Dear Lifehacker, A question I haven’t seen addressed yet in all the NBN debate: Does having a fibre connection to the property add to its value? Thanks, Property Watcher
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Dear PW,
It’s a tough one to answer, simply because outside of very specific (and rather geeky) circumstances, an NBN connection isn’t going to be the sole selling point of a given property.
It’s also hard to draw from conclusive data in this regard, because NBN connections are still relatively scarce, although it’s been suggested that some new greenfields housing estates may use the existence of NBN connections as a selling — and thus upsell — point. But even the Commonwealth Bank only suggests that it might become a selling point without pointing to specific data.
As the NBN — or whatever happens to it post-election — rolls out, it’ll become more of a normal service expectation in any case, at which point any price “premium” for having a connection is likely to vanish, although a house that refused to have a connection linked up may find itself slightly less desirable in a competitive marketplace if the plans in that area still call for a FTTN connection.
Still, ultimately house value is determined a complex set of variables, including location and design, nearby amenities and the like, and I’d be extremely suspicious of anyone saying that an NBN connection was a specific value addition without a lot of hard data to rest on. As yet, nobody has that hard data, so I’d say that it’s unlikely to be a major factor. After all, would you live in a crime-ridden dump with terrible neighbours and no view just because it had an NBN connection?
Cheers
Lifehacker
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