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Original poster

Which house would you buy?

101 replies

User112 · 15/10/2021 15:23

We want to buy a 4 bed house. Most detached houses here in our budget are on busy roads.

House A: Around £850k for about 1850 sft detached. Needs a bit of work and new bathrooms. Backs on to a busy road.

House B: £750k for a 2000sft detached. But the road connects two busy roads. There is a bit of traffic with the bus stop diagonally opposite the house. Very small garden but backs on to a public park.

House C: The other day we drove past a quiet neighbourhood and there was a 4 bed semi for sale. It’s at £570k and needs a full refurb. It’s 2000sft and the room sizes are good too. One more problem is it has a north facing garden and the front garden is really small.

I want to go with the semi (option c) and slowly get work done. Can buy a second buy-to-let with the money we save. DH wants to wait for a suitable detached to come to the market.

Which option would you chose?

OP posts:
StoneofDestiny · 15/10/2021 20:54

I'd wait and avoid a semi. I'd stick out for south facing.

NameChangeWithACold · 15/10/2021 20:58

I couldn't afford any! Smile oh first world problems!! Grin

Original poster
User112 · 15/10/2021 21:08

Lots of replies!! Thanks all! ❤️

House C’s back garden is not big. 30 feet I think. It’s quite wide. It’s a corner plot with road on the east. They have a lot of play equipment and a log cabin there. Not many plants.

House B : Garden is tiny. 20-25 ft but wide. It’s the third house after turning from a busy A road into a residential street. Iykwim !
The park seems nice, I have to find out re anti-social behaviour. Good point! Thank you.

House A : the garden is about 50ft and backs on to a 40 speed road

I really like house C. It can be done up to our tastes slowly. North facing garden - is that a deal breaker ?? We don’t do a lot of gardening, but would really like some plants and greenery. Are north facing gardens gloomy? It’s hard to tell now because they have a lot of play equipment.

OP posts:
mindutopia · 15/10/2021 21:23

I would wait for something you love and are sure about and it's not such a weird gamble. That said (we obviously do not live where you live, we're in the south west), we have just had an offer accepted on a similar sized house but with 5 bedrooms, two outbuildings for conversions (one with planning) and 5 acres for 820K. I love it. It's an absolutely beautiful house and there was no doubt about it when we put in an offer. If you aren't sure, wait for when you are. The market isn't for people who aren't 100% right now.

SophieJo · 15/10/2021 21:24

Keep looking!

89redballoons · 15/10/2021 21:28

I have a house with a NE facing garden AND it's on a busy road. I absolutely love my house, but it is in a brilliant area and we have lovely neighbours. Also my budget was less than half of OP's, so there's that!

We have plenty growing in our garden. Most of it is laid to lawn, which does fine, but I've put some raised beds in at the far end of the garden which does get the sun. One of these has herbs in it and there are various flowering shrubs and flowers for cutting in the others. I have a shade-tolerant variety of clematis growing up the north-facing wall of the shed. I'm thinking about training an apple tree against the West-facing fence too. I grew tomatoes there this summer and we got lots of good fruit.

We get lovely evening sunshine at the front of the house where our living room is.

Lightswitch123 · 15/10/2021 21:29

A busy road would upset me way way more than a North facing garden

LadyTiredWinterBottom2 · 15/10/2021 21:30

I get sun all day in the bottom of my ne facing garden. DH and kids can sit in the shade while l bask like a lizard. Ideal!

Comedycook · 15/10/2021 21:32

I hate my north facing garden... never again

Pinkspecs · 15/10/2021 21:34

I wouldn't buy any of them.
Something else will probably come up keep looking.

Ilovemycar77 · 15/10/2021 21:36

I have also lived in a house with a north facing garden, it was small on a new build estate…. Nothing grew, not even the grass!! It was a mud pit most of the year, we ended up paving it and it then went green!
Also the roof went green and back of the house suffered with damp all the time!
Seriously a north facing garden would be a deal breaker for me, so depressing!

Bootikin · 15/10/2021 21:49

Lived for two years in a house with a north facing back garden, never again! It was a big point on our list when purchasing again. Our current house faces west to the rear. So we get lovely morning sun in the front and fron lunchtime the rear of the house has the sun coming in. It’s so bright and cheerful, its not just the use of the garde, it’s how the sun enters the rooms. The north facing rooms get a cold blue grey light, the east / west / south facing rooms have a golden light. It’s really not a garden issue, it affects the house so much in Northern Europe.

As a secondary issue, I would never live in a semi or terrace again, detached all the way now.

