Why buy a house with no parking if you have 3 cars

[Wineisrequired]

So parking where I live is awful. Made worse by people buying houses with no driveways or parking. So you now have extra cars and vans being parked on the side road. If you have that many vehicles why buy a house with no parking . Is it me and shall I just shut up. I know it’s not a given right to park near your house but parking miles away because new people moving in have lots of cars parked really grates on my nerves. Anyway rant over 🤣

Those in the period houses without parking could easily afford a modern build with parking but they don't want to live in them.

We looked at a lot of houses. The one we bought has plenty of big light rooms, sea views, a decent sized courtyard garden across multiple levels, room to extend and is in a quiet street in a lovely village. It ticked all our boxes and I like the fact it's stood for over 150 years, mostly unchanged. We could have afforded a new build with a double garage but the ones we looked at just didn't have the same appeal.

The only downside is on street parking but we manage. Although dh dislikes one of the neighbours a few doors down because her parking is dreadful and rather than squeezing into the smallest space available as everyone else does, she parks in the middle of spaces most other people could get 2 cars into. He's an arse about parking though.

Despite the howls from people, car ownership has actually got progressively cheaper in real terms since cars were invented

And public transport has got more expensive. Ds’s running costs are cheaper than the school bus. Even with depreciation it’s roughly equal. Not needing public transport for work and socialising makes the car cheaper even with depreciation.
I’d need a taxi to commute to work (despite working in my local hospital). My car is much cheaper. A very fancy car would be more expensive. I used to work in a city centre hospital and I could get the train (£24 a day) or drive 30 mins and get a park and ride bus (£4) so the car saved me £20 a day.

I do have a drive but now all my children have started driving, I'm looking at having to cater for 4 cars...I'm trying to find a house with a car park for a drive.

A taxi to the local hospital where my DC mostly worked and have placements is £20 each way. It’s cheaper for them to have a car.

@Sparklingbrook

No. We have 3 cars and would not buy a house with no parking. I want to be able to park when I get home, and also have somewhere for visitors to park. It could be the perfect house but having no parking would be a dealbreaker for me.

This ^ Completely agree @Wineisrequired It's batshit to buy a house with no parking if you have 3 cars.

Some people will say 'some can't afford a house with a driveway!' So then buy in a cheaper area/buy a cheaper house with a driveway!

It's always been a dealbreaker for us. We have a 4 car drive and a double garage now (stealth brag - don't care,) so can fit 6 cars on our property. But every house we have ever bought has had room for at LEAST 2 cars on the driveway.

What kind of pillock do you have to be to buy a house with no parking, when you have 3 or 4 cars? Batshit. Funny how some people can't afford a house with a driveway, but can afford to run 3 or 4 cars.

I am pretty sure it's not an extra £100K for a house with a driveway, as a pp said! I would like to see evidence of that, (I mean outside of London, where the houses are massively overpriced anyway!)

The worst kind of twatty pillock is the one who has a drive, and STILL parks on the road.

It's batshit to buy a house with no parking if you have 3 cars

It hasn't occurred to you that the cars may have been acquired after the house?

Those in the period houses without parking could easily afford a modern build with parking but they don't want to live in them.

And that's their choice.
For us having a character house close to village amenities was important. If that meant sacrificing parking then so be it 🤷🏼‍♀️

In a lot of areas, there are not exactly many options with off-street parking. Where I live in London, for example, there are streets and streets of terrace houses with no off-street parking, and many of the houses are divided into flats or HMOs, so even if each household only had one car (which is probably fairly common given public transport), there are still more cars than houses/road space. Its just a fact of live and mild inconvenience of living there.

My house cost £42000. Where are you getting a house any cheaper than that? I was only eligible for a £52000 mortgage as I am in my 50s and didn’t earn much at the time.

Do you honestly think people can just magic up money to move and buy a more expensive house out of nowhere?

I don’t pay for running my DC cars. They pay for that themselves.

I still own my house and pay for my mortgage by myself. Because they’re children and all but one have now moved out.

@Doggitydog

3 cars? Nice one, Greta is crying.

Perhaps Greta could also do something about soaring house prices, meaning that children aren't leaving home until much much later, which in turn means they need their own cars to get to work themselves.

The worst kind of twatty pillock is the one who has a drive, and STILL parks on the road. angry

Where we live - 1930s semi - we have a drive and residents’ permit parking. We have two cars and keep one on the drive and one on the road outside our house. It’s just easier than faffing about manoeuvring if someone wants to go out and their car is behind the other one.

It's batshit to buy a house with no parking if you have 3 cars.

why do you care so much, presumably you have bought a property with a big enough drive for however many cars you have?

Some people will say 'some can't afford a house with a driveway!' So then buy in a cheaper area/buy a cheaper house with a driveway!

But some people would choose location over parking ..... surely that's not difficult to understand?

A friend of ours is always trying to convince us to move as according to him we could afford a huge house with a driveway elsewhere. But I don't want to live elsewhere. I love the village I live in and to stay here we had to compromise on something.

@DynamoKev

Those in the period houses without parking could easily afford a modern build with parking but they don't want to live in them. Is this true? Even if it is, it assumes new build is available - there's not a lot going in most big cities.

In my experience this is definitely true. And there are usually many newer houses for sale for every period one.... we could have saved 20pc buying a newer house with a driveway and found something much faster ....

