People are more likely to move house as a result of a poor mobile phone signal rather than because they want to feel safer in the area they live or to be closer to their friends, according to a new survey.
A bad mobile signal was in the first 20 reasons the 2,027 adults questioned said would make them move in the survey by Slater & Gordon, a legal firm. The most popular reason for a house move was a lack of space and almost 75 per cent of the people questioned said that they were unhappy living in their current home.
The research discovered that up to one in four people would like to move home but worries about stress and the cost of finding a new home were among the reasons cited for not making the leap. A total of 16 per cent of respondents said they believed they currently lived in a poor location and in excess of 50 per cent said that they felt that the price of property was a limiting factor when it came to moving.
The survey discovered that women were unhappier with where they lived than their male counterparts and almost half of the thousands of people questioned said that they would really dislike it if they had to live in the same home forever.
The most common reasons to move were that the house was too small, the garden was not big enough, too much work was needed on the property, the location was too far away from family and that the home was in an undesirable neighbourhood.
These were followed by not having enough bathrooms, disliking the neighbours, being close to a busy road, parking problems, and poor public transport in the area. Having a bad phone signal came in at number 11, just before a lack of shops, a bad internet connection, being too far away from friends, the property being too old fashioned and problems with anti-social behaviour. Completing the top 20 reasons were not feeling safe, a dislike for a neighbour’s pets, bad memories in the home and a lack of natural light.
Property lawyer Samantha Blackburn of Slater & Gordon said it was sad that the survey revealed that many people were unhappy in their current homes but said that it did reveal that people are still actively searching for properties that will make their lives happier. She added that rising property prices were not enough to deter people from looking for their dream home, even though it could limit their options.
Ms Blackburn added that her company’s clients often expressed worry about the potential stress of making a property move but she said that most realise that a short period of upheaval is worth it for a long period of happiness and that good moving management can remove a large proportion of the stress.