Would you buy a house when check is likely to get a vast new build development immediately behind it?

[Ebayaholic]

Hi I'm due to exchange contracts on a house with countryside views imminently, however planning permission has just been applied for for a 1000 home new build development. There will be houses at the bottom of my garden whereas currently there are farmers fields. We haven't got much deposit so any price reduction could leave us in negative equity. Purchase price is £435,000. Would you be bothered? Lots more traffic on the roads, too.

*there, not check

Nope. Wouldn’t touch it with a proverbial barge pole. Sorry.

I would definitely not buy this house, more noise and traffic, less school places, doctors appointments, good chance of house being devalued.

No way. I bought a house opposite some student accommodation that was being modernised/turned into flats. That was bad enough! The never ending noise, everything being covered in dust, having to have the windows shut. It went on seemingly forever. A whole new load of buildings going up is going to be far, far worse.

No, too much uncertainty, you don't even know how much you'll be overlooked once they're up. Plus at least a year or two of noise and dust daily.

That's awful! Thank goodness it happened before you'd exchanged.

Loads of estates are going up where I live, especially on lovely quiet country roads, and I feel really sorry for the original houses.

No, I bought my house 2 years ago, semi rural with fields at the back. There's now plans to build 6000 houses at the back of mine/on the fields surrounding my road. The roads are crap as it is. There's no school places. You can't get a doctors appointment etc. It'll be so much worse when more houses are built. I wouldn't have bought if I'd known in advance.

No. Not a chance.

Ooh, that would put me off tbh. Lack of views, noise of building and all the traffic/strain on local resources from extra houses.

I did exactly this 3.5 years ago. The open fields and woodland gave us an amazing view for 1.5 years and then the builders moved in. We are halfway through a 4 year construction- the deliveries, the dust, being blocked in with lorries backed up on our road have all been horrific.

The worst thing has been the daily breaching of planning restrictions- the site is supposed to start work at 8 but the builders arrive as early as possible and create noise. The dust is supposed to be controlled by water dousing but it just doesn't happen. Deliveries should be restricted but they're not- my neighbour counted 126 heavy lorry movements in our small quiet street one day. The council isn't interested, presumably because they will benefit financially with all the additional council tax.

Our house has gone down in value, and some of my neighbours are trapped in homes that won't sell until the construction is over. Sorry to paint a bleak picture.

That is the reason I have never bought a house with fields close by, or any kind of greenbelt. It might be fine when you buy but you never know what will happen and if peace and quiet and views matter to you then it isn't worth it.

It was bad enough living next to people with a field and part of a farm who sold part of the land to a developer to build just one house, to live in. The thefts, heavy traffic along the quiet lane, and noise was a worry, no sleeping in for 2 years, and the building caused the front garden next door to flood, it was completely under water at times.

Even living next to a field wasn't quiet, testing bikes, playing on small tractors, children on mini mopeds. Never again unless I also owned the land around the house.

No

But buying in town is no guarantee either
I’ve lived in my house 43 years
To the right of me the long gardens of 6 houses were packaged together and sold as one lot for 7 detached houses
That was over 30 years ago
To the left was a plant nursery...now home to two houses and a bungalow..that was about 25 years ago

At the bottom of our feeder street opposite the school was another plant nursery, 4 blocks of flats went on that

At the top of the feeder street was a garage and a block of offices...countless houses now on those.
If the massive school field gets carved up...that’s it game over

This has happened to us! 3,000 homes are being build around us in the next couple of years. 🙄

So we've decided that instead of trying to sell our house, we will sell to the developer and move on.

No chance would I buy it.

No chance would I be buying that

It's happening a lot around here and local news covering all the disruption, noise and even damage to gardens the construction behind them is creating

No. Don't buy it. It's my biggest fear. There have been a few different developments built near us. They are all ugly, badly built with no infrastructure. One has 3000 homes and no shop or any other kind of amenity. Absolutely ridiculous. And yet we got turned down for planning permission to extend our kitchen, using local stone and with no neighbours!

No chance. Construction work on that scale will take years.

Noise, dust, traffic, plant, parking issues, value of the house dropping, views being affected - it's a massive unknown. If its a national house builder that have been granted permission, you'll be up against serious lawyers who will not budge an inch on your issues with the site.

They have, I think, 5 years to get the work started before planning permission lapses so you know it has to start in that time frame.

Who is the developer?

Run like your hair is on fire!

For me it depends what the planning permission and further s.106 requirements are. are they going to install new roads / bus routes/ facilities/ landscaping/ school / docs or funding towards these being provided locally. Not all development is bad if it actually ends up creating a community, but i appreciate this important "placemaking " aspect is often overlooked by developers and councils.

Sorry, I see its just been applied for, not yet granted. Who is the developer? What's the local sentiment like? When was it applied for?

Have any previous applications been refused? On what basis? Is this a precursor to a real application for 500 houses to make them look more reasonable at a later date no

DON'T, really don't. Youll have a house full of filth for years as they build and that's a lot of money for something you're not happy with that you can never improve.

I wouldn’t take the chance.

Planning permission on that scale - 1,000 houses - will already have been discussed informally. The developer will be pretty confident of getting it approved. I’d imagine your vendor also knew something was likely to happen, sorry. They’re selling up before they get shafted.

As well as the loss of view and disruption, your house price will go down. If you can’t afford negative equity move on and thank your lucky stars it’s come up befire exchange. Sorry.

You can look at this two ways. Firstly, if you need a house 🏡 n that location and of that size, then this information will give you great bargaining power. If the asking price is £400+K then I would expect a minimum 20% reduction. If you can put up with a couple of years disruption whilst the building is taking place, and don't mind being overlooked then go for it!
However, if peace and quiet, plus open views are an absolute requirement, then it's not the house for you. But you need to understand that in the area you're looking, at your price bracket, that may now not exist!

My mum and dad are in your vendor's position, luckily it's not a move for work or anything, they just want to downsize so can wait a couple of years until the development is completed. Their opinion is they won't get a buyer due to the unknown element: once the houses are finished a buyer will be able to judge for themselves.

Developers are clever: there are lots of 3 storey houses and work arounds for planning permission granted based on laws around car parking spaces (eg a 3 bed only needs 1 parking space so houses are sold as 3 + office as a 4 bed would need an extra drive space). 250 houses would need amenities provided but 248 classes as a small development so... put two 'small developments' next to each other.

It's a shit situation but people need houses.

For me it would be the on going disruption that would be the problem. No vista is guaranteed but as above, the permitted development might well expand once they've got the initial application through.