Which house would you prefer?...orientation dilemma

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Both are 1930's houses.

House A has a south facing (slightly south east actually) garden, which I prefer, but the 3rd bedroom is small with a box in it as in a box room that reduces space even more, and also a small galley kitchen.
Has small conservatory too.

House B has a north facing, slighly to the west, back garden. So I worry about light at the back of the house. But it has a bigger kitchen, the difference makes it possible to put a table in there, and also the 3rd bedroom is a bit bigger and much more usable. It's also £15K cheaper than house A. I also prefer the location of house B has although just a street away from A, B is in a kind of cul-de-sac so hardly any traffic flow. Also it backs on to a primary school so not overlooked from the back.

OR wait for a house which has a southerly aspect at the back and is also spacious inside as both houses are under budget and we can actually afford to spend a bit more.

Id go for B. Ime which way your house and garden faces makes little difference. I don't even think about it when buying a house.

Option 3 - wait till you've found the right house for you.

How big is the garden? If it's long or a fair size, the northerly aspect is less of an issue as it will get sun somewhere.

how bothered are you about sitting in the sun?

I'm not really arsed about sunbathing, so would go for the space and the cul de sac any day. Moving to a cul de sac has been brilliant for our kids - being able to play out, ride bikes etc

B, if I couldn't delay until the perfectly orientated house turns up.

I'm usually devoted to having SW gardens, but in your case B sounds far better.

B unless you are a keen gardener, in which case I would keep looking for an option C

Wait for option C. It isn't about gardening or sunbathing. It's about the quality of light in your home.

I wouldn't buy either of them.

B - assuming your back garden is a decent size. Our back garden is north facing and in the summer it's lovely to have somewhere cool to be. Go 5m out and you have the full effect of the sun. You do need to consider your lighting in the back of the house though. (We've put in LED downlighters and rooflights and have created more openings in the external walls downstairs and have (lots of) decent lights upstairs.)

Definitely B, much better in every way except the orientation which will really make very little difference - you'll get the sun somewhere in the garden at some point throughout the day.

B

Thanks for the replies.

The garden in house B isn't that big tbh... and house A's garden is a bit bigger.
It's just that damn box room, that I can't change. We are willing to do an extension to make the kitchen bigger, but don't want to really start on loft conversions to add another room.

hmmm... the only hurry is that prices are going up quite fast in the area, but hardly any houses coming up in the "right" area for us and we have been looking for 4 months now.

B. I've never considered garden orientation though. You will make the garden work. A would be a no like an eat in kitchen and don't like galley kitchen.

B.

People make far too much fuss about orientation. You can't tell what the conditions are like from the way a house faces alone - so many other factors make a difference, like tree cover, proximity of adjacent buildings, presence of hills etc. I have a north-facing garden. Because the next house is at an angle to mine and I am at the top of a hill, it still gets a lot of sun during the summer.

Even if the garden is shady, any gardener will tell you that you can do beautiful things with loads of truly lovely plants.

In the event of problems, you could spend the £15k you save in putting in floor-to ceiling windows out the back too.