AIBU to buy a house with terrible parking?

[Seaandsand83]

We currently live in a 2 bed terraced and have found a fantastic 4 bed semi with big beautiful rooms, well within our price range. We'd have enough money to build an extension on the back for a really spacious Kitchen diner. However, the parking situation is terrible. There is only parking on one side of the road and it is always full. There are a few spaces about a 1 or 2 min walk way, round the corner. I know that doesn't sound far but if I have done a food shop it would mean a few trips back and forth

We are in a position to put an offer on but AIBU to buy a house which is perfect for us but with such bad parking?

Sounds like our street. To be honest it doesn't bother. I don't really drive my car Monday to Friday anyway and at the weekend or if I have luggage/shopping I just bang the hazards on and unload it outside my house. It's worth it for a lovely house.

There’s a reason it’s affordable, and if it is anything like our generously sized 4/5 bed we sold 2 years ago, it’s the shitty parking that makes living there unbearable due to neighbours bickering

We moved recently from a house with no parking to a house with space for two cars. As we drove home from a day out yesterday with two dozing kids, a boot full of shopping and in the rain DH and I both said at the same time how fantastic it was not to have to worry about whether we'd get a parking space anywhere near our house when we got home!

It sounds like such a first world problem but not having parking drove me absolutely bonkers. Having to lug bags from car to house, not wanting to leave small children alone in the house while going to get something from car, having to carry sleeping kids up the road from the car, not being able to clean car properly after said kids threw up in it (can't leave a door open or stretch a Hoover cable from the house when you're on the street). Nowhere for tradesmen, supermarkets delivery or anyone else to conveniently stop.

It's a no from me. I hope the house was much less nice on your second viewing

Depends how old your kids are - I wouldn't do it with little ones, but if they are say 8 and up it wouldn't bother me. And it depends bow many of you there are and how badly you need the space. Maybe look for a happy medium between the two?

Sounds like a total pain in the ass!

Definitely not for me no matter how lovely the house!

Bad parking wears you down on a daily basis and brings the worst out in people, so it would really put me off. Is there any scope for creating off street parking? We did that and it was a very worthwhile investment and made daily life much better.

I live in an Edwardian terrace in a very desirable area which I love. I can park but sometimes it's round the corner or in another road. On Saturdays when I come back from the supermarket I have to double park to drop off my bags before going to park elsewhere as it's near a lovely area of shios, cafes etc. It's just m busy at the weekend.

I don't for one minute regret it. It's a lovely place to live, to bring up kids and be part of a community. It's just part and parcel of living here.

When we moved to our current house, which was (stil is in fact) intended as our home til at least retirement one of my non negotiable things was that there had to be good parking, ideally with me being able to drive both in and out of the property forwards. After years of struggling to park on the road or reversing onto or off difficult drives I decided that parking had to be right in the house I intended to spend most of the rest of my adult life in. Proved to be a wise move after a neck injury made it very difficult for me to look over my shoulder for very long in fact. I would tolerate poor parking if it was somewhere that I was only planning to live short term, but not for a home I was planning to spend many years in. It could get very tedious, especially if yiu develop any medical problems or mobility issues as you get older.
It is hard when you fall in love with a house I know, but I would advise head over heart every time. We nearly made a huge mistake once, and I know how easy it is to persuade yourself that the downsides really aren't that important, but chances are they will become so with time. As it happens, some friends eventually bought our "dream" house and at first I felt really sad and quite jealous. But as time has gone on, the problems we eventually forced ourselves to see did develop and now we thank our lucky stars that we didn't end up with a nightmare!

We started out with a house with no parking and commercial properties nearby (so customers/deliveries as well).. I wouldn't take a house without offstreet parking for anything now.

Don’t do it!!
I bought a property knowing that parking might be a problem and I have regretted it every single day since.

I am currently looking at houses as am divorcing and downsizing. When asked by agents my most important thing (price already discussed) its that it has parking. I have seen some lovely houses, right price, required number of bedrooms, but no parking. There is nothing worse than traipsing home in the rain laden down with shopping, trying to wrangle a young child after a day at work because there's nowhere to park outside your home. Nope not for me, I need parking.

I loved my old house, but when I met DH I had to sell it as he hated it - and one of the reason was the lack of parking. It's all subjective - I never minded parking round the corner if I had to, whereas he likes a drive to tinker and clean cars on. I was there 4 years and happy as Larry, but it was before the DCs (maybe with buggies and toddlers etc I would have been more bothered?)

