Advice on buying a house overlooking an attenuation pond

[Noamy]

I'm considering a new build property that overlooks a large-ish attenuation pond (it's as wide as one of the property lots and as long as 10 lots). There is a private road between the front yard and the attenuation pond, and the pond is backed by tall trees.

As the property is still under development, I can only imagine what it will really look like, though the developer has a detailed soft landscaping map that specifies the type of vegetation that will be grown in the pond and around it (mostly wild/wet-loving plants).

The marketing brochure depicts this as a blue pond, which I thought looked lovely, but realised after some research that this is not actually a pond, and will rarely have water, and will also have a somewhat overgrown look due to the wetland vegetation that will be planted there.

I imagine this is what it will look like (this picture is from a different development, different builder - I looked for 'attenuation ponds' on Google Images):

netmagmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/08/Bellway-homes-jul-19-JC-wildflower-matting-25.jpg

As the pond stretches along the front of about 10 lots, it will dominate the visual field for about 120 degrees from left to right on the front of the property. The near edge of the pond is about 15m from the driveway.

My questions - what is the general view on houses overlooking attenuation ponds? Do they hurt property values or resale prospects? Are there maintenance or safety issues?

The maintenance should be Totally covered by the maintenance company and I would imagine resale value won't be hurt, I would much rather look over a pond and wildlife than other houses!

I'm probably not the only one wondering what an attenuation pond is.

Never even heard of one. But if you have doubts then don't. I wouldn't.

I have no practical experience and would rather look at a wildlife area than other buildings, however, builders are prone to good presentations and promises which disappear once they've moved off site.

There must be a management company if the road in front of the property is a private one, so I'd investigate what maintenance plans are in place.

Here are two UK based links which may be of interest
www.lanesfordrains.co.uk/commercial/services/duct-cleaning-and-desilting/desilting-of-balancing-ponds/
and when things go wrong
www.gazetteseries.co.uk/news/12923832.a-filthy-and-dangerous-pond-in-cambridge-causes-outrage-among-residents/

As for resale impact, I imagine it depends if prospective purchasers have children and whether the area is respected by other residents.

@MissBattleaxe

I'm probably not the only one wondering what an attenuation pond is.

Yes, I only heard the term recently so pretty sure there are more people who are wondering what it is. I'll update my post with a brief explanation. The image at the link in my post gives some idea of what this might look like.

you're right that they are generally left as that second picture shows. they're meant to be pretty much maintenence free with wildflowers / wetland shrubs.
it depends on what your surrounding area and landscaping is like. it could either fit in and just look natural and green and nice, which if its backed by trees sounds like it might, or fairly obvious if it's in the middle of a more built up area.

There is one near us. Looks just like that second photo.
I was a bit shocked when I saw it. Steep sided, deep water at the bottom, poor fencing and really ugly.
Looks unsightly and dangerous.

Why have the builders left it there? Is it an area prone to flooding would be my first thought (large soakaway?)

Talking from a position of ignorance here as I don't know how much time they are wet/damp and how much time they are dry, but I would be a little concerned about them being a mossie breeding ground, especially as it won't have fish to eat the larvae.

@HoikingUpMyBigGirlPantss

Why have the builders left it there? Is it an area prone to flooding would be my first thought (large soakaway?)

They have to build them in developments over a certain size. The idea is to maintain the waterholding capacity of the land prior to development. It doesn't necessarily mean the area is prone to flooding. How often it holds water will be dependent on the weather and the soil type

They are left untamed, and aren't attractive in a typical manicured garden sense. But they often hold more nature in a real sense than a number of overly mono-cultured gardens combined.

I live in Holland. They are everywhere here and full of mosquitoes.
Some are pretty, with wild flowers and rabbits, some aren't. If they don't fill with water they are good for sledging in the winter.

We have one just slightly further down from us. Ours has some gorgeous reeds in it and we have ducks. The houses overlooking it were the first to be snapped up.

@Noamy

I'm considering a new build property that overlooks a large-ish attenuation pond (it's as wide as one of the property lots and as long as 10 lots). There is a private road between the front yard and the attenuation pond, and the pond is backed by tall trees.

As the property is still under development, I can only imagine what it will really look like, though the developer has a detailed soft landscaping map that specifies the type of vegetation that will be grown in the pond and around it (mostly wild/wet-loving plants).

