Would you buy a house on the same road as a doctors surgery?

[OnTheHuntForAHome]

Viewed a property today and it ticks a lot of boxes, we're FTB. However, across the road and up a few meters is a scores surgery.

I'm feeling uneasy about this but I don't know why?

Our surgery was 4 doors away - came in very handy when my child had suspected appendicitis. I went in to ask their advice rather than phoning, the doctor saw him on the spot and sent us straight to a&e! The cars visiting were occasionally irritating but no more than that. It's moved now and I miss it!

If it were a school definitely not but doctors why not.
A few things I would consider tho, do they have sufficient parking, does the car park ever overflow forcing people to park on the road outside of the residential houses ? That would definitely annoy me. Maybe drive past at different times in the day to see what it’s like.

Hmm, my dentist is based on a standard residential road (literally, it’s just a converted house) and therefore no designated parking. Parking was a pain for me as a patient, so presumably it’s awkward for the residents too. However this dentist is based like a minute drive away from a Waitrose, Costa and general high street so parking would likely have been tight regardless

I would, my house isn’t the same road but round the corner from a surgery and it’s great because it’s not far to drag yourself when you’re not feeling well!

The only issue is parking.

What is the area like? Are there likely to be addicts paying visits? For their methadone etc.? Parking wouldn't be my first concern.

The issue was mainly parking for us as the parking seems tight as it is. We do have a drive but it's on the street behind in the garden.

GPs are never going back to all those face to face appointments the way it was pre Covid.

So it should be fine.

If you have parking and are set back a bit from the road (or don't mind lots of people walking past your window) then it sounds fine. Especially as you are on the other side of the road. It's really handy to live by the GP in normal times as often they say "can you get here in 10 minutes?" If that's the only appointment they can offer.

Depends on the surgery, small one with 2 drs and a nurse no problem, big one like ours with 12 drs and half a dozen nurses plus various specialist clinics - not unless they have ample parking in their car park

Can you go back on Monday morning and see how busy the road is, although I appreciate with Covid it might not be as busy as it normally would be if doing more telephone consultations.

Ps everyone tends to drive in the places I've lived because neighbourhood surgeries have long gone, my drs is nearly 2 miles away, my one where I used to live 2.5 miles. Normal these days

Was incredibly handy when I lived around the corner from my doctor's surgery. It meant I could easily drag myself there when ill and when DS1 had an incident I wasn't sure about (pea up nose!) I could just pop round there to ask them what to do without it having to be a whole mission.

We live 3 doors down from a small family owned surgery (a house converted into a surgery) and never had a problem. It’s a Muslim chap that runs it and mainly the clients are elderly Muslim men and women who maybe feel more comfortable going there than the ‘mega’ practice in the centre of town. We are on a main bus route so no parking issues and we are close to London so most people take the bus. I wouldn’t want to live near our towns ‘mega’ surgery as it has about 50 car parking spaces and it very busy all day.

My doctors surgery is four doors down from my house. It's great!

@Forestdweller11

What is the area like? Are there likely to be addicts paying visits? For their methadone etc.? Parking wouldn't be my first concern.

Addicts go to a chemist for Methadone.

I live two doors from my GP'S surgery, its great when they have spare Covid vaccine at short notice.

Post Covid it won’t be as busy. Telephone consultations will be the norm. No spreading bugs by siting in the surgery from now on I hope!

So yes. Buy it. In my local town, the most expensive houses are just near the surgery! Never stopped anyone buying them!

@OnTheHuntForAHome if your parking is on a different street I’m not sure how it would have an impact?

Op, does the property you’re interested in have off street parking. Will you be competing with the patients for parking when you come home from supermarket with lots of heavy bags?

It can be an issue if the property has no parking and the surgery lacks a decent sized car park.

It’s not as bad as somethings because it’s unlikely to be open lots of late nights. Many surgeries do operate at weekends now though.

In itself, a doctors surgery isn’t a negative. It will being lots of people to your street but that spdoesnt seem a problem.

My friend lives next door to a GP surgery. It has a big car park though and the parking outside her house is fine.

There are doctors’ surgeries and doctors’ surgeries. I live quite close to our village one, and it’s fine, because it’s a very small practise and is adjacent to the village car park. The one in the next village along I wouldn’t fancy living near, because it’s huge and has very limited parking, so the surrounding streets are full of badly parked cars and people driving round and round trying to find a space.

I used to live very close to a major London hospital with a busy A&E - now that was super handy! Never needed to pay parking and it was so easy to pop there with all those toddler accidents and croup and so on. I even walked there to give birth and walked home again with the dc a few hours later. Parking in our street wasn’t a problem because it was all residents’ parking, and we had a drive anyway.

So really it depends entirely on the individual circumstances.