Help! our dream house near development land

[pinkballoons90]

Hi Mumsnetters, I have a dilemma...

We've had an offer accepted on our dream house but I have just found out that the land behind it is marked for development and housebuilders are starting site inspections next week....

I would guess it would be for about 40-60 houses (no planning submitted yet). I know that unless any 'view' is owned by you or protected there's no escape from it one day potentially being developed on but this sounds like a done deal. Problem is, the house is in an amazing location close to schools, village centre, family etc and I love it (so no surprise the land is being developed on!) so I'd be gutted to pull out.

Would we be foolish to continue with this purchase? It's not just losing the view but the idea of developments etc right behind us for however many years it takes.

Please help I am so stuck!

I wouldn’t.

I would

40-60 houses? Nah the noise alone would make me pull out. It'll go on for years.

If housebuilders are doing site inspections how is there no planning in place? What are they inspecting.

It depends on how the road layout would be, you'll need to accept short term disruption while they're building of course if you went ahead.

Depends on whether you can put up with the noise and the dust in the air, and whether the house was priced to allow for this - if the owners haven’t mentioned it I would be asking the estate agent to reprice with this factored in. It will be 3 years approximately of disruption

If the development goes ahead would you still call it your dream home? If not, then don't buy.

If you are paying for the premium of a nice view and privacy then hell no. If you don't mind looking out onto a housing estate then yes. Personally I wouldn't want to carry on with the purchase.

Depends on the price and the views that would be lost?

This is not your dream house. Pull out. My entire town is being developed into a surburban hellhole and it’s no fun living next door to the mouth of hell. Mud, noise, traffic, change of neighbourhood character, established residents moving out and the whole community is nothing like it once was. Maybe even of your new house decreases because now you’re surrounded by 21st century brick boxes with inadequate parking instead of nice fields.

Just no.

It depends just how close it is, the length of your garden etc as well as how close the access to the site is. To be honest this is probably why it's on the market. But building sites start early and fall silent by late afternoon so if you are all out all day it might not affect you too much. They seem to proceed pretty quickly here incr they get started. View - hard to say, most village/town locations with views of fields are probably vulnerable to this unless they are totally rural or in a national park or similar.

How long are you thinking of living in this house?

If long term,15 years, I’d probably go for it. If 5, I definitely wouldn’t. Living next to the houses is fine if you don’t want to be in the middle of fields. Living next to a building site is very different. Noise etc isn’t too bad due to restriction on hours, but the constant dust, impact on local roads, etc is a right pain.

Also, is it unique? Or is there a good chance of a house a couple of roads over coming up soon?

So many factors would influence my decision. What sort of house are you buying? For what price? Is it a Farmhouse/barn conversion that would depend on a rural view for value? Also what type of housing is being built. 4/5/6; bedroom detached homes that would make your area more desirable in the town differ vastly from low value smaller homes/crammed in that would attract a different sort of buyer and devalue your house. No shade to this type of housing, just addressing the OPs issue. On balance I'd still pull out. The stress and disruption aren't worth it.

It devalues what you are buying. I might buy it but at a reduction in price.

Really helpful considerations thanks everyone. Think I need to try and get some more info on what is being proposed... but at the moment I'm leaning towards pulling out which I'm gutted about 😥but at least we know now right! xx