My view would be go for it - but only you and your family can really judge how much you'll mind.

We also live on a road with terrible parking but it’s a convenient location and to get parked then when l lived in London. You do get used to it. Property buying is one big trade off and it’s very rare to get everything perfect with a property. Compromises have to be made

I think the main thing to take from this thread, OP, is the number of people who would not consider buying this property, which heavily outweighs the number of people going for it.

If this thread is at all representative of people in general, then you'd have a hard time of it selling the place on when you get sick of the situation! So that's another very goo reason not to buy it.

I don't think that's true Thumbwitches. Our road has difficult parking but is 'desirable' and houses go like hotcakes, and for stupid money, when they come up for sale. It all depends on the local area - plenty of people are up for living in Victorian terraces near city centres, good transport links and posh shops, parking or no!

It would be a definite no for me I’m afraid. The stress of wondering if I get a parking space would wear me out.

You always have to sacrifice something for space. I would.
My current house has a much smaller garden than I would like but I could never have afforded such a beautiful house in such a lovely village without sacrificing something, and there is lovely countryside on my doorstep to walk in.

Yes, it must to a large extent be about expectations. The houses round here are all Victorian terraces of varying sizes, from cute to massive. Some are worth £2m plus. None have drives. We have resident parking schemes which make a big difference to ease of getting a place, but lots of people vote against them, so parking can't be that much of a bind for people. A lot of people use car schemes like drive now which you find parked in the streets round about. My mil always comments on parking and asks if we would turn our front garden into a drive (so we would be staring out of the window at a car). I've always thought her preoccupation was bizarre because i have honestly never heard anyone else mention it, but clearly i am the odd one! Mind you i overhear a lot more conversations about cars generally when i leave London.

We have resident parking schemes which make a big difference to ease of getting a place, but lots of people vote against them, so parking can't be that much of a bind for people.

People vote against them for many different reasons. You also have to remember that non-driving households also have a vote and residents parking only may make their life more difficult/expensive, i.e. having to buy a guest permit for their guests, reluctance/higher prices of tradesmen who have to pay for permits etc.

We have some residents only areas in our town and they're pretty unpopular with the residents because they still can't get a space close to their house despite paying for the permit because there are simply too many homes with too many cars in the area - residents permits may restrict "outsiders" but that only works if "outsiders" are the problem, i.e. if you're close to a hospital or town centre. If the parking issues are down to too many cars owned by the residents, then resident only parking isn't going to help!

Mind you i overhear a lot more conversations about cars generally when i leave London.

That's obvious though isn't it? London has exceptionally good public transport so there's less "need" for people to have one car, let alone one each. When you get into the regions, public transport is often pretty crap so people need cars.

Don’t do it!!

You will REALLY regret it. It takes the shine off any house, no matter how nice it is. You end up putting off going out because you might not get a space when you get back, cant do shops with more than a couple of heavy bags. It wears you down. Then you get the rage at people parking where they shouldn’t. I cant stress how much of a right royal PITA it is.

Yes, i agree with both those points, but here i have noticed a big difference when they are introduced so there must be a fair number of outsiders.

And i know it's obvious that people use cars more when you are in areas outside London. What i am getting at i suppose is that in London, where public transport is much more reliable, car ownership and parking etc seems to be less of a "thing" - it seems to be almost a status thing to be able to park outside your home- that has. been hinted at upthread when people have talked about what they expect if they buy an expensive, "forever" home.

As has been pointed out, even the best public transport/car ownership schemes etc don't negate the last few mins of walking home with kids and shopping but I know quite a lot of people much more affluent than me that don't own cars, though they do hire them quite often. Actually quite a lot of them aren't British, come to think of it. Maybe that affects cultural expectations too.

Does the property have a front garden you can create parking on? apply to council for kerb to be dropped and double yellows put down, will cost but problem solved and no where near as much as an extension.

"I don't think that's true Thumbwitches. Our road has difficult parking but is 'desirable' and houses go like hotcakes, and for stupid money, when they come up for sale."

That might be true in YOUR area, Unusualsuspicion but the OP has already said that this house is cheaper than would be expected for the size of the house in her area, so it doesn't follow that your supposition is true in ALL areas, does it.

No no no and no