Buy or not - Next door has planning permission for a block of flats

[WhatWudYouDo]

Seen a house to buy - BUT Next door has planning permission to build a block of 8 flats. There's enough room but it will be disruptive (if covid allows them to go ahead)

What should I do? Love the house - should I offer our not?

Would you be able to offer less due to the flats going up? Can you see the plans? Will you be overlooked by them? Is there adequate off-road parking for multiple vehicles- since many couples/ families have multiple vehicles - does the place you're looking at have its own parking? Flats wouldn't necessarily put me off to be ho eat- but I'd be considering the above.

In the area I live there wouldn't really be room to add parking etc for the amount of cars 8 flats would bring. (Everyone has a 2 car driveway plus garage) and the streets are empty, they are narrow though so street parking full time is not an option. You have to consider that there could be undesirable people living in them, as well as increased amount of cars and foot traffic. Would they overlook your house?

You love the house as it is at the moment.
How do you feel about living next door to a building site?

No no no, the noise will give you a breakdown! Also that's 6 sets of neighbours so more potential for them to piss you off too

I’d say no. But for you it may depend on set up. Is it spacious setting so overlooking/parking/noise/loss of sun or light will be less of a feature or no problem at all ?

No

That’s why they were selling the house. I’d pull out.

I'd want to know about the parking arrangements that were agreed by the planners but yes I agree that this is why the seller is selling. You should be able to see all the planning documents on your councils website including any written objections that may be from your sellers, I'd look it up.

No definitely not. At the very least you'd have a year of building work and then lots of noise and issues with parking.

Thanks for all the replies.

Parking is not such an issue as this house too has room for a number of cars. The gardens (front and back) are massive.

Re the overlooking - there are a number of trees in both gardens and most seem to be included in the plans (or at least replaced). But there will be windows to front and back so our garden will be visible. I need to check the plans further on this.

The building site - that's the bit that is worrying me the most. And the number of neighbours.

The price has been reduced about 15% and it's been on the market a month in a very fast moving market - that's what got me digging.

It's such a shame as it's a lovely old house with tons of space and bags of character.

I'd have a careful look at the plans. I think the trick to getting a bargain is not being fussed about small things other people get hung up on that don't actually matter. This might be that bargain. They changed the house opposite into a HMO from a probate house and I was really worried but actually they renovated it to a high spec and got decent tenants who we haven't heard a peep from. Some people like to clutch their pearls far too readily and miss out.

Are we looking at big Edwardian/ Victorian villas here, each on their own plot, with nature grounds? There's a lot like this in an area I know. Some are still family homes, others are converted into luxury flats and tend to be owned by older people or working singles.

I'd look at the area overall. Are there more conversions? How busy is the road, and how far away will the flats actually be from your garden? Also, is it a character conversion, or a knock down and rebuild? Balconies could affect your privacy a lot more.

*mature

Don't forget it may be a building site for a while but it will be the flats for a lot longer so take the noise and disruption into consideration but it shouldn't be the main concern.

@missnevermind

Don't forget it may be a building site for a while but it will be the flats for a lot longer so take the noise and disruption into consideration but it shouldn't be the main concern.

We're (hopefully) moving into our forever house in a couple of months and have exactly the same thing. Having looked at the plans it looks like the element directly behind our fence will end up being car park for the flats. We've got some big trees so no concerns about being overlooked.

We thought long and hard but love so much other stuff about the house that we decided it was worth putting up with some inconvenience for a year or so (although as I work from home permanently I'm hoping we get time to get the double glazing done before work starts to minimise noise!).

I wouldn’t be worried about the building site aspect of things as it’d be done and dusted quickly.

However, are you looking to buy a large house on a large plot? Is the area a mixture of different types of housing? Personally, I live in a large house in a road of similar houses and wouldn’t consider somewhere I might be the only house left in 10-20 yrs as everything else has been converted and filled with transient renters or students.