diff --git a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/ProjectInfoAutoConfiguration.java b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/ProjectInfoAutoConfiguration.java
index 1b08c66c76b..3d7427f3b60 100644
--- a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/ProjectInfoAutoConfiguration.java
+++ b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/ProjectInfoAutoConfiguration.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 package org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.info;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.util.Properties;
 
 import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration;
@@ -39,7 +40,6 @@ import org.springframework.core.io.ResourceLoader;
 import org.springframework.core.io.support.EncodedResource;
 import org.springframework.core.io.support.PropertiesLoaderUtils;
 import org.springframework.core.type.AnnotatedTypeMetadata;
-import org.springframework.util.StringUtils;
 
 /**
  * {@link EnableAutoConfiguration Auto-configuration} for various project information.
@@ -70,19 +70,14 @@ public class ProjectInfoAutoConfiguration {
 	@ConditionalOnMissingBean
 	@Bean
 	public BuildProperties buildProperties() throws Exception {
-		return new BuildProperties(
-				loadFrom(this.properties.getBuild().getLocation(), "build",
-						this.properties.getBuild().getEncoding()));
+		return new BuildProperties(loadFrom(this.properties.getBuild().getLocation(),
+				"build", this.properties.getBuild().getEncoding()));
 	}
 
-	protected Properties loadFrom(Resource location, String prefix, String encoding) throws IOException {
+	protected Properties loadFrom(Resource location, String prefix, Charset encoding)
+			throws IOException {
 		String p = prefix.endsWith(".") ? prefix : prefix + ".";
-		Properties source = null;
-		if (StringUtils.isEmpty(encoding)) {
-			source = PropertiesLoaderUtils.loadProperties(location);
-		} else {
-			source = PropertiesLoaderUtils.loadProperties(new EncodedResource(location, encoding));
-		}
+		Properties source = loadSource(location, encoding);
 		Properties target = new Properties();
 		for (String key : source.stringPropertyNames()) {
 			if (key.startsWith(p)) {
@@ -92,6 +87,17 @@ public class ProjectInfoAutoConfiguration {
 		return target;
 	}
 
+	private Properties loadSource(Resource location, Charset encoding)
+			throws IOException {
+		if (encoding != null) {
+			return PropertiesLoaderUtils
+					.loadProperties(new EncodedResource(location, encoding));
+		}
+		else {
+			return PropertiesLoaderUtils.loadProperties(location);
+		}
+	}
+
 	static class GitResourceAvailableCondition extends SpringBootCondition {
 
 		private final ResourceLoader defaultResourceLoader = new DefaultResourceLoader();
diff --git a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/ProjectInfoProperties.java b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/ProjectInfoProperties.java
index 0aca49e5de5..763a8be22fd 100644
--- a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/ProjectInfoProperties.java
+++ b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/ProjectInfoProperties.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2012-2017 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2012-2018 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@
 
 package org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.info;
 
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
+
 import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
 import org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource;
 import org.springframework.core.io.Resource;
@@ -53,9 +56,9 @@ public class ProjectInfoProperties {
 				"META-INF/build-info.properties");
 
 		/**
-		 * build-info.properties file encoding.
+		 * File encoding.
 		 */
-		private String encoding;
+		private Charset encoding = StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 
 		public Resource getLocation() {
 			return this.location;
@@ -65,11 +68,11 @@ public class ProjectInfoProperties {
 			this.location = location;
 		}
 
-		public String getEncoding() {
+		public Charset getEncoding() {
 			return this.encoding;
 		}
 
-		public void setEncoding(String encoding) {
+		public void setEncoding(Charset encoding) {
 			this.encoding = encoding;
 		}
 
@@ -86,9 +89,9 @@ public class ProjectInfoProperties {
 		private Resource location = new ClassPathResource("git.properties");
 
 		/**
-		 * git.properties file encoding.
+		 * File encoding.
 		 */
-		private String encoding;
+		private Charset encoding = StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
 
 		public Resource getLocation() {
 			return this.location;
@@ -98,11 +101,11 @@ public class ProjectInfoProperties {
 			this.location = location;
 		}
 
-		public String getEncoding() {
+		public Charset getEncoding() {
 			return this.encoding;
 		}
 
