To pull out of house purchase as new development being built 300 metres away

[Rumblestrips]

Name changed for this. I’m about £3k into a house purchase (fees plus survey, solicitors) and just happened to google new housing developments near me and was gutted to learn that an already in progress 1800 home development will extend within the next five years to within 300m of the house I’m buying.

In between the side of me and the development will be eight existing houses and a narrow lane and a high hedgerow (I don’t know if the hedge will remain). The development will be built in the field behind the hedge. In front of me is the same narrow road and an existing row of houses and the development will extend into the field behind these houses. I don’t know if this will form enough of a buffer between me and the new houses.

I am obviously kicking myself that I didn’t find this out sooner before paying for solicitors but glad to have discovered it before any exchange of contracts.

According to planning documents that I’ve found online, there will be a new road built to serve the development. It’s not clear whether the lane running outside my house will have an access road onto this new road. There will be a new roundabout built about 1km away. A new primary school is currently under construction a good distance away.

I am potentially willing to walk away despite being this far through the process. I am not bothered about inconvenience from the construction process as that won’t last forever. I am worried about the impact that the development may have on the tone and character of the local area, which is a village. I am worried about the increased traffic and congestion in the area even though the development will have its own road. I don’t like the sound of the new roundabout as that is very urbanising.

Things which make the decision difficult are that my child attends the local school, it’s a great location for my job and I love the existing area. A couple of the houses which will be closer to the development than me were bought at least two years after the planning permission was granted. So either those buyers didn’t know, or weren’t bothered. Maybe I should knock on doors and ask.

I’m not sure whether to pull out or not. I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water and miss out on a house in an area that ticks so many boxes. But I don’t know if I will like being close to a new housing development as the place may lose its rural feel.

You could be describing my village. The construction is about half way through.

Our village didn’t really have a rural feel though. Having fields around a village doesn’t make it rural. Having a farming community at the heart of a village makes it rural (that’s the next village over).

The roundabout has actually been great at slowing traffic. I’m one house and a road away from the development, and don’t really notice it, but the houses adjacent to a different side of the development (the downhill side) have experienced flooding issues since the construction.

Im really surprised that we haven’t noticed more road traffic, but the dog walking routes are busier.

we did notice that the developers took eff all care of hedgerows. Ripped up and replaced with fences and manicured landscaping.

Yes, I’m a bit confused as to why a roundabout 1km away will ruins the village’s, well, villagey feel.

It all sounds a bit NIMBY to me.

Is is really 1800 homes? That is an absolutely MASSIVE development. How many houses are there currently in the village? What will this new development mean in terms of a percentage increase of homes?

What about if you pull out
my son has the insurance and originally his sellers said they would move out ( they own a house next door that they are doing up ) or break the chain if there is an issue with their onward purchase

now there is is issue and they don’t want to move out / break the chain and my son is thinking of pulling out as he didn’t want to be in a chain
I don’t think his insurance will cover him for this

@VeronicasCloset I'm a property lawyer and that's totally incorrect

Really? Please tell me which part of the CON29 reveals planning applications for adjoining properties?

I wouldn't buy it

As pp said - check the online planning application(s) there will be site plans and impact statements as well as elevations and renderings to give you an idea of how the thing will look.

However as pp have also said bear in mind that anything that looks expensive (for the developer) may well be omitted!

If there's no access between the new houses and your road, and the new estate keeps the ancient hedgerow, then I think you'll be fine. What you will need to do is keep an eye on that hedge, see if there's any tree group or rural access group that monitor old hedges and trees, as the developers are likely to just chop it down as quickly as they can, as this makes development of the site easier without having to navigate existing - this happened to a swathe of trees with a TPO when an estate was built, they just cleared half of them one morning before the council manged to come out and stop them. Meant they manged to get planning for an additional 3 houses.

What you'll likely find is that the new houses will be highly priced, the village will be more viable for amenities (pubs, shops, schools, buses etc). My best friend lives in the far end of a road that was closed before a similar sized development was built - so she lives in the 'countrified' end of the road, there's a section where it's closed to traffic but remains a footpath, and it then continues as a different named road beyond. Later, about 8 years ago, a further 600 estate was built on the other side of the road/footpath to the first estate. House prices on this estate were very high as it's countryside beyond and very desirable school/transport. This has meant the 'country' end of the old road has become 'the' road to live on in the area, and house prices have doubled whereas the first estate's houses have only gone up by half as much in that time.

YANBU.

It’s not only the fact it’s a huge development, it’ll be

• the dirt and dust that covers your car/house/garden for the next year+
• the grit and debris on the road that ends up damaging your tyres (and yes they are meant to clean the roads but they won’t do it every day)
• the eyesore of a new development
• the increased strain on local resources and removal of the ‘community’

Consider the £3K to be a timely reminder to thoroughly research an area before you buy. Better £3K now than utter misery later.

Where I live you would be hard pushed to find anywhere without a large development , new ones are announce every week . If not now, it's likely to happen in the near future . It would be less upsetting if any of them were truly affordable .

Are there many houses in the area you need/ want to be in, within your price range? Or are you going to end up moving into the new estate?

This is so true and sad. I don't understand this about the UK. It's a small island ffs, at some point they have to stop building no matter how many homes are allegedly in the backlog or will green space just all be bulldozed to put more and more ugly ass houses? This just seems like insanity.

Blimey there are so many I'll-informed nimbys. Classic mums netters moaning without any understanding of how something works.

We need loads and loads (millions) of new homes. And they raise the prices in an area, offer shops more footfall, help the council with more tax, developers pay millions in contributions towards services, it often leads to upgrades nearby to benefit established communities, it now by law (environment act) has to include a net gain in biodiversity so good for nature.
300m is also quite a distance away and you have no legal right to a view.
It's a positive for so many reasons, people need to get off their "sod everyone else without a home" high horses and support new housing.
Buy your home and enjoy the positives it brings.

They also overwhelm NHS services. The development close to me is 400 houses, there are other developments in the town. The local GPs have raised concerns that they cannot cope with anymore but the plans went ahead anyway.

It is already almost impossible to get a GP appointment and it is actually impossible to get a NHS dentist, footfall in the local shops and a bit of biodiversity doesn't make up for that if you are ill and/or in pain.