Would you buy a house two gardens from the limit of the 'extent of extreme flood'

[PodPast]

that's looking at the environment agency's flood map. it's in the white (no floods) zone, but v close to the edge of the Thames' extreme flood zone. Who thinks it will become unsellable within my lifetime? I don't want to go mortgage crazy now and then find i'm out on my ear aged 70....

No

Well, most of the Thames is very well defended. FWIW our home is right on the edge of the Thames' extreme flood zone (like one house away) and it would take some sort of tsunami to get to us. From the map it looks alarming but if you know the area you'd know it was nigh on impossible - we're ten mins walk from the river. Family has owned the house for forty years and never had so much as a puddle.

This year's floods were terrible, obviously, but very, very few people were affected in reality. Whereabouts are you looking? London is pretty well defended I think.

Sorry, meant to say the London end is well-defended. Not so confident about the rest...

No - i wouldn't be looking at houses like this.

It's only going to get worse as time progresses.

You also have to look at whether the house will be easily sold on in the future - judging by some of our responses i would say not.

No, see my prev thread about house that was flooded

tbh, I think that probably cuts out most houses in the South East then!

In case it's not clear to anyone, extreme flood risk means "risk in extreme circumstances" ie, rare, not "extremely risky"

Sorry if that's blindingly obvious.

The wording won't matter to a lot of people. They just wouldn't take the risk of buying a house anywhere near a flood risk.

Oh, depends. My house is on the edge of a flood plain, really on the edge but a) I've no recollection of the area flooding and b) the edge is a stream that runs at teh back of my house but is about 20 foot down. The flood would truly have to be of Biblical proportions for us to be affected. So, depends.

I think if people looked at the floods website the majority would find they were in or near a flood risk zone. All major cities being built around rivers and all that.

Yes - there are a lot of houses in a flood risk zone all over the UK.

But there are also a lot of houses that are NOT in a flood risk zone.

In the future these risks will increase and these houses will become less desireable.

Nonono.

unless you all live up Ben Nevis, I think you'd be surprised at how much of Britain is covered. If you live anywhere near a river or a stream, you are likely to live near a flood risk area.

no, because of future risk but also I would imagine it would be hard to get house insurance etc.

The house that I LOVE is overlooking the River Wye in Hereford. I just know that it would have a massive risk of flood damage.

No it's fine, honestly! If your house is in a flood risk zone it might be difficult. If it's in an extreme flood zone it is perfectly normal. And if you're not even in the extreme flood zone, there's absolutely no issue.

As I said, this is referring not to a normal flood which might happen once every 30 years, let's say, but to an extreme flood which would cover a greater area and which might happen once every 100 years, say. I don't know how the environment agency define it exactly but that's what it means. And if you're not even in the extreme flood risk zone, you are practically in the Sahara!

Honestly, if this was a problem all of London would be uninhabited. I do know a bit about this because I grew up in Teddington which is on the river and we used to have flood drill at school (which meant lining up outside for some reason ).

Our family home is on the edge of the extreme flood risk zone and it would honestly have to be a flood of epic proportions to come anywhere near us. If you're not in the zone, you don't need to worry.

Thanks Margo, I'm reassured. It is, surprise surprise, SW London that I'm talking about. I'm going to have another look tonight and if the owner is in I'll quiz her. She investigated digging out a basement before she decided to move, so I guess the subject must have come up before....