-		public void setEncoding(String encoding) {
+		public void setEncoding(Charset encoding) {
 			this.encoding = encoding;
 		}
 
diff --git a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/ProjectInfoAutoConfigurationTests.java b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/ProjectInfoAutoConfigurationTests.java
index a05878d3c81..af16c2efdba 100644
--- a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/ProjectInfoAutoConfigurationTests.java
+++ b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/ProjectInfoAutoConfigurationTests.java
@@ -72,11 +72,23 @@ public class ProjectInfoAutoConfigurationTests {
 	}
 
 	@Test
-	public void gitPropertiesWithUnicode() {
-		load("spring.info.git.location=classpath:/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/git.properties",
-				"spring.info.git.encoding=utf-8");
-		GitProperties gitProperties = this.context.getBean(GitProperties.class);
-		assertThat(gitProperties.get("commit.unicode")).isEqualTo("中文");
+	public void gitPropertiesUsesUtf8ByDefault() {
+		this.contextRunner.withPropertyValues(
+				"spring.info.git.location=classpath:/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/git.properties")
+				.run((context) -> {
+					GitProperties gitProperties = context.getBean(GitProperties.class);
+					assertThat(gitProperties.get("commit.charset")).isEqualTo("test™");
+				});
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void gitPropertiesEncodingCanBeConfigured() {
+		this.contextRunner.withPropertyValues("spring.info.git.encoding=US-ASCII",
+				"spring.info.git.location=classpath:/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/git.properties")
+				.run((context) -> {
+					GitProperties gitProperties = context.getBean(GitProperties.class);
+					assertThat(gitProperties.get("commit.charset")).isNotEqualTo("test™");
+				});
 	}
 
 	@Test
@@ -128,6 +140,28 @@ public class ProjectInfoAutoConfigurationTests {
 				});
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void buildPropertiesUsesUtf8ByDefault() {
+		this.contextRunner.withPropertyValues(
+				"spring.info.build.location=classpath:/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/build-info.properties")
+				.run((context) -> {
+					BuildProperties buildProperties = context
+							.getBean(BuildProperties.class);
+					assertThat(buildProperties.get("charset")).isEqualTo("test™");
+				});
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void buildPropertiesEncodingCanBeConfigured() {
+		this.contextRunner.withPropertyValues("spring.info.build.encoding=US-ASCII",
+				"spring.info.build.location=classpath:/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/build-info.properties")
+				.run((context) -> {
+					BuildProperties buildProperties = context
+							.getBean(BuildProperties.class);
+					assertThat(buildProperties.get("charset")).isNotEqualTo("test™");
+				});
+	}
+
 	@Configuration
 	static class CustomInfoPropertiesConfiguration {
 
diff --git a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/resources/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/build-info.properties b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/resources/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/build-info.properties
index 877f2f57ead..6c4b010d02f 100644
--- a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/resources/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/build-info.properties
+++ b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/resources/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/build-info.properties
@@ -3,3 +3,4 @@ build.artifact=acme
 build.name=acme
 build.version=1.0.1-SNAPSHOT
 build.time=2016-03-04T10:42:00.000Z
+build.charset=test™
diff --git a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/resources/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/git.properties b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/resources/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/git.properties
index 7d930874325..5d3f26a1d9e 100644
--- a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/resources/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/git.properties
+++ b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/resources/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/info/git.properties
@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@ git.commit.user.email=john@example.com
 git.commit.id=f95038ec09e29d8f91982fd1cbcc0f3b131b1d0a
 git.commit.user.name=John Smith
 git.commit.time=2016-03-03T10\:02\:00+0100
-git.commit.unicode=中文
+git.commit.charset=test™
diff --git a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/src/main/asciidoc/appendix-application-properties.adoc b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/src/main/asciidoc/appendix-application-properties.adoc
index ea5b8de2daf..68ecfde0cba 100644
--- a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/src/main/asciidoc/appendix-application-properties.adoc
+++ b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/src/main/asciidoc/appendix-application-properties.adoc
@@ -98,7 +98,9 @@ content into your application. Rather, pick only the properties that you need.
 	spring.hazelcast.config= # The location of the configuration file to use to initialize Hazelcast.
 
 	# PROJECT INFORMATION ({sc-spring-boot-autoconfigure}/info/ProjectInfoProperties.{sc-ext}[ProjectInfoProperties])
+	spring.info.build.encoding=UTF-8 # File encoding.
 	spring.info.build.location=classpath:META-INF/build-info.properties # Location of the generated build-info.properties file.
+	spring.info.git.encoding=UTF-8 # File encoding.
 	spring.info.git.location=classpath:git.properties # Location of the generated git.properties file.
 
 	# JMX