To find it hard to adjust to this kind of home?

We had a student house like that! What was worse was the front door opened into the sitting room... directly in. Every time someone popped round a gush of weed smoke would flood into the street!

My first house was like that, all the rest of the houses on the street were the same, it's very common where I live. I live in a very safe area though and only once had any issues at all. . (parcels were a pain but luckily I had lovely neighbours who took them in).

it was all I could afford, but I was very happy there, I rented it out after I moved out to live with DH and my tenant has been very happy there for 10 years.

I live in a house almost like this, front garden almost the width of my car, I'm two steps down as the road is on a slope which makes it feel better coming off the street but worse inside as you're slightly lower than the street. We have screening up on half the windows, they're Georgian style but it adds privacy. If I had sash windows I would have had shutters which I think would help too.

I am desperate to move but not because of the street, it's the light! The street is too cramped to really let the light in. View any like that in daylight.

DB and I lived in an old cottagey type terrace like this when I first moved out and it used to annoy me that people could tell from standing outside on the street whether we were in, lights, tv etc on, no avoiding the parents when they turned up unannounced.

It isn't unsafe at all OP.

It does feel different.

Those things are not the same.

I have gone from living in an isolated place to a house of that kind, and it does take a bit of getting used to. No wandering around in the buff with curtains open.

There is also safety in having other people around. We once observed someone loading furniture into a van at our neighbours in the night when they were on vacation. (It was her sister, but could easily have been a burglar.)

I am a superfan of this kind of house. When I lived in the netherlands, most houses went straight to the pavement, and had large windows in the front so you would regularly see into someone's room, usually with a big table/desk, flowers on it etc. It seemed normal to me. The last decade I've been a single mum of two girls in an inner city terrace and I've loved it. I know a lot of the neighbours and the kids know they could knock for anyone in an emergency. It feels really safe as it's so surrounded by people.

I'm now about to move to a bigger house with a front garden / side entry and am, opposite to you, worried about safety. I've had the front garden cut down and wish the door was on the front.

If I was a criminal / weirdo I'd certainly prefer houses that were more secluded.

I wonder if there's something going on OP with your feelings in general about not wanting to live alone. Craving the safety of your parents, worrying about access. Could you stretch to a 2 bed and have a lodger/housemate?

Honestly some of them are in lovely areas and so beautiful. For downsizing and retirement they’re ideal.

People staring in with their noses pressed up against the window is rare I should think. I have lived in houses like these in a city several times without any problems. A Ring doorbell can help if you’re worried and a secure lockbox for parcels is another option. Otherwise you’ll have to move to a cheaper area to buy the house you feel secure in.

Op are you born and raised in the uk? These sort of houses exist in pretty much every city. In terms of safety, it’s entirely area dependant like with most houses check the crime stats. Some of these terraced houses at pavement level in a leafy area of London would be close to a million but then for example in a rundown part of Liverpool wouldn’t be anywhere near as expensive.

Houses with drives in a high crime rate area would probably encounter similar levels of issue to be fair.

Give me a good old terraced house in any part of the country over a flat with concierge.

Neighbours walking past my front door? No problem.
Neighbours stomping about upstairs and having to share a front door? No thanks.

You mean a terraced house, which are perfectly normal and safe over a great deal of the country.

Get a grip.

Houses with driveways and front gardens are for rich people, especially in London.

The fact that your parents have that and that you are renting a flat with a concierge and looking at any kind of house in central London would indicate that contrary to your protestations, you are indeed very privileged.

If you can afford to buy in London, you can afford a very nice house indeed with as big a driveway as you want outside the South East.

How do you think all the other people who can't afford big houses with sweeping driveways are doing?

Quite. Still in my 2-bed terraced starter home here, as can't afford anything else! But it's mine, and it's home, and I am lucky to have it

Reflecting back to my childhood the only people I knew who didn’t live in houses like this and had gardens were my relatives that lived in council houses, they all had beautiful gardens, paths etc but the goal was to be able to buy their own houses, some did and “upgraded” to terrace houses like these.

