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Rightmove considering broadband speed on property listings
David Pawsey, Wednesday March 9, 2011 - 3:10 PMProperty website Rightmove has confirmed it is in discussions with BT to include the provider’s local broadband speed on property listings.
A spokesperson for Rightmove told SeekBroadband.com that it was something the company was investigating although nothing official had been agreed.
The spokesperson said: “There is not any formal partnership there, we have just had initial talks so there is nothing in place. It is something that we have talked about but we cannot say if it is definitely happening or not happening.
“Broadband is becoming one of the most, if not the most, important considerations for prospective buyers. Many people fall in love with a home only to find out it can only get really slow internet. By listing broadband speed with all the other property details, buyers will be able to weed out homes that don’t have high-speed access.”
When asked if Rightmove had been in similar talks with any other broadband providers to include their speeds on property listings the spokesperson said they were unable to comment.
It is believed that Rightmove, which covers approximately 90 per cent of all properties for sale in the UK, will also list whether or not the property will be covered by BT Infinity, the telecom company’s new up to 40Mbps fibre-optic broadband service. BT is rolling out the £2.5bn fibre-optic broadband network at a rate of 80,000 homes a week. It is due to reach 16m homes by 2015.
If BT and Rightmove were to enter into this partnership it would not be the first arrangement between the property and broadband market. Hundreds of independent estate agents currently include whether or not properties are connected to Virgin’s high-speed cable broadband network on their property listings. The broadband provider has also entered into a partnership with housebuilder Persimmonn to build-in its fibre-optic cables to new homes.
2 Comments »
A long overdue step. This will bring the broadband quality into the mainstream discussion as one of the relevant factors of a houseprice. All too often broadband is still seen as something exotic and estate agents almost ignore this point. The pressure on BT will rise to provide decent speed and quality broadband as it does have an impact of the value of a house. Rightmove should however rather team up with samknows.com to get a complete picture. BT alone doesn’t cover the entire market.
Comment by Mike Minh — March 10, 2011 #
To echo Mike’s point this is well overdue. Perhaps this is the first stage in Rightmove’s move to begin offering utilities and household services.
Comment by new homes — March 22, 2011 #