Launde makes it a more appealing place to live, especially as more people are choosing to work from home,\u201d says Rupert. \u201cIt allows them to live a little bit farther away from a train station, and provides a better quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cornwall has not fared so badly. \u201cThere is a programme in place to bring superfast broadband to the county,\u201d said Jonathan Cunliffe of Savills in Truro. \u201cWe get asked a lot about broadband by buyers who are between work and retirement. In fact broadband speed, combined with the six daily flights between London and Cornwall, is making people think they can move their whole life and family here, rather than just thinking about it as a holiday destination.\u201d<\/p>\n
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