Estate agents urged to tell buyers about air pollution

Estate agents have been urged to automatically disclose air pollution figures to home buyers.

The industry trade body said providing this information should now be standard practice.

“Air quality is now public information, and it will never not be again,” said Mark Hayward, chief executive of NAEA Propertymark.

His comments came as a new website was launched which details air pollution by postcode.

The site, called addresspollution.org, uses data from King’s College London to give the level of nitrogen dioxide.

House price hit?

The website has been created by the Central Office of Public Interest (COPI), a not-for-profit campaign, the Times newspaper reports.

The site is currently limited to properties in London. It shows the concentration of nitrogen dioxide in the air and compares it to the World Health Organization’s annual legal limit of 40 micrograms per cubic metre. Long term exposure to high concentrations of the gas have been linked to early deaths.

Humphrey Milles, its founder, said he thinks it could have an impact on where new homes are built, and that data such as this should be used to determine where schools and homes for the elderly are built.

“The data shows this is isn’t just something that you are exposed to on the road, this pollution is in the air in our homes,” he said.

Read more: BBC

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