Wind farms could affect house prices

This week the government confirmed what many have long suspected - that wind farms reduce a property's selling price.

The revelation came following the Valuation Office Agency's down-grading of council tax bands for several homes after they dived in value following the arrival of turbines nearby.

Although just five cases have been officially revealed, these suggest that a wind farm decreases house prices by 20 per cent or makes them difficult or even impossible to sell.

But wind turbines are not the problem to blight a property's value.

Noisy neighbours are top of the list and, according to a recent Halifax survey, 17% of homeowners experience this problem which the bank says reduce a property's value by up to £31,000, on average.

But following closely on the heels of noisy neighbours is the performance of local schools. A top-ranking secondary school adds 42% on average to the price of a home within its catchment area says PrimeLocation.com and therefore a poorly-performing school has a corresponding downward effect on prices.

Another big faux-pas is to alter your homes substantially without official planning approval.

Although this may have few consequences immediately, when a home goes on the market any unauthorised extensions or conversions will render the house unsaleable, or require a huge price reduction to shift it.

Floods, which have ravaged large swathes of the UK recently, also reduce property values.

Homes built on a flood plain will struggle to get flood insurance these days so, because the average flood damage bill totals between £20,000 and £50,000, selling it will be a problem - unless you drop the price radically.

To find out if a property is on a flood plain, go to www.environment-agency.gov.uk.

But there's another type of deluge reducing prices - crime, particularly after the government began publishing crime maps online at www.police.uk which show, quite clearly, the crime hotspots within a postcode.

Research by the London School of Economics in 2004 revealed that a 10 per cent reduction in crime locally adds 1.7 per cent to a property's value - or £2,700 on average. Logic suggests that a corresponding increase in crime would have the reverse effect on property values.

Lastly, there is one problem that, thankfully, few homes suffer from - infamy.

Properties where murders and other off-putting events have taken place are very difficult to sell, so beware such addresses before you buy - selling them could be a nightmare.