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?

I wouldn't - it would drive me bonkers very quickly.

I lived with an ex-DP who had a flat with similar lack of parking and found myself making my plans around whether I'd be able to park or, when I did get parked, whether I would risk losing my spot.

Saying that lots of people clearly do manage but not for me.

One of the reasons we find it hard to consider moving is the fact we have two off road parking spaces. In fact we could have three if we sacrificed a little bit of the front garden.

Used to live somewhere we had to park a mile away and walk back to the house. Was a nightmare. Never again!

If you still love house negotiate really hard on the price.

Sell a car and live with one

There's no front garden? Anyway into the back? Any creative solutions? Maybe ask around. You never know?

Draw a diagram of the house and space around it - perhaps someone here might have an idea.

It's a problem of the times: all those Victorian and Edwardian terraces which were built long before widespread car use. Even some of the wealthy residents of Mayfair and Kensington have this problem, having to park their Bentleys, Rolls and Ferraris on the street.

I saw this problem get worse as I grew up: my parents moved into a London terraced house in 1980, and parking was manageable then; but it progressively got worse. We just got into a routine of parking where we could, leaving a note "car outside number 40", realised that lots of people in London had it far worse; and I've got to admit I never even thought about it when choosing a house later. They lived in that house for thirty years.

I'd say, it's the sort of house you might move into when taking your first step on the housing ladder; for many first-time buyers, it might be all they can afford.

Now, I would only consider it if I lived in a city with good public transport, and where I would be able to use a car-share scheme. I'm all in favour of cars being shared rather than owned, which might be the only step to solve this problem; but cars of this sort are simply not widespread enough if you live in a small town.

I saw this issue mentioned in a book about social stereotypes: those who have moved out of a big city, and are now newcomers to a pretty village (complaining about the church bells), saying "Leafy Fulham's not what it used to be, the parking is so awful now!"

Nope. Apart from anything else if you wanted to sell it in the future then the lack of parking will significantly curtail the number of people who will be interested in viewing.

I didn't even bother looking at places without specified parking - you can set the Rightmove filters to have this as a requirement! We'd come from somewhere where we had one allocated space but two cars. The road was bumper to bumper on both sides and I often had to park on the main road because I couldn't even get onto our street.

Nope I wouldn't buy it. I'm looking to sell mine and buy a different property now and I constantly see lovely looking houses at a reasonable price and then when you look at the street view or drive round there you see why. Parking is a nightmare.

My street has 150 houses in it each with one parking space. Nearly all the house have 2+ cars. So on an evening and weekend that's an extra 150-200 cars trying to park all up and down the streets and pavements. Luckily we were able to put a side bit of our property down to gravel and create another space but we still have one car to double park every evening.

This is us and our house.... main road, big beautiful house but parking in one of two side streets.

Main question - how often do you use your car? If daily it might start to grind. Can you use public transport? We are well located so use the car less and less and generally it has become a non issue.

It's a problem of the times: all those Victorian and Edwardian terraces which were built long before widespread car use. Even some of the wealthy residents of Mayfair and Kensington have this problem, having to park their Bentleys, Rolls and Ferraris on the street.

They used to have mews for their cars but all the mews have long been converted into flats.

Noooooo don't touch it with a very long barge pole.

Parking issues makes people's lives obsessive and miserable.
That and shared drives, just nope.

Location and parking is the most important things when buying a property, followed by everything else imo.

I wouldn’t as I know this is something that would continually annoy me. But you’re not me and you may be all someone that could live with it.

Are you laid back? Not bothered by walking a few minutes to your house in the rain with shopping/dc etc? If not I would go for it in your shoes?

Don’t
Hold out for something else
We nearly did this and it’s something I’m so glad we didn’t go through with

I wouldn't, having lived in one with limited street parking and zero private parking for years, the one criteria aside from the number of bedrooms we needed to have was that it had a driveway. Getting back from work or with heavy shopping and having to try and find a space on a different road gets really tiresome, if you have visitors as well it's a nightmare.

