buying a house on a road thats national speed limit...would you?

[mklanch]

hi, so ive been looking for a house for a while that comes with land so i can expand my smallholding. my budget is between £330-£350k. i have been unable to find much for that budget even though im open to most area, mainly because i have to be in catchment for good schooling.

so there are 2 houses i like...(although have not viewed yet)
house A comes with about 1 acre is 4 bedroom, but is on a nation speed limit road. (option to purchase further land)
in donington priced at £345k
House B is 3 bedrooms, sits of 2.5 acres and is on a 50mph road
was previously one the market for over a year and didn't sell due to the road, but relisted. this is located in utterby and is on for £360k

ideally i want to live down a nice country lane but it seems that you pay the price for that. i also see the positive of living on a road as with the smallholding i would need to bring in customers to buy chickens, veg etc. as i could put a board up and more people would see it. this will be our forever house. so i dont want to make a mistake

can anyone tell me if it would be the worst decision to buy a house on such a busy road?

thank you

I live on a busy national road about 100m from a roundabout for a main A road and two national speed limit roads that are rat runs. We’re on one of the rat runs. We get tractors and lorries going down our road. We aren’t set back from the road as much as those houses are. Most of the time it doesn’t really bother me. We don’t tend to spend time in the front garden but I don’t know anyone who does sit in their front garden. When we’re in our back garden, it’s usually only motorbikes that I can hear. All other traffic noise is non-existent. If the house is quiet (no TV or radio on) I can hear the cars going past outside but the rest of the time it’s not really an issue. I can’t hear any noise in our bedroom, which is at the back but the front room is noisier. Having lived in a city centre flat before, it took me a little time to adjust to the lack of noise in our bedroom at night. Sometimes a tractor comes barrelling past and the glasses will shake in the cupboard. I have a friend who is a nervous driver and she doesn’t like pulling out onto our road from the drive but I tend to watch her out. We’ll also watch people out if they pulled onto our drive and need to reverse off but nobody needs it.

We bought the house because (even needing a lot of work doing to it) it was the best for what we could afford. It’s a lot bigger than any other houses we looked and loads of potential with it. This is our first house but we probably could stay here for many years. Had we bought one the houses not on a main road we’d have already outgrown it.

We are a small holding but we don’t sell anything or actually use it as a small holding. However, there are a number of small holdings near me that are on national roads and it’s not uncommon to see signs up for customers to stop or roadside stalls with an honesty box. On our road there is a stable, an open studio, a dog breeder, a camp site and a small holding. All with people popping in and out.

Definitely B
House A looks to have offices next door, with a lot of vans parking outside them. That would bother me more than fast traffic!
House B is set back, and is much more rural albeit on a fast road.

@Daisydoesnt

I know both roads. House B more than A. Both roads are busy. I wouldn’t have said there was any difference in busyness or noise from the 60mph to the 50mph in fact I’d say the A16 is the busier. But I think traffic would be near constant for both, certainly in the day

OP if you have children aren’t you worried about the road from a safety point of view? The rural life of a small holding is all well and good, but not if your kids can’t go out for a bike ride, or walk the dog.

Don’t get to tied to the idea of being near a road because of passing trade; if it’s a fast road people might be nervous of turning in and pulling it out. And there will be other ways you can sell your produce (local shops, market etc).

Good luck

yes that what another of my concerns was. the schools are walking distances but i wouldn't want them to walk along the main road, also my dog gets spooked by traffic! ideally i did want to be down a quiet lane but i dont really think my budget will stretch to that. i don't mind being on a road but would want the house more set back from the road and not such busy major roads.

@RaspberryToupee

I live on a busy national road about 100m from a roundabout for a main A road and two national speed limit roads that are rat runs. We’re on one of the rat runs. We get tractors and lorries going down our road. We aren’t set back from the road as much as those houses are. Most of the time it doesn’t really bother me. We don’t tend to spend time in the front garden but I don’t know anyone who does sit in their front garden. When we’re in our back garden, it’s usually only motorbikes that I can hear. All other traffic noise is non-existent. If the house is quiet (no TV or radio on) I can hear the cars going past outside but the rest of the time it’s not really an issue. I can’t hear any noise in our bedroom, which is at the back but the front room is noisier. Having lived in a city centre flat before, it took me a little time to adjust to the lack of noise in our bedroom at night. Sometimes a tractor comes barrelling past and the glasses will shake in the cupboard. I have a friend who is a nervous driver and she doesn’t like pulling out onto our road from the drive but I tend to watch her out. We’ll also watch people out if they pulled onto our drive and need to reverse off but nobody needs it.

We bought the house because (even needing a lot of work doing to it) it was the best for what we could afford. It’s a lot bigger than any other houses we looked and loads of potential with it. This is our first house but we probably could stay here for many years. Had we bought one the houses not on a main road we’d have already outgrown it.

We are a small holding but we don’t sell anything or actually use it as a small holding. However, there are a number of small holdings near me that are on national roads and it’s not uncommon to see signs up for customers to stop or roadside stalls with an honesty box. On our road there is a stable, an open studio, a dog breeder, a camp site and a small holding. All with people popping in and out.

i'm planning on continue breeding fancy chicken breeds and selling the hens for income, as well as a market garden etc. so i know that being near a road would be good for advertising. its just the whole thing of moving was to live in more open space, breath fresher air and be able to have the kids walk the dog through countryside etc without a worry.
i know there is compromise when buying a house, but its not like i can move a road...or a house. my kids love both houses as does my husband but something is telling me it would be a huge mistake to buy a house on such a busy road.

I lived in a house on a main road, 50mph, for a few years. We had triple glazed windows at the front fitted by the landlord when they lived in the house. Honestly I didn’t hear a thing when the windows were closed. The worst noise came at night in summer when you had the windows opened and a lorry came hurtling down the road clearly going over 50mphs. I would always wake up and feel frightened even though I knew what it was 😂

Also thinking about it some more I lived on a majorly busy road in Newcastle for two years, one of the duals on the way out the city. Our house backed onto it and as the gardens at the back were so mature with lots of trees and bushes it blocked out a lot of the road noise. I don’t even remember it been on a busy road it was a lovely house and I use to spend hours in the garden.

@mklanch we don’t have kids yet but we do have a dog. We’ve trained our dog that she can’t go out the front without a lead. Out of back garden and we’re onto fields and can walk for miles and miles without coming across another road. The advantage for us is that crossing the busy road also gets us back into the village, so we aren’t completely cut off.

I don’t think our air quality is affected by the road. Especially in the back garden. From looking at both those houses they seem to have a barrier of vegetation to help with the air quality. Prior to moving to where we are now, DH had mild asthma and had it for years but would usually need his inhalers during the winter months. Since moving he hasn’t needed his inhalers, despite the road out front, and the doctors aren’t giving him prescriptions anymore. They class his asthma as being resolved. We moved to our when we were 27 and he’d been asthmatic since he was about 5.

I was wary about living on a main road. Especially knowing we wanted dogs and kids. I’m still wary about living on a main road knowing we want kids and I’m aware that for safety we might have to leave while children are very young. I’m rather sad that this is a possibility because otherwise this house has the potential to grow with us as we age. There’s room to extend if we need it. I have some very long term goals for the garden which include creating a wildflower meadow and orchard. So I might be selling my chutneys at some point in the future. Looking at houses not on those roads, we would lose a lot of potential. Obviously you have to trust your instinct but for me the benefits of living on a main road outweigh the negatives.