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Original poster

Would you buy in an estate all the locals had objected to?

59 replies

StopTouchingYourFairyGarden · 09/02/2021 10:08

There's a village near us that is our dream location - small, quaint, seaside with a large park and a train link we need for commuting. We love it there and visit regularly. We've been looking to buy there for years but nothing has come up. It's very expensive and there are lots of small flats, small bungalows and then large £1m+ houses. Not much in the middle.

A firm of builders has secured planning permission for family homes in an estate. It was objected to HUNDREDS of times by locals who are all very upset about it 'ruining' the village.

Would you buy there? It may be the only way we can ever live in that location as so few family homes come on the market but I'd hate to live in a small village feeling like everyone resented our home even existing?!

I'll never be able to persuade DH to buy a new build so it's probably all pie in the sky, but a girl can dream...

OP posts:
KevinTheBird · 09/02/2021 10:13

I’d never buy a new build full stop as they’re all so terribly built. What are the objections of the locals? If it’s simply that they don’t want the land built on them I wouldn’t be too fussed. If it’s because of genuine concerns about lack of school places/ doctors appointments/ traffic issues then I’d look more closely before deciding. If the school is already full and the new development is offering nothing to expand the school/ any other oversubscribed local amenities then I’d be a lot more cautious.

Original poster
StopTouchingYourFairyGarden · 09/02/2021 10:17

Yes - the school isn't full but if all the houses at families it would be and the builder has included 'improvements' to the school building in the planning.

The other objections seemed a bit NIMBY to my eye, don't want to spoil the quaint environment, don't want more traffic, don't want building works going on for years etc. Maybe they just seem NIMBY to me because I am biased!

I've always lusted after a modern house Blush and it is a higher-end builder (houses will be 750k or so) but yeah I know what you mean. I'm so sick of my draughty Victorian-build though!

OP posts:
unmarkedbythat · 09/02/2021 10:19

Existing residents being NIMBYs wouldn't put me off a house I could afford in an area I wanted to live in, no.

Beetlewing · 09/02/2021 10:19

It wouldn't bother me and once you've got a few families living there, you'll have your own little community

BlowDryRat · 09/02/2021 10:20

Yes, definitely. They're hardly going to egg your car.

Lynora · 09/02/2021 10:22

I'm not sure I would want to live in a village full of NIMBYs.

PurBal · 09/02/2021 10:23

I agree with PP, can the infrastructure support these homes? I grew up in a village that had half a dozen "small" developments of around 50 houses each built over 10 years. They decimated the community. The school places were oversubscribed, roads couldn't hack it and you couldn't see a GP for love nor money. There was also generally a feeling of them and us. It's better now, 15 years later, but at the time it was pretty bad. We actually ruled out 2 villages that had developments going on for these reasons (neither house was new though).

Hardchoices · 09/02/2021 10:24

Even a £750k new build will have issues. All you have to do is google the developers. No matter how “high end” a new build is - they are all built using the same materials. Take it from someone who knows 😉.

Yellow85 · 09/02/2021 10:25

I bought in an estate that locals were against. I figured if I didn’t buy it someone else would so the result to them is the same. A few people that ignore us when we say hi in passing, but no other issues. There was a time we’re we got the blame for everything wrong in the village. Dog poo for example - apparently a dog had never pood in this village till the ‘new houses’ were built 😂 I found it amusing tbh. It’s all settled now, but it’s an estate full of families and we are all very involved in village activities and clean ups etc which has softened the mood!

abc31 · 09/02/2021 10:26

The residents of our town have objected en masse to a large housing development (principally due to it being on green belt and in an AONB).

That said, I can't imagine anyone being unpleasant to people that purchase the new houses. After all, they're built to be lived in. Our town is also sufficiently large that people wouldn't know whether you live in the new development or not.

Pootles34 · 09/02/2021 10:30

Does your garden back onto any of the nimbys? My Dad objected strongly to the new houses at the back of him, so planted some leylandii ... they're now absolutely massive, and shade the entire garden and house. I really disagree with what he's done btw, but just a word of warning!

If they're very close they could be very tricksy neighbours which is never great.

stormelf · 09/02/2021 10:31

I live in a village that has been greatly expanded by a new estate in the past few years. Yes there have been some divides between the old village and the new builds but that's mostly by a very few people, most people get on really well and see it as one big village now.

lastqueenofscotland · 09/02/2021 10:31

Residents object to these sort of developements all the time everywhere so that wouldn’t bother me, but I’d not buy a new build. High end or not they will be the same staff and subbies building it, same materials and same arseholes to deal with about snagging.
Also they tend to depreciate and can be very hard to sell on.