We moved from a house with a driveway to a beautiful house with room for one small car in the garage and the rest on road parking. We often crammed into my small car and led DH’s family estate at home to save parking, if there was a spot when I got home I’d park in it and shuffle round with DH when he got in. Was a bloody nightmare and contributed to our decision to move.

No. It will be a daily annoyance and you'll end up hating the house.

If you have children and plan to stay put, what happens when they drive?

You might get a bargain though because so many people would discount for that excellent reason!

Personally no I’d avoid. Living somewhere with terrible parking is a nightmare. I get really stressed about it every day.

I wouldn't be planning an extension; making the house bigger and still no off street parking will make any re-sale even harder.

I wouldn't do it. Our current flat (rented) has tonnes of parking spaces in a long row behind the flats and while it's a bit of a free for all, everyone always gets a space with plenty left over. It is bliss.

We've just bought a house, which we are renovating so I'm back and forth over there a few times a week. The houses are in a square set back off the main road and each house has a corresponding parking space (we're the second house from the end, so my space is second from the end iyswim). However, our neighbours have two cars and they are constantly using our space, as our house has been empty for two years so they are obviously used to it. I now have the stress of not knowing if/where I can park - we haven't even moved in yet and I hate it! There is no parking elsewhere either, the main road is on a blind corner and every spare space is taken.

I'd sell my granny for a driveway but the layout of the square doesn't allow for it.

I wouldn't buy a house without parking.

No - don’t do it. Multiple DC usually means multiple extracurricular activities which means ferrying them around in the car. Daily parking stress isn’t worth it unless you’re in central London and have little choice.

I live in a great area but the compromise is space and parking , and my parking is better than many , I've lived here 2 years and this will probably be my last year , not entirely due to parking but it's definitely a nuisance, and some days I don't bother going out as I won't get parked again

My mum brought a place with nightmare parking , I dread visiting her.

Nope, I wouldn't either. In our previous house, we couldn't use the garage (or the space outside it) as neighbours did the same and blocked us in on a daily basis. It was badly designed in the first place. Plenty of onstreet parking until the local train station started charging for the carpark and then all the commuters parked on the local roads which was hardly surprising at £8 a day.

We moved as soon as we could and can now park 5 cars if we had to ( we only have 2). We do have a shared drive but everyone respects the communal part of it so it's fine. When we had building work done, we were able to accommodate all their vans etc easily.

I cannot underestimate how stressful it was knowing that you would come home and potentially have to park up to 0.5 mile away and that you can live your life without inconveniencing anyone else

Daily parking stress isn’t worth it unless you’re in central London and have little choice.

Of course in Central London, you have far superior public transport options so less likely to need a car.

At the end of the day, the house is a bargain for someone who doesn't have a car and can live their lives on public transport. There are fewer people like that, hence a smaller market, hence the lower price.

It depends.

We did, but with 3 under 5, it was hard work when the only parking space was 300m up the road and I had 3 bags of shopping to carry. Literally had to leave shopping in the car until husband came home so I could carry a baby in a car seat and 2 toddlers.

When you need to be somewhere that's a 10 minute drive, you need to add on 5 or whatever minutes to walk up the street to collect the car.

My parents rarely stayed because they didn't like the thought of leaving their car somewhere they couldn't see it.

If we were ever having tradesman / bulky furniture delivered we had to watch the road for the precise moment cars were moved (or failing that knock on neighbours' doors to ask them to move their cars) then run out to put out cones so no-one could park there.

As much as those things are irritating, only you know how you'd cope with that. If its a compromise you're willing to make knowing this would be an out-of-budget house, without the parking issues, then go for it.

We live in a cul-de-sac where all the houses have their own drive and garage to park in. We also have visitor spaces at the end of the road. Every day there’s someone on the WhatsApp group complaining about parking! They’re annoyed people from other roads are parking, they’re annoyed there aren’t enough spaces for their guess etc etc. My neighbours household has 6 cars and they still complain if they a spot on the road as they don’t like walking 2 mins from the next road. Parking is one of those things that is always causing problems. I know I’d struggle without a space, especially if you have young dc