To buy a house that’s overlooked?

[Sundayponderingday]

If you had a choice between two houses, imagine the inside and price were exactly the same.

House 1 - not overlooked, though not rural as still on a road of houses but the garden backs directly on to an ugly industrial building. A Quiet but ugly one (think old warehouse). (YABU)

House 2 - on an estate and overlooked so has houses to the side and back of them, lots of windows facing in. (YANBU)

Which view would you rather have? Ugly but not overlooked or overlooked but in keeping with the house?

before anyone jumps in with neither, I just mean between these options!

Over looked - doesn’t bother me in the least

Overlooked, you can use plants and fencing to create screening

edited to say you can do that with both

Overlooked.
At some point the warehouse may well be developed, into flats perhaps, which would be worse in terms of being overlooked

House 1 if its possible to add some screening/trees to distract.
Nicer to have a bit of a grotty view than to be overlooked from all angles IMO.

I wouldn’t necessarily rule out the overlooked - I would want more information on the industrial building. Is it likely to be redeveloped? Utilised and therefore noisy? Abandoned and therefore a pest haven or uninhabited wasteland?

if those are the choices, then overlooked. My house is very overlooked (big housing estate). I don’t love it, but there’s not any significant intrusion ie no-one seeing straight into anyone’s house

I do hope to eventually live somewhere that’s not an issue.

Overlooked. It’s an old warehouse now, but could be developed later, and you don’t know what you’d be dealing with then - possibly some noisy or noxious industrial site.

Is the industrial building part of a bigger industrial estate? What is currently in the industrial unit? Is there a possibility of a business operating from the unit that could either be noisy, smelly or both? If it's part of a wider industrial estate, I would be concerned about noise.

I think I'd go for Option B, in all honesty.

Not overlooked, it's really nice to be able to have lights on and curtains/blinds open and know no one is able to see what you are doing. You can never really screen out upstairs windows. Preferably trees rather than an old warehouse though.

Not overlooked gets my vote. We used to back on to a crumbling red brick industrial building which had some charm, but not much. We put trellis on top of our surrounding wall and grew climbers, which was great for drawing attention down to the garden rather than what was over the fence.

1

Not overlooked. Can you plant to block out the old warehouse? Or is the issue that there might be rezoned and developed for housing, so you end up overlooked too?

Housing estate rather than warehouse. You never know when the industrial unit might be used for something unpleasant or noisy (e.g. what if it became a waste processing facility, with horrible smells and heavy machinery all day), whereas you have at least some control over that on a residential estate.

Industrial buildings - can be noisy and smelly , can have use changed, ca turn into a building site

overlooked - depend how close really but we can’t see into the other houses and need to lean out of windows upstairs to see people in their garden so unless you want to naked sunbathe but are worried about a pervert …

Look at ehat rooms are overlooking you. Bathrooms and bedroom windows are less used for peering out of.

Our garden is overlooked in two directions because we live on a valley side in Cornwall. Its just the way it is. But no one really looks directly into our living accommodation and that I dont think I would like much.

Overlooked - we are, and I literally never think about it. No issue for me.
The industrial building, if in use, might be noisier than you realise at different times. It's use might change for the worse. It might become direlect and even uglier, a target for unsavoury people, or riddled with vermin.
It could be demolished and the land built on again.

The grotty view one backs on to a factory type place that’s been there forever, big business. Think M&S clothes making warehouse (obviously not, but is non smelly and well regarded).
no other industrial units around. I think the town was all built around it and they’ve stayed put.

overlooked house is like your typical crammed in new build estate, so gardens maybe 8m long and then back on to their garden at the back, and at each end there are more gardens facing in, so think a rectangle houses all around the edges.

Im not sure if I’m describing this well at all!
Thanks for your opinions so far.

no.1, I hate housing estates

My house is like Option B, and I don't mind at all. A bit of careful planting and you can make some garden areas screened reasonably well. I don't do anything I would be bothered about people seeing me doing though.

I remember an episode of an ambulance crew programme where an unwell chap was attended as he'd been spotted lying unconscious on the lawn by a neighbour. In an isolated situation he'd have died there unnoticed. I don't think being overlooked is an entirely bad thing, really.

I'm not necessarily against the warehouse type building either but it's possibly going to end up being cleared and new housing put there before too long, so I'd probably go for Option B as all that has already happened.

Not overlooked

How long is the garden at the factory/warehouse one?

We've had a house once where the garden was surrounded by other gardens - never again. Loads of noise in summer from neighbours kids outside / people doing DIY etc - to be expected of course and lots of people are fine with that, but for us personally we would never consider a house like that again. It's completely personal taste though, as can be seen by the responses so far - you need to decide what your priorities are.

Warehouse (I don't like being overlooked).
But I'd be wary, in case it has planning permission for a car park/power station/massive niteklub/whatever.

House 1 - the ugly industrial unit could and probably will be knocked down or renovated to turn into a block of flats in the future which is way worse than a couple of houses overlooking you!!!

Over looked. At least you know thats never going to change. Factory type place might have survived well but you never know. What if it later became abandoned or was sold and became flats etc?

my new house is a new built on an estate and i’m over looked - wasn’t previously (this house works for our family and schools) and my husband said i’d struggle with it. I honestly haven’t & don’t give it a second thought. It’s full of families and kids - what interest is another house going to have looking in at my chaos? I certainly don’t sit & stare out at them. It’s also only at the back. I never rhought we’d by a house like this but i love it so i’d take over looked over the grotty view