The marketing brochure depicts this as a blue pond, which I thought looked lovely, but realised after some research that this is not actually a pond, and will rarely have water, and will also have a somewhat overgrown look due to the wetland vegetation that will be planted there.

I imagine this is what it will look like (this picture is from a different development, different builder - I looked for 'attenuation ponds' on Google Images):

netmagmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/08/Bellway-homes-jul-19-JC-wildflower-matting-25.jpg

As the pond stretches along the front of about 10 lots, it will dominate the visual field for about 120 degrees from left to right on the front of the property. The near edge of the pond is about 15m from the driveway.

My questions - what is the general view on houses overlooking attenuation ponds? Do they hurt property values or resale prospects? Are there maintenance or safety issues?

Some explanation of what an attenuation pond is:

www.answers.com/Q/What_is_an_attenuation_pond

"An attenuation pond is a pond which is designed to slow the passage of water from surface run-off to the ground/drainage system e.g. stormwater sewers. It does this by storing the run-off during times of peak flow i.e. heavy rainfall, and slowly releasing it at a controlled rate after the peak flow has passed."

I understand they are also called SUDS (Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems) though that might refer to something much bigger in scale.

The image I've linked to in my post has one example (from a different development). Here are some more:

s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/05/18/37/5183788_0ee76dc9.jpg

mcmackincontracts.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/dv1.jpg

restorerivers.eu/wiki/images/e/e3/Attenuation_pond.JPG

www.ironsidefarrar.com/suds01.jpg

Here's a video explaining the how and why of SUDS and attenuation ponds:

An attenuation pond is a pond that collects rainwater and other “clean” water drainage during storms to allow it to drain back into the drainage network slowly without overwhelming the network. Developers often plant these up with wetland plants.

X post!

We have two near us, I’m not outside it, however one of them smells really bad with stagnated water and lots of bugs in, they other seems to fair better, expect frogs.

It depends what you are comparing against.

If you are looking at this house compared to another property on the same estate or another new build which will likely have a tiny garden, be crammed in against it's neighbouring houses and therefore be completely overlooked and lacking space then I'd say a house with some space over looking a pond would be better.

As mentioned upthread don't go by the pretty illustrations the developer has drawn, have a look at their other estates to see how well they maintain them. No developer will guarantee plants.

Whereas if you are comparing this house with a similar priced old house you will probably be able to buy a bigger house with a larger garden with plants and trees you manage yourself, without the service charge you'll pay a developer to do a half arsed job of maintaining these areas, and you can have your own pond or not as you wish.

We bought a new house with a long banked up hill running at the bottom of the gardens. Brochure showed beautiful green hill with wildflowers and shrubs. Actually was a rotted brown and weedy mess which never improved and no wildflowers seemed to be able to survive on. We are older and wiser now.

What @Butterflyfern said. There’s one which is now about four years old in a new development just outside the village we used to live in, and it isn’t visually attractive — it looks obviously manmade, the sides are overgrown and very steep — but sustains a fair amount of wild life.

We bought a house opposite one. It's lovely to not look out at houses and we are still regarded as one of the best plot locations on the development. We have a family of deer that frequent ours and even in very heavy rain it doesn't fill up too deep.

The other thing that is worth considering is, if you have DCs, how well fenced off is it? This does depend on age of DCs, whether they will be allowed to play out etc.

I actually think they can look quite nice, but the maintenance would worry me a little, is there a management fee? Do you know who the management company will be? The prices can rise fairly steeply, it doesn't necessarily need to put you off, but it'd be better to budget for it so you know where you are.

There is one of these on our estate thankfully no where near my house! It’s very overgrown and is dangerous as it’s not obvious it’s got water in and there’s no signs. People have thrown rubbish in including a takeaway delivery bag which has been there for over a year. It’s an eyesore and nobody maintains it

A lot of new build houses can have other houses built closely to them. I’m assuming this pond means no other houses can be built there - for that reason alone I think it would have a higher market value.

I’d rather look out my window and see this instead of other houses or gardens.

Thanks all - as I've been digging deeper into this, it's becoming clear that that these things can look very different depending on their location, construction, landscaping and maintenance. The images I'm seeing online range from the lovely to the turn-offs.

I'll have many questions for the developer and their maintenance company and will expect satisfactory responses before proceeding.

Hoping that things work out because it might look really picturesque if it's done well