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

You’ve led a very sheltered life if this kind of house is a surprise to you OP! Many, many homes are like this 🤦‍♀️

I suppose it depends on the area. Look up the crime rate. As others have said, being less secluded may be safer?

We don’t have houses like that near me and it would probably feel quite exposed for a while. If I was desperate to get on the housing ladder I would consider it.

Oh and my house was built in the 80s, quite easy to insulate!

I live in a village. Loads of such houses here. We are in the south.
I’m just not understanding how people need to explain what they are.

This thread reminds me of the Katherine Tate posh family!

I lived in one and didn't want net curtains as it was quite dark anyway. Occasionally people would look through the window. I used to wave at them and they quickly went away.

I walked past one of these once and saw my colleague ironing in his pants. You have to either use nets, voiles or shutters. Shutters make your home dark. You have to choose your house according to your budget but I would not choose a house that you step out onto the pavement through choice.

It's totally fine to have one of your red-line requirements to be that the front door doesn't open straight onto the public pavement. No one can force you to buy a property you don't want.

Whether it's actually unsafe depends on the area. The same layout in a sleepy town or little village, or in a posh expensive part of London, might be perfectly safe.

I currently live in a detached house with a large driveway and front garden, set right back off the road (and at an angle, so the front door doesn't even face the road).

However, I would really prefer to live in the nearby small, medieval cathedral city, where to live within the city walls (and therefore have the easy access to the restaurants, shops, bars, theatre etc I'd like) would mean buying one of the houses you're so worried about, OP. They cost a small fortune and are highly desirable!

DH came home early from work once and disturbed a burglar in the act of rummaging through our house. It still took the police 3 hours to turn up. I'm not sure 'someone looked through my window then tried the door handle but it was locked' would have got much of a response.

OP ee used to live in one of these no front garden/path/drive places, in an area of Bedford that was all built as factory workers houses, so cookie-cutter/identical terraces, front doors opening onto the street. People just used Yale locks and net curtains or blinds. I suspect the main issue here is just that it's not what you're used to. If anything we've had more break ins and attempted break ins in our current neighbourhood, not because the crime rate here is higher but because people use front hedges and garden walls to shield them while they're trying to force doors open. You can't do that on a flat-fronted terrace (especially if the neighbours are nosy).

I’ve never lived in a house without a front garden, but I do hate net curtains - and people walking past do tend to glance in, especially if the light is on and the main curtains aren’t closed, so I got some window cling to partially obscure the lower half of the windows. It’s on Amazon, really easy to apply (it’s not sticky-backed - you just apply with water and a wee drop of fairy liquid) and does the job really well.

I lived in a terraced street house for a few years. Northern town, full of them. It was never a problem. I had net curtains and nobody really looked in.
This was back in the late 80s/early 90s when their wasnt the same crime rates as nowadays .

Your description makes it seem like an oddity when in fact these are many people’s homes throughout UK. Having said all that, I understand your point. I think you need to get a bit more facts about perceived safety and actual safety. If someone was fallowing you, I’m not sure a front garden would necessarily save you, or that larger houses hidden from street view are less likely to get burgeled! I lived in a house direct on street and I knew my neighbours, there was always lots of lights on and a bit of bustle so it felt very safe to me. If you want a house in London I’d imagine any other options will be limited within a presumable budget. So perhaps better to acquiesce to the idea or ask agents if anything else available. (Gated new builds?)

OP - it is very common and in many places will be the lower end of the market. I'd reframe things a bit - you live in London, have a good salary and want to buy. You're buying as a single woman - safety is a key consideration, that's perfectly sensible.

I'd see what your budget buys in various permutations - what does a house set further back cost, v this type? What about if you move out to the next zone/tube stop? What about a flat (not with a concierge, just a low rise block with manageable service charges)? How is street lighting, proximity to the tube and high street in each of the above? Safety isn't a one-size-fits-all.

I have to say, my personal fear w/housing is actually housing with a dark/dense front garden or something set back from the road - I think it would be easier for someone to hide there in wait (sorry). When we bought our house I installed a floodlight with a sensor, and a Ring.

Exactly! Reading this thread makes me feel like I’m in some sort of parallel universe, with people who have no idea how millions of others live.

@MiniPantherOwner ha ha. Try living in a flat like I do! The sheer horror of gasp "only being able to afford a flat" that often gets expressed on these threads.

To be clearer it’s a house without a driveway nor front garden, as in the doorstep is the pavement.
You mean like the old terraced houses, like the ones in Coronation Street. If so there's millions of them!

Im from a northern town and they are quite normal there! The first house I bought by myself was one of these. The front door went straight into the living room. I got a vestibule built to give a bit of distance from pavement to room, mainly to conserve heat if I had to open the door in winter.

I had diamond leded windows and a frilly met curtain so that gave privacy. These days there are more window dressing options that are more modern. I never felt unsafe
My house was like the one in the picture.

I hate to break ot to you OP bit if you are looking for a house in London, that is a very very common type of house. Even many expensive houses in desirable inner boroughs look like that (although yoi.may get steps up to the front door).

If you go out to the suburbs you will see more houses with small front gardens (and I mean often just enough space to stash your bins.)

If you wamt a big front garden and porch you need to go further our or have a lot of money.

It’s a bit rude to describe how millions of people live as “horrendous”.

I bought my first home in the late nineties (a 3 bedroom house,Victorian terrace), front door opening right onto the street, with my lounge window right on the street. It cost me £41,000 and the deposit was approx £2000.

it was nothing like my childhood home or house shares & a bedsit I’d rented previously.

it was the best financial decision of my life. Admittedly not London, but a suburb of the city I live in, not necessity the best area, with a pub at the bottom of the road. I put heavy voile curtains up and yes I heard people talking/walking past but wasn’t a problem with safety - if anything very safe as it was in a well lit street.

all that said, OP, you need to feel safe in your home so don’t buy a house like that if it doesn’t feel comfortable but there are literally hundreds of thousands of houses like this in the UK

I’m not privileged but I have a decent enough income from work to live alone in London. Hence starting out by renting an apartment with concierge.

It's a very normal house - but I don't like it either - although not for your reasons, but was worried about a child bolting straight out into traffic.

Mind you, even set back, I don't like living in houses where the front door opens straight into the living room - I don't like the drafts, or anyone at the door seeing straight in. I much prefer a little hall or even just a little jag (this is what I have at my old house) so people have to come in to see into the room.

If you'd avoid a ground floor apartment, then surely any house would also need to be avoided as they are all ground floor...

Our last house was like this and actually I didn't think anything of it. It was our front door and kitchen next to the pavement and we just had blinds in the kitchen that I'd shut in the evenings. It was quite rural though so there was more car traffic than foot traffic. I never felt unsafe but it was quite a nice area.

There are millions of terraced houses exactly like that all over the country. If you’re on a restricted budget it might be the only type of house you can afford. It’s never occurred to me that they’re particularly unsafe.