Imloosingmyshit · 09/02/2021 10:33

No they wouldn’t put me off. But a new build would put me off.

Noshowlomo · 09/02/2021 10:34

Go for it... they’re being built anyway

C4tastrophe · 09/02/2021 10:49

Put some thought into the plot. The ones they usually build first are at the entrance, so get all the trafffic for a long time.
Maybe better to get the end of a street and wait a bit longer for it.

BeyondMyWits · 09/02/2021 10:52

It depends... we are in Gloucestershire - most developments here are being built on flood plains. With all sorts of supposed improved defences etc. Locals complain because they see the problems coming. And guess what... the problems are all coming to pass...

Sometimes there are complaints because they know what will happen, sometimes due to NIMBYism.

Yellow85 · 09/02/2021 10:53

@C4tastrophe

Put some thought into the plot. The ones they usually build first are at the entrance, so get all the trafffic for a long time. Maybe better to get the end of a street and wait a bit longer for it.
This is true...but in our case the house prices went up with each phase of build. We did have to live with some site traffic (a good builder should keep this to a minimum and be sure they adhere to social hours legislation) a n the short term but now have more equity in our house.
murbblurb · 09/02/2021 12:00

I'm also thinking flood plain. Be very careful with a new build. And remember that in a few years yet another new estate could come, bringing all the problems the current locals fear.

even if the developers meet their social promises - most don't as there's no enforcement, so it is all basically lies.

Yellow85 · 09/02/2021 12:09

@murbblurb

I'm also thinking flood plain. Be very careful with a new build. And remember that in a few years yet another new estate could come, bringing all the problems the current locals fear.

even if the developers meet their social promises - most don't as there's no enforcement, so it is all basically lies.

Really important to look at the local authority planning applications. Where we are, it’s fairly typical for developers to purchase the surrounding land and put it on retention to stop other developers...but they don’t keep it on remote tin forever so it’ll inevitably be sold on it they themselves with build on it...
KevinTheBird · 09/02/2021 17:02

murbblurb it takes the piss that it’s not enforced. The development in the village I used to live in promised it would provide funding for additional playground facilities for the village primary school. After many, many letters from the parish council and two years after the development completed they gratuitously purchased ten footballs for the school. It didn’t go down well when the same company then applied to build another 20 houses the following year.

KevinTheBird · 09/02/2021 17:03

*graciously, ffs

Stonehopper · 09/02/2021 17:16

@Yellow85

I bought in an estate that locals were against. I figured if I didn’t buy it someone else would so the result to them is the same. A few people that ignore us when we say hi in passing, but no other issues. There was a time we’re we got the blame for everything wrong in the village. Dog poo for example - apparently a dog had never pood in this village till the ‘new houses’ were built 😂 I found it amusing tbh. It’s all settled now, but it’s an estate full of families and we are all very involved in village activities and clean ups etc which has softened the mood!
There was an explosion of dogshit when a new estate went up on the edge of a village we used to live in. It was a small village where there had literally never been any litter or unscooped dogshit -- on the very rare occasion a few bit of litter had lain around in the eight years I'd lived there, the Parish Council would go apopleptic at meetings and in the village magazine, and there were signs and dogbins everywhere, and a culture of zero tolerance. (I remember one dog offering being ringed with chalk arrows and the person outside whose house it was putting up a laminated sign in block capitals claiming to know who the dog owner was and that they would take action if it EVER HAPPENED AGAIN.)

So it was very obvious when 80 new houses went up and suddenly you were actually having to watch out underfoot.

I no longer live there, but from what I gather from friends who still live there it hasn't been a happy expansion. The traffic is awful, the promised investment from the developers in supporting the threatened bus service and playground hasn't happened, and the GP surgery is so oversubscribed that you either wait three weeks for an appointment or show up before 8 am in the morning and queue on the street until the surgery opens at 8.30 for a first-come-first served slot.

So, in answer to the OP, no.

CamVegOut · 09/02/2021 17:21

Off point but what is people's problem with new builds. All houses were new builds once. Houses which are 20/30/40/50 years old will have to be upgraded if bought by someone. Old houses are badly insulated, crap windows and wiring compared to new builds.

reprehensibleme · 09/02/2021 17:26

Will the new build estate change the 'atmosphere' (for want of a better word) of the village you've wanted to live in for years? You mention it being small and quaint. It may no longer be either of those things after the estate is built.

I do understand the feelings of people classed as Nimbys in some instances - their entire way of life can change when large numbers of new houses are built in an area they call home.

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