Super-fast internet will increasingly prove a deal breaker for many home buyers as great WiFi now ranks above the number of bedrooms on most wish lists.

A Huawei/Omdia survey of estate agents found that only the overall size of a property is more important for buyers than internet speed and quality, while 20% of agents say the availability of high-quality broadband is now the most important feature, particularly in Scotland and the Southwest.

Its report, Bricks and clicks: The importance of moving to a gigabit society, reveals that 30% of agents rank high-quality broadband as the feature that buyers are least willing to compromise on, above home office space and location to amenities.

At the end of 2021, only 7% of UK households will be connected to FTTH (fibre to the home) using fibre optic cables, with the average speed of just over 100Mbps, but by 2026 this will have increased to 37% with average download speeds in excess of 600Mbps.

Higher price

This upgrade is also starting to affect agents’ bottom line, as 37% report that compared to exactly the same house with no broadband connection, a house with a broadband connection with 300Mbps would already be worth more than £5,000 more.

Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, 69% of agents have seen an increase in queries about the quality of the broadband connection at a property and 67% have seen an increase in internet speed queries.

This was particularly strong in those regions that witnessed very strong rises in property demand such as the Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Scotland.

The report found that 34% of agents’ customers are already typically looking for houses with speeds of 300Mbps plus, particularly in the Northwest (43%) and London (42%).

Read more about broadband speeds.