Why is air pollution a growing concern for home buyers?

Good air quality is increasingly a deal-breaker for purchasers looking for a new home. Here, we find out why...

From asthma to eye problems, hay fever to lung cancer, poor quality air has been linked to a range of serious health conditions, with scientists blaming it for the premature deaths of more than 40,000 people a year in Britain.

So it’s no wonder pollution levels are increasingly a factor for buyers when searching for a new property, with clean living a priority for many families concerned about air quality where they live, say estate agents.

Henry Pryor, a property agent, says air quality is becoming equally important to buyers as the other environmental and social factors traditionally considered when purchasing a home.

“Buyers are really waking up to air quality where they live. In fact, it can be a deal-breaker these days as no-one wants to live at the end of an exhaust pipe,” he says.

The new air quality report 

It’s such an important issue that homebuyers can now get a report, as part of the conveyancing process, on the pollution levels surrounding their soon-to-be new home.

Future Climate Info (FCI) is one of many UK companies that compile environmental reports for solicitors. Reports now include details of pollution levels alongside checks on flooding, contaminated land and ground stability risks.

Using a nationwide map of air pollution by the air quality measuring specialist EarthSense, FCI reports will include ratings for individual properties.

The ratings will start at 0 to indicate a ‘generally clean environment’ with very low chance of Nitrogen Dioxide – NO2 – levels exceeding annual legal limits, and go up to 6 which would indicate ‘polluted environments with major implications for health’.

A rating of 3 or above means an area is likely to see NO2 levels exceed annual legal limits, worsening at peak traffic times and in stagnant weather conditions.  

FCIs analysis suggests that 3% of property transactions in 2017 took place in England and Wales in areas which had pollution levels of 3 and above.

Meanwhile, central London, Nottingham, Liverpool, Salford, Scunthorpe have been named as the UK's most polluted towns and cities according to data from EarthSense.

Photo: Silent Corners/Shutterstock 

Serious health risks

Increasing levels of indoor and outdoor pollution are causing havoc with health problems in the UK.

Cities are of particular concern. More than 80% of people living in urban areas that monitor air pollution are exposed to air quality levels that exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) limits.

As air quality declines, the risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma, increases for the people who live in them.

Pollution can even be bad for your looks. It damages skin cells, speeding up the breakdown of the collagen that keeps our skin supple and eventually leading to problems with pigmentation and wrinkles.

Children are also at risk. More than 3,000 schools in England are located in areas with potentially dangerous levels of pollution, according to a report by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Tom Hall, managing director of EarthSense adds: “It’s important it is to inform and raise homeowner awareness about the long-term health impacts of air pollution and how this may influence purchase and investment decisions.

“For families with children or sensitivity to air pollution this decision can be critical so it is crucial to have as much information as possible.”

Finding clean air

 Photo: Steve Mann/Shutterstock

Suburbs are usually less polluted than city centres, although you need to think about nearby industries such as an airport that can contribute to air pollution.

The average wind in the UK is South West, so any source of pollution to the South East of your living place will have a predominant impact on the air quality.

Tom Hall explains: "The West coast of Britain is a particularly good place to look for high air quality, thanks to the Atlantic air brought in on the prevailing southwesterly winds.

"In general, well ventilated and remote areas, as well as those with low levels of traffic and industrial activity, will have good air quality.

"In urban locations, traffic is one of the major source of air pollution so living away from busy roads will improve your neighbourhood air quality. Being close to parks will help, and generally the south-westerly areas of the town or city will have better air quality."

For those living in a flat next to a busy road, upper floors will be less polluted than lower floors as the pollution will dilute.

You can do some homework on air quality before you get to the conveyancing stage using Airview, a service from Swedish air purification experts Blueair. The app and website allows you to type in your postcode or use your exact location to see the level of pollutants floating around.

They use monitoring stations across the UK to measure results and evaluate air quality. 

Mr Offen adds: “Including pollution levels in conveyancing checks should become an industry standard to make sure homebuyers have all the important information to hand.”

5 places to live with the best air quality in the UK

Photo: Nataliya Hora/Shutterstock 

1. Isle of Skye Scotland
Properties sold in the Isle of Skye cost on average £199,489, according to Rightmove. Sold prices in the year from March 2017 to March 2018 were up 3% on the previous 12 months.

2. Aberystwyth, Wales
The average sale price for property is £193,779. Yet most sales involved flats which sold for on average £151,741. Terraced properties sold for an average price of £166,290, while detached properties fetched £251,264. Sold prices in the 12 months to March are up 4% on the previous year.

3. St. Ives, Cornwall
Property in St. Ives costs an average of £372,005. Most of the sales here were flats which on average sold for £280,839. Terraced properties had an average sold price of £396,596 and semi-detached properties averaged at £314,717. However prices in St. Ives have been largely flat over the last two years.

4. Allendale Town, Northumberland
The average cost of a property in Allendale Town is £210,263. In the year to March 2018, house prices were up 8% up on the previous 12 months.

5. Malvern, Worcestershire
Property in Malvern costs an average of £259,277. The majority of sales in Malvern have been detached properties, selling for an average price of £352,776. Semi-detached properties sold for an average of £228,325, with flats fetching £170,132. Sold prices in Malvern have been largely similar over the last two years.

(Source: EarthSense)