We are in the process of buying a house in a beautiful rural town, but have just found out that the land behind the garden has had planning permission granted for four bungalows, one of which is pretty much right behind our garden and would potentially overlook us, especially as they're set slightly higher than our garden. It's a fairly small bit of land, and these bungalows will be squeezed in, and their gardens will back right onto our boundary. These bungalows mean that we would have neighbours on all four sides, and would affect the privacy of our garden.
I think this is a deal-breaker for me, I don't want to live by a building site, and then when it's done there will be more neighbours to deal with, and the outlook is no longer a pretty wildflower meadow and trees, but four crappy red-brick bungalows. But my husband still thinks we should go for it... he makes the point that we are already getting it for a good price for the area, and it's rare to get a lovely, detached character property with off-street parking and a good sized garden in this town, most houses are ugly new build bungalows. He is right, I've been watching Rightmove for years, and with the price increases there isn't much in our price range. He also makes the point that because the garden is long and thin, and their boundary is next to our off-street parking, they wouldn't really overlook us anyway. But these bungalows will spoil our view out to the Welsh mountains.
Would you walk away? Or give it a try, seeing as it's such a small development. Could we try to renegotiate on price? We do love the house and the location is perfect, and over the last few years there's only been a handful of character, detached houses in this town that have come on the market within our price range. It's only a small development, but might still be 12 months of disruption, then a lifetime of dealing with potentially bothersome neighbours and decreased re-sale value. So frustrating!