Some people will say 'some can't afford a house with a driveway!' So then buy in a cheaper area/buy a cheaper house with a driveway!

No, YOU move somewhere else if you aren't happy. If they are fine with their cars on the road, why should they move to get a driveway so you aren't bothered by their cars?

I assume house prices and it being a lower priorty when looking.

However strangely the estate we are on having a drive and parking doesn't seem to affect price - possibly because there is plenty of street parking.

House opposite us on the corner was bought but they had four cars and no parking - it was suddenly a bum fight for parking and bad parking made the corners suddenly dangerous. Also council took back parking control and started enforcing fines and lots of people started converting front gardens.

After a while they noticed we don't use our drive - we picked house for the four bedrooms as we don't drive at all - and when we walked past started making sarky comments . They could have bought other properties on the estate with parking - possible not all with enough for four cars but with some. They sold it again after about 18 months apparently because parking was such a pain.

There's another 1950s esate up near their old primary school with no parking for most houses but with some electric cars - they seem to trail cables over footpaths - at least in the daylight - which you have to go around.

I mean, it's pretty obvious that it's because they can't afford it. Plus often you can end up with lots of cars - for example we were always a two parent household and they always had two cars (not amazing ones) so both parents could work. When my brother and I passed our tests and got jobs we were at home for a while - so for a spell we had four cars! We could fit two of them on the drive but then the others had to park elsewhere. We all needed those cars, but our situation didn't warrant moving to a house with space for four cars.

Also, can you park YOUR cars okay? If yes, what's your problem? If no, why don't YOU move to a house that can accommodate your vehicle? I never understand these threads. The simple fact is that parking on the road is a free for all, legally, and if you're the kind of person who gets wound up about that, you need to live somewhere else! (But of course it's not that simple .. which ultimately is the answer to your question).

@IrishGirl2020

I live in London - terraced house. Very few houses on our road have off street parking and if they do it’s because they have replaced their front garden with a driveway and there’s usually only room for one car.

But it does sometimes annoy me how many houses have more than one car - living in London means we have amazing public transport so it’s hard to see why 2+ cars per family is necessary. The usual pattern is to have one big 4x4 and then a smaller runaround. Parking is usually a nightmare on our road as a result - not enough spaces for all the cars.

There are far too many cars on the roads in London as it is and I do wonder why people who want to drive everywhere buy a house on our road in the first place.

Agree

I know people who’ve got a second car simply because their kids’ Saturday am activities clash. There are so many activities within walking distance here, you’d think they’d choose one of those rather than buy a second car which gets used once a week for a child’s activity. Ridiculous

@SpongebobNoPants

But you bought a house with no off road parking and you drive? Often houses with driveways are out of people’s price range or the houses in the area they need to live to be close to family / work mean it’s impossible to have a driveway... terraced houses with small front gardens

I'm assuming that OP's family has ONE car - and new people are moving in with several.

I agree with her. Either buy a house with a drive or get rid of a car (or two). One of my neighbours (older couple with an adult son at home) has FIVE cars, and a garage they don't use as a garage because the sone has it kitted out as a gym. There is too for one car on the drive. The rest (including a van) are almost permanently parked on the road.

Ironically, they are the first ones to complain if someone is in one of "their" spots.

It's the bottom of a cul-de-sac. Without their cars there is room for visitors to turn round. However, it is rare that there is fear than 3 cars there, and when they are all there it is chaos. Bin wagon can't get down the street properly and has to back out; on Sunday an ambulance was unable to get close to the house they had been called to and had to back out; delivery vehicles often have to back out, depending on their size.; people have trouble getting off their drives . . .

8son, not sone

*room, not too

Of flip!

Even had a correction fail . . . .

@Wineisrequired

So parking where I live is awful. Made worse by people buying houses with no driveways or parking. So you now have extra cars and vans being parked on the side road. If you have that many vehicles why buy a house with no parking . Is it me and shall I just shut up. I know it’s not a given right to park near your house but parking miles away because new people moving in have lots of cars parked really grates on my nerves. Anyway rant over 🤣

Do you live on my street?

It's exactly the same for me. Neighbour has car, work van, car and weekend car.

I live in a big 3 bed Edwardian terrace on a lovely cobbled street but parking can be a pain in the bliddy arse.

Where are you able to park now? Do you have a particular reason you could appeal to your neighbour's nice side by saying you have a baby/heavy things to carry into the house and you'd really appreciate it if they'd try and leave the space next to your house where possible? You need to kill them with kindness. Because as you already know - we don't have the right to the space outside our house.

Some of my neighbours have made their front gardens a drive - is this an option?

My DH and I (no children) managed with one car for about 20 years. Our respective workplaces were very near each other, and then when I changed jobs he would drop me off at a bus stop near his work and I’d catch a bus to my workplace. It wasn’t until my ILs died and we inherited their car that we realised how much easier life was with two cars. We’ve had two ever since even though, now we are more or less retired, we don’t really need two.

We live in London zone 2. We have two parking spaces and one car. Around us, most people live in terraced houses without any parking at all. That is the price you pay for period charm in our area unless you can afford £2.5m for a detached house with driveway. We sacrificed the period charm for the parking and, for us, it's worth it to be able to park next to our front door. We do occasionally have chancers parking in our second parking space due to the parking shortage around here, but my husband blocks them in whenever he's working from home (he gets very grumpy about it) and so they don't usually try it a second time.