What is worse? No side access or overlooked garden? (picture in the post)

[oreo2020]

Have a choice of two houses: a semi with a garage and bedroom on top of it - the garage is joined up to the neighbour's garage and the neighbour has an extension so it makes the houses joined up. The garden is not accessible from the back but I suppose you can carry stuff through the garage and utility room at the back.
Or,
A house with a side access but the house at the rear really close as in picture.
Otherwise both very similar houses.
Which one is worse ?

Forgot the picture

I would not like the house/garden being overlooked. I have a garden side gate and honestly I tend not to use it at all, I just carry things through the house to the back which isn’t often at all anyway so having to take things through the garage to the back garden would not phase me at all. A house overlooking my back garden would bother me a lot though!

Can you plant a hedge to hide the house at the bottom of the garden? Then you get the side access without being overlooked.

Second is better. You can redo the fence , put some shrubs or a pergola for screening and the overlooking house is offset so not a direct view. We use side access a lot for garden refuse etc and would not want to be joined.

I don’t have proper side access to my house either and it’s never been a problem. We can take things through the utility room. Not yet needed to take anything bigger through to the garden.

Personally, I like the second one better as you could grow plants or put up a better fence to hide the next door's garden more. I think I'd struggle more with the first.

The second house doesn't look that overlooked? It looks like it's angled away so you could look at clever garden design for added privacy?

I think side access does make life much easier, depending on lifestyle.

A house joined on both sides is surely a terrace, if the price reflects that then grand.
I'd choose House B every time. Plant a hedge, break up the eye line a bit, the situation there just now is pretty dire, but fixable.
I can't imagine not having a side access now I have one, its great if you need any big work done, or even just for the window cleaner to be able to get round.

Years ago we had a link detached similar to your first picture. I can't remember that getting to the back was a problem - like you say, you go through the garage.

You could plant pleached trees and a hedge on the back of the second to make it feel less overlooked.

I think that you could fix the overlooking as PP have said, with trees/shrubs etc but you couldn't fix the having no outside rear access. Obv there's no pic of the actual house with the overlooked garden, but the first house has been very unsympathetically extended and being attached to the other house is odd - it looks like a bit of a hodge podge and I can't see how you could make it look any better.

I'd pick house B, house A looks pretty unappealing from the front especialy with the neighbours extension.

I'd go for B too. A doesn't look that nice and you can sort the fencing for B.

Side access isn't needed that often but when it is, it's a pain in the arse to have to bring stuff through the house.

Agree with all.from.those pics house one is not very appealing at all.

Is house B overlooked by the side or back of that house rather than its front? Not many people stare out of their side windows. Some may look out of bedroom windows I suppose.

Anyway, I'd choose house B over A regardless. The downsides of A are much worse.

Pic B you can sort that fence and plant shrubs etc.
Pic A - the house is not appealing at all looks wise!

I’d choose b, a looks very ugly and higgledy piggledy from the front. B more traditional

I would go for the one with the overlooked garden and the side access. The overlooked garden wouldn't bother me. What would it matter if someone could stand in their bedroom window and see you sitting in your garden? Who would be hanging about looking out of a bedroom window? What would you be doing that you wouldn't want anyone to glance at?

How do the actual houses compare? A looks like a mish-mash but you've not shown us B.

If all was equal I'd choose B. That's a problem that you can do something about.

Definitely go for side access!!

We're moving because we don't have side access, it's a massive PITA.

And that's a really bloody awful extension.

I’d go for the second one. People don’t tend to sit and look out of upstairs windows so once you’ve got a new fence in, you’ll hardly be overlooked. If you were still uncomfortable you could plant a tree to screen the upstairs window. The first house is ugly, effectively a terrace, and it would be annoying to have to pull the garden bin through the house.

Side access.

I view side or rear access as pretty much essential, but I guess if you store bikes in the garage then it wouldn't matter so much. I think fixing the overlooked garden would be a lot easier than fixing the mishmash of extension on house a though.