Newly released research from Property Reporter has shown that, for some at least, even murder wouldn’t stop them from getting the house they want!

According to the findings, people would rather buy a house where a murder has taken place than one that has signs of damp or cracks in the walls.

The data looked at the top 10 reasons that would deter a potential buyer from making an offer on a house. It revealed that 58% would be put off if there had previously been a murder at a property, with 44% saying that they would reject a house if there had been reports of paranormal activity.

However, Brits are far more concerned by more trivial faults, with a shared garden (73%), signs of damp (75%) or cracks (73%) and having a short leasehold remaining (76%) all featuring higher on the list of unwanted features.
The biggest red flag for those looking to buy is noisy neighbours, with a huge 85% of people saying this would put them off purchasing a property.

The top 10 things that would put house buyers off are:

1. Noisy neighbours (85%)
2. Short leasehold remaining (76%)
3. Signs of damp (75%)
4. A shared garden (73%)
5. Signs of cracks on the walls (73%)
6. Front Door opening onto a main road (70%)
7. No parking (69%)
8. No garden (66%)
9. Smelly (63%)
10. Busy or high-speed roads nearby (62%)

Although over 40% of UK house buyers say they would not be put off by the fact that a murder had taken place onsite, the survey also found that if this were the case, they would expect the property to be reduced by almost a third (32%) of its market value.

The top five features that buyers would expect the biggest discounts for are:

1.Existing tenants (34%)
2. Murder (32%)
3. Paranormal Activity (30%)
4. Pets left behind in the property (26%)
5. Being next door to a cemetery (25%)
What would be the biggest thing that would deter you from buying a property…..?