Neighbours have £32,395 impact on house prices
Neighbours can add, or remove, more than £30,000 from your house price
Thursday, 26, Jan 2006 05:44
Changing neighbours can add - or remove - as much as £32,395 from the value of your home, new figures show.
Research from propertyfinder.com reveals that while the perfect neighbours can add more than four per cent to your house price, squatters settling next door can lower it by four times this amount.
The ideal neighbours were seen as a childless couple, followed by old age pensioners. Singles and families with small children could also boost house prices - but not by as much.
On the flip side, squatters remove the most value from your property, followed by students. Families with teenagers and flat-sharers also lower house prices - but by a far lesser extent.
"Students are notorious for having a good time and living in messy conditions, but our results show a greater concern among householders regarding the detrimental effect students can have on the price of their property," said Nicholas Leeming, director of propertyfinder.
"Our neighbours have a very significant influence on our quality of life, especially in urban areas, and increasingly, house hunters are prepared to pay a premium for a quiet, trouble-free life."
Nine UK residents in ten see squatters as the worst neighbours, with close to two homeowners in three seeing students as bad neighbours.
"Slamming doors, arguments and drum kits" were among the things that put families with teenagers third on the worst neighbours list, with 36 per cent of people preferring to not be next door to them.
Young flat-sharers were frowned upon because of their "disruptive lifestyles" with 24 per cent of homeowners seeing them as having an adverse effect on property vales.
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