As for your choice - I would wait. None of the properties you’ve outlined sound that good and its tons of money to buy plus the stamp duty. The market will cool over winter, people will calm down, you will have more choice.

Good luck, it’s a big decision.

Ireolu · 15/10/2021 21:57

Keep looking. Would have gone house c if it wasn't a north facing garden. Rented a house with this once. Hated it.

StrongLegs · 15/10/2021 22:10

If you are in a very hot place then a north facing garden might be nice and cool in summer.

I'm not sure I would like a semi-detatched house but I like to play musical instruments loudly, slowly and sometimes also slight flat, so for us a detached house was the thing. :-)

puddlebubble · 16/10/2021 01:28

are you rushed? wait a little longer, you'll see your place in February maybe. Don't go near busy roads and pull him around to cheaper and a bit of a do-up house.

merrymelody · 16/10/2021 01:33

Another problem with busy roads is the amount of dust and dirt they create.

AmberLynn1536 · 16/10/2021 01:41

@LeavesOffTheCactus

How big is the north facing garden? My parents have a n facing garden that is approx 60-80ft long and raised approx 4 foot higher than house level and the rear half is absolutely always in sun, so you can’t say that a north facing garden will always be shady and mossy.
Agree, north facing gardens if they are big enough are lovely, the best of both worlds, sunny areas and nice shady spots for when it gets too hot. I would never discount a house with a north facing garden, it really depends on the size and the buildings surrounding it, to say they are all dark and dank is wrong.
k1233 · 16/10/2021 02:09

Don't underestimate how wearing constant traffic noise is.

I would have said this too until I lived next door to mongrel, non stop barking dogs.

I moved from an otherwise quiet cul de sac to a 4 lane road, next to a school. The peace is cathartic. School traffic can't park on the road, so that's also fantastic. Obviously there's peak times but traffic flows well. You really don't hear much from inside, even with the back doors open . Given the summer heat, doors and windows are closed for aircon then.

When I first moved on there were hooning issues - at a guess going 100km/h in a 60 zone, so well over the limit. A few calls to the police for radar traps and I'd say those drivers lost their licences pretty quickly as it stopped. If it starts up again, there's an online page to complain and that does the job to stop it again.

Springplanting · 16/10/2021 02:24

none of them. Also, i'm not convinced you really want C. Keep looking.

SimonedeBeauvoirscat · 16/10/2021 02:35

So many more questions need to be answered.

  • do you need to move soon or is this an optional move?
  • are other aspects of the area relevant eg schools, access to shops, public transport, family etc
  • do you have the appetite / willpower / sheer bloody mindedness to do a full refurb, while living in it and dealing with the current situation in terms of long waits for construction workers, shortages of materials, spiralling prices etc? Do you feel confident to project manage that, in addition to whatever other commitments you have?
  • do the houses near busy roads have double glazing, how noisy is it inside? How noisy is it in the garden? Are you garden people (ie basically living outside for about six months of the year)?

You don’t have to answer all of these but perhaps it will help you to find a direction if you both consider them.

SimonedeBeauvoirscat · 16/10/2021 02:37

Oh yes and what is your local climate? A north facing garden in Kent is totally different to a north facing garden in Aberdeen!

1forAll74 · 16/10/2021 03:17

None of those. I like to live in a quiet area,with no sight of a busy road and hardly any neighbours, but must have a very decent sized garden,

Original poster
User112 · 16/10/2021 07:27

Thanks again everyone. ❤️

We are not rushed. But you know what it’s like once you decide to move !! We live in a semi now and absolutely no problem. Why do some people hate semis so much? We perhaps got lucky with our neighbours.

Regarding refurbishment, we’ll be keeping this property. So we can get the work done before moving.

Is there a huge skilled trades/material shortage right now? I looked on wicked/BQ/howdens etc, they seem to have stock.

OP posts:
hotmeatymilk · 16/10/2021 10:34

Is there a huge skilled trades/material shortage right now? I looked on wicked/BQ/howdens etc, they seem to have stock.
Prices have rocketed on materials – combination of Brexit, Covid and the Suez blockage. Plaster in particular was like gold dust for a while, postcrete, sundries type stuff; when we had a fence done recently it took twice as long as predicted because our landscaper was having to go to multiple places to source materials, and parts don’t match. It may have calmed down but the prices have stayed high. And Brexit and Covid – and the climate crisis and energy supply crisis – are still in play so I’d fully expect supply problems to continue, given factory closures due to energy costs, for instance.

Good trades are booked up hugely far in advance.

HarrisonStickle · 16/10/2021 11:16

There was a shortage of cement partly due to HS2 using a lot.

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