Property Investors Wake Up To “High-speed Broadband” Knocks

A recently conducted survey in Brisbane highlighted a trend surfacing all across Australia; tenants give top priority to high-speed internet connections.  The initiative of the National Broadband Association (NBN) resonates with exactly the same consumer sentiment. After all, the NBN has come up with a plan which aims to roll out fibre optic cables to 93% of Australian premises by the year 2021.

An estimated amount of A$37.4 billion assigned for the task implies that the government means business. So how does it affect property investors?

At the moment, Australia is still trying to make do with old-as-Adam copper telecommunications network. This is a big reason why the country’s broadband performance remains many notches below other countries.

Fibre to the Premises

The Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) move will push in high speed broadband access to homes and business setups in three ways- through fibre optics, fixed wireless and next generation satellites.

NBN installation will not be a free initiative……

This will mean that properties will have to facilitate points of installation, either by retrofitting, by creating conduits or by revamping the existing structure. This will entail costs for the property investors, sometimes in the range of thousands of dollars too.

…….but will be every bit worth it

However, the good point is that the NBN installations will be worth it, allowing the appraisers to give properties a higher sticker (good news both while selling and renting properties).

Old buildings may face graver problems

Investors are being woken up to the task and they must respond now if they are to avoid later-day installation worries. While the new buildings can still adopt beautifully (they have conduits planned for such purposes), the old buildings will have to act doubly fast.

This is their only way of escaping what may become their lot- unsightly cable wires hanging from the exterior of buildings. Any investor game for it?

Get acquainted with NBN registrations

Now is the time to get proactive, finding out as much about NBN registrations as possible. Many investors are completely unaware that their premise falls within the NBN rollout. Now, this can only be accounted as lethargy on behalf of investors.

In some cases, the investors might be underestimating the NBN move but they will make such a lapse of judgement at their own peril.

Talk to your architect and designer

It is worth talking to designers, finding out all about your utility infrastructure, position of conduits and cost-effective routes of installation.

The expected blueprint of connectivity

Ethernet connections (one gigabit per second) will generally work their way through a drop fibre, starting from a home and culminating at the street ending. All such drop fibres will be connected to a local network reaching out to the main fibre distribution hub.

What does your cost-benefit analysis suggest? Will the cost be worth it?