Dilemma! Same house on same street, £34k cheaper

[Parisah]

Hi all!
This scenario in the SE:
House A: decent enough interior, few steps away from amazing school, north facing garden, last sold 2016, chain free, further from train tracks, north facing garden.

House B: older interior but not awful, other end of road so further from school (but relatively close still), last sold 1998, not chain free, closer to train tracks (they are at the end of the road) south facing garden.

Both Victorian semis. House B is £34k cheaper.

Can house A be worth so much more, maybe because of train tracks?

Anyone ruling out a north facing garden is being very silly imho unless they've properly taken into account dimensions of house, surrounding houses and garden itself. Unless property is particularly tall, with other tall properties alongside in a row, a north facing garden of reasonable length will get plenty of sun most of the year.
Although I do think west is best in a perfect world!

a north facing garden of reasonable length will get plenty of sun most of the year.

Not true. I have a north facing back garden. It is in a row of standard two story houses. The garden does not get enough sunlight. Furthermore my kitchen is always cold and almost always darker than the rest of the house. I will never buy a north facing house again.

Congratulations @Parisah. We paid asking for our first home. Good area, zoned for best schools, lovely big section. We viewed twice, made a couple of offers which they rejected and we realised if we wanted it we'd have to pay asking. So we did. Absolutely no regrets. We loved living in the house and when time came to sell a couple of years later it sold on first day of listing, with a nice capital gain to boot.

Have they both got the same parking? Our house has off road parking for two cars on a desirable street where nearly all other houses have street parking only (busy street). Our house is worth c£300k with the parking worth about £15k.

Will you share the link now OP?

Try and price up the work that will need doing on both houses to get them how you want. You may find the 34k is well spent if it is more up to date. We are having major building work done and everything is costing a fortune.

@nubeejinnings hehe no! I can't share my address to the whole internet now can I. I also don't want to jinx it now. It's been such a perilous journey so far, can't risk the evil eye 🧿 but I am really grateful for everyone's thoughts here.

Buy A if you can afford it.

The south facing garden thing is funny...

I never want to sit in the sun, too hot here (South Coast) and we don’t use our South facing patio much as it’s too sunny

North facing would be much more comfortable imo.

I'd go Fo B purely because it was away from the school, the lower price would just be an added bonus!
We haven't ever had to fight to get a school place though and are in the fortunate position of being within reach of a number of decent schools, both primary and secondary.
Baffles me slightly that people base their choice of where to live on primary places tbh - would you just up sticks when the child is in year 6 to ensure you were then next-door to a decent secondary?

I think you’re absolutely right to go for house A. It doesn’t sound like the school uses true catchments, but rather straight line distances. These can vary quite dramatically and can easily shrink by the 0.4 miles between the two houses, eg in a heavy sibling year after a bulge class.

We love our north facing garden. I truly can’t understand the obsession with south facing gardens or the willingness to pay huge premiums for them.

@Cockadoodledooo

I'd go Fo B purely because it was away from the school, the lower price would just be an added bonus! We haven't ever had to fight to get a school place though and are in the fortunate position of being within reach of a number of decent schools, both primary and secondary. Baffles me slightly that people base their choice of where to live on primary places tbh - would you just up sticks when the child is in year 6 to ensure you were then next-door to a decent secondary?

Primary admissions areas (not catchments) can be tiny in some areas; literally tens of metres. Secondaries draw from much bigger areas. If your preferred primary is a feeder for your preferred secondary then your child’s place is assured once you get their place in Reception.

@ThanksItHasPockets yep, it is one of those annoying places where there are just two good primaries in a large town and if you don't live within metres, you could be sent far, far away to a rubbish school. And the primary leads on to good secondaries, which thank Christ have easier catchments which we still be in.