Nice place in ugly area or ugly place in nice area?

[Lilylo]

Hi all!

I would like to get some opinions from fellow mumsnetters. Would you prefer to live in a really nice flat/house in an area that is a bit ugly/ run down/ dirty or to live in a bad flat/ house in a nice area?

Location vs nice home: which one do you value the most?

Location all the time. You can always improve a bad house, but you can't single handedly improve a bad area.

Middle ground. No point paying over the odds for the best location. Choose an area that's on the up and get more for your money.

I think you have to go for the space you need then aesthetics are optional extras.

Ugly places can be fixed. Ugly areas not do much.

I've heard you should go for worst house in best area rather than best house in worse area. I would tend to agree- location is more important.

Go for the best location. There is always something you can do to an ugly house to make it better. Living in a location you don't like and find visually unapealling is not a good experience (found this out the hard way).

We bought an ugly house in a beautiful, chocolate box village inan Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Over the years we've transformed it inside and out and, as from last week when the front elevation was finally finished, it's now a beautiful house in a beautiful area.
You can change everything except the lication, given emough time and money so I'd say location every time

Always location. Always.

You can change houses so much, but there's nought you can do about improving your area single-handedly.

The location will sell your house if you ever want to move on. By all means buy a beautiful house but if it's in a bad location you will either (1) not sell it (2) not sell it at a decent price (3) take an age to sell it.

Location every time

Location

Location every single time.

It sounds like the general consensus is location location location, which confirms my idea

A bit of background: I am about to move to a fantastic flat in a not nice area.

Long story short, the place was purchased and gifted to us by family, so we can't just sell it and buy something else atm (perhaps in 5 or 10 years, not now).

I am happy and I am moving to a great flat (currently renting) but I am afraid I will never love the neighborhood, which is currently considered "up and coming".

The reality is that it is a depressing poor and ugly area with "islands" of luxury developments (I am going to live in one of those), which frankly also feels a bit ethically wrong.

We had to go for a bad area, it's worked out well. It's really quiet here & the new builds were all in are well kept by the owners.

When we were looking years ago (over 20) there was one 'up and coming' area. Nowadays it is a weird mix of million pound townhouses next to hostels, b&bs and squats.

Because of local developments traffic is pretty much at a standstill most of the time and crime is still quite high.

I am glad we didn't move there. The way prices have risen we couldn't have afforded to sell and buy in a nicer area.

fluffy why did you consider that area bad? Was if unsafe, ugly or just badly
planned?

Location

If you walk down the road and feel safe, can admire a beautiful view, have nice neighbours, etc. it will make you feel a heck of a lot better than if you live somewhere with the opposite attributes.

You can always make a house lovely on the inside even if it isn't chocolate box perfect.

Better to have the shittiest house in a great area than a great house in a shitty area as Shakespeare said.

I bought in an unpopular area 11 years ago. Colleagues expressed shock and horror and questioned my safety ...

My flat has almost tripled in value and people are now envious.

If it is genuinely "up and coming", in 5-10 years, you'll be really pleased to have got the flat.

zampa you give me a bit of hope! Everyone says it is up and coming, but you know, virtually anything in London is said to be "up and coming" to justify the outrageous prices...

It's got a large rough council estate at the bottom of the town, a big factory and a car auction place. Rough pubs dh was warned not to go into because the patrons are all cunts and you wouldn't be welcome.

It's a place you wouldn't feel safe walking around.

Then you come to the top of the town and this new estate, built 20 years ago and it's BMW/Merc/Audi/Porsche land. Lovely lake with ducks. Our houses built 4 years ago have been tacked onto this estate.

Kids all play out in the road & lots of dog walkers up and down the road all day. It feels very safe here.

People still wrinkle their nose when I say where we live though but our house is lovely.

Why can't you move for 5+ years OP? Just being nosey but if the flat has been gifted to you, can't you sell whenever you want?

thesuspicious it is a complicated family matter, essentially PILS (who bought the flat) are not very reasonable people and the place is both in DH and MIL's names.

I think down the line when DC are involved there will be more leverage to propose to sell it and buy somewhere else (let's say if we want to move to a better area for schools or safety issues) but atm we have to suck it up.

fluffy that sounds a lot like the area I am moving to. New, shiny and lovely estate in a really ugly and grim area.

As long as you stay within the estate it is great, but if you dare to venture out for a walk...

Location is always more important to me, we live in a 2 bed flat even though we could get a 4+ bed house if we moved 5 miles away. However I think what is a 'good' location in London is often different from elsewhere - our area is quite run down and dirty from many points of view, but very expensive and sought after as it's so central (zone 1), and definitely on the rise. Crime is statistically high, as it is everywhere in central London, but I've never experienced any at all while living here. Traditional naice areas would be quite boring to me - the suburban bits in zone 4/5 which wouldn't have anything interesting nearby for us to do, as we have older teen dcs and we go out all the time here. So it depends a lot on your lifestyle I think.

Ah, I see. On the plus side, I guess you get a security you don't have with renting. And if the area is indeed up and coming, you may sell for a nice profit in a few years.

The only thing that would really concern me is that you might end up stuck there if your PILs dig their heels in. If they refuse to sell, then what? Could you be trapped in a flat you're not keen on, have to send future DCs to not great schools etc?