New research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) and RenewableUK has found what many had already deciphered, that the presence of wind farms has “no significant effect” on the price of houses within 5 kilometeres of wind turbines.
Both based out of the United Kingdom, Cebr and RenewableUK have added further backing to American research which has time and again reached the same conclusion. As CleanTechnica author Mike Barnard wrote earlier this month, countless studies seem to all be saying the same thing:
Nine major and statistically reliable studies covering roughly 270,000 property transactions by different respected and independent organizations in three different countries spread over fifteen years have found no correlation between operating wind turbines and negative property values (in fact, three found slight but statistically insignificant improvements).
The Cebr and Renewable UK research is one of the first in-depth investigations into the link between UK house prices and wind farms, using Land Registry data from 1995 to 2013, examining data of more than 82,000 property transactions all within a 5 kilometre radius of 7 wind farms spread throughout England and Wales.
According to RenewableUK’s Chief Executive Maria McCaffery, “the report concluded that local house prices continue to perform just as they would have done whether or not the wind farm had been built, remaining in step with what’s happening to average house prices in the county as a whole.”
“This is the first deep dive into real data on this issue,” said McCaffery. “At last we have a detailed independent analysis into what actually happens to property prices before, during and after wind farms are constructed, over a period of nearly twenty years.”
In fact, McCaffery noted that the report found that the impact of wind farms on house prices remained the same through every stage of the process — “when plans to construct a wind farm are announced, when construction begins, when the wind farm goes operational and after it has been installed.
“This shows that claims that wind farms might have a negative effect on house prices are unfounded.”
As Mike Barnard concluded at the end of his piece earlier this month, the fears that exist about wind farm location and proximity are based in unreality, not fact. RenewableUK and Cebr have just added more proof to back this theory up.
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