Broadband speed becomes a priority for tenants

Feb. 4, 2015 - PRLog -- Broadband speed is now a major deciding factor among renters looking for a new property, say Winkworth north London letting agents. While distance to public transport, good leisure facilities and proximity to schools still ranks highly, lettings professionals are being increasingly asked about broadband connections to properties they are marketing on behalf of landlords.

Demand at local level for faster connection times dovetails with new research from Halifax that revealed a fifth of UK adults are prepared to pay more to live in a home with a good broadband connection. Halifax also claim almost a quarter would negotiate a lower rent if the property they were moving to had a poor broadband speeds.

Those looking at property to rent in north London have a number of ways to check the broadband strength in the area that they wish to move to. Property search portal Rightmove were the first in its sector to introduce a broadband tool as part of its property listings, back in February 2014, with users able to see the strength of the broadband connection on a simple barometer-style chart. Rightmove also provide a handy guide to what tenants can expect to do with the level of broadband available - whether that's send emails, view web pages or enable multiple people in the same household to stream videos at any one time.

There's also a broadband speed checker on utilities comparison site Uswitch, where you can instantly test the broadband speed of any location, using the postcode, and compare it to other streets in the local vicinity using its StreetStats facility. The service pinpoints other broadband speed tests that have been conducted in the same area, as well as lists the suppliers operating in the postcode together with their speeds and tariffs.

Winkworth north London lettings agents (http://www.winkworth.co.uk/regions/north-london) comment that the availability of such statistics should provide a wake-up call to landlords who are looking to secure tenants. Agents agree that properties to rent in north London with no broadband connection will be overlooked by many home movers, while those with quick download and upload speed times will appeal to an increasing band of tenants managing their lives via smartphones, tablets, laptops and games consoles. The good news for landlords is that north London is served by all the leading broadband providers, who can offer the very best speeds with a simple connection procedure. North London lettings agents say landlords with the best broadband connections should use the speeds offered as part of their property marketing to gain a competitive edge.