When DH and I moved and bought our first home 10 years ago we looked at 2 houses 1 day a beautiful corner house with front garden and an absolutely huge back gardens, the house had an annex with built in granny flat, huge bedrooms and was going cheap as a previous owners had exchanged it for a smaller new build and the property company wanted shot of it, but nothing needed doing to it except a change of paint and decor. We then saw our home, Edwardian terrace with a tiny garden ( literally 3 steps to the front door), we are on the corner, our neighbours at the side of us are all flat fronted terraces like the houses I grew up in. We fell in love with the terrace houses immediately even though it needed so much work. I love terrace houses they have so much character and history.

In the market town I live in there are at lease 4 new build estates, houses on these estates can be on the market for ages but guaranteed a terrace house goes up for sale it’s snapped up immediately.

The only issue I’ve found with my terraced house is that the net curtains and blinds got trashed because the cat objected to her view of the street being blocked. I compromised with the cat and the new blinds only get lowered to 6 inches above the window ledge so she has unimpeded access.

Of course that means I get lots of comments on the theme of “look a cat” as she surveys her kingdom/naps in the sun.

There are also houses like this that sell for well over a million pounds each.

If you personally don’t feel safe then don’t buy that particular house……sorted!

Things that aren’t familiar seem scarier.

A driveway with bushes: lurking and hiding
A front door to an apartment block: lurking and hiding and no one is looking out of their windows into the corridor…
Door on to the street: you can be in in a trice, and the neighbours are all close enough to hear you yell.

Actually millions of us live perfectly safely and normally in all these different set ups.

Such terraced houses are also very common in more affluent parts of the country.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/158445467#/?channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/166570457#/media?id=media0&ref=photoCollage&channel=RES_BUY

Not many people can afford these homes.

We live in Victorian terrace in London like this, although there's a big front step so that gives a bit of distance from the pavement. It's very common in Camden and Islington (often highly desirable and priced above Mansion tax rates, definitely not a starter home!). I'd always lived in flats before, and I agree it feels intrusive and less than ideal. We have shutters in our living room which we keep closed, so people can't look in (there are French doors at the back of the room which allows lots of daylight in). But there is quite high footfall on the street, and people always feel the need to peer into our hall when we open the door to go in or out. There is nowhere to store a wheelie bin (we leave bin bags on our doorstep on bin day, which gets ripped open by foxes). Parcels are sent to lockers or post office, or thrown down to the basement area.
I don't feel unsafe - it's a secure front door and locks itself so it's always locked once shut. The location is great though and you don't get houses with a front garden for the same price around here. And I think it's better than being in a flat, I'm glad to be out of the leasehold system.

I suspect they are actually much safer than detached homes or houses in isolated areas because your neighbours are close by.

We lived in a 3-storey end of terrace house when our children were young. The front door was not right on the pavement, it was to the side of the house but our living room window looked right out onto the pavement. I used to love standing there with my baby watching people walk past.

If anything had happened in that house that meant I could not get to a phone, I could have shouted very loudly and one of my neighbours would have heard me.

I love the cottage-y feel of homes like this. There is a lovely row of old railway cottages where I live, the owners paint the exterior in lovely pastel colours.

Such terraced houses are very common in less affluent parts of the country and have been for years; they're all that a lot of people could/can afford. Growing up in a house with a long drive is somewhat less common.

Good advice here, though no.3 is, err, very specific 😆

Ive been reading this while sitting in my two up, two down terrace with a door opening straight onto the street, though we do have a tiny hallway rather than the front door opening into the living room, as the stairs are right opposite the front door. Plenty of these houses in the northern town where I grew up, and in the city where I live now.

My neighbour’s house is one of those that have a downstairs bathroom in the extension at the back (houses built around 1900 with outside toilets only), which I’m sure would have shocked the OP even more!

Eurgh poor people houses eh 🙄

Must be unsafe.

I have just realised (after having a grumpy Whapsapp convo with my neighbour about the gardeners clearing our drive VERY noisily this morning) that I live in a flat BUT have a fairly long drive. Living the confusing dream. No concierge though. 🙁