People will spend more for an Instagrammable home – study
The study also revealed that social media is making more than a quarter of us miserable.
After a public outcry following an Instagram broadcast of the alleged assault, South African musician Mandla Maphumulo turned himself in to the police. AFP/File/LIONEL BONAVENTURE
A recent study has shown that people are willing to pay more money for homes that are “Instagrammable”.
A survey conducted for the Ideal Home Show found that for first-time buyers, the size of the spare room or garden shows how “Instagrammable” the property is. Almost a fifth (18%) of 18 to 24-year-olds were found to not be willing to buy a house unless they think it will impress friends on social media, and 17% said they would pay more for such a home.
Additionally, nearly half of 25- to 35-year-olds confessed they would buy an item purely on the basis of how it would improve their home’s appearance on social media. Remarkably, some even admitted buying furniture and furnishings, posting pictures on Instagram and then returning the items to the store.
The survey also found that one in six people have posted an image on Instagram that they pretended was in their home when it belonged to someone else. More than a quarter of the 2,000 people polled also admitted to being so envious of images of friends’ properties on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, that it made them miserable.
In October 2018, there were 3,907,000 Instagram users in South Africa, which is roughly 7% of the country’s entire population, and the number is growing fast.
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