diff --git a/aiohttp/web_reqrep.py b/aiohttp/web_reqrep.py
index 83cd59b4e6c..b00c8c41d41 100644
--- a/aiohttp/web_reqrep.py
+++ b/aiohttp/web_reqrep.py
@@ -740,6 +740,8 @@ def body(self, body):
 
     @property
     def text(self):
+        if self._body is None:
+            return None
         return self._body.decode(self.charset or 'utf-8')
 
     @text.setter
diff --git a/tests/test_web_response.py b/tests/test_web_response.py
index 585448d40aa..3e30a5f209b 100644
--- a/tests/test_web_response.py
+++ b/tests/test_web_response.py
@@ -680,3 +680,8 @@ def test_text_in_ctor_with_content_type_header(self):
         self.assertEqual('текст'.encode('koi8-r'), resp.body)
         self.assertEqual('text/html', resp.content_type)
         self.assertEqual('koi8-r', resp.charset)
+
+    def test_text_with_empty_payload(self):
+        resp = Response(status=200)
+        self.assertEqual(resp.body, None)
+        self.assertEqual(resp.text, None)