Tell me what's wrong with this place...

[Crash123]

...so I know if I can cope with it! Obviously at my pricepoint I'll have to make some sacrifices (like the train running right behind the garden).

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/135905696#/?channel=RES_BUY

The lease is 163 years - this may be considered to be short - may be an issue if you want to sell on in a few years as new buyer would have to pay a few thousand to re new it

It looks much nicer than many places in south Norwood and room sizes are reasonable. It's rare to get a private garden in a flat, so that's a bonus.
South Norwood is not the best area but nicer areas cost more and it's a great location for commuting and evenings in central London.
It is a very busy rail line so the noise could be a problem.

I think that looks a decent buy for London. Second bedroom probably only a single or study but overall quite spacious and a great garden. Yes you may have noise from above but that is the price you pay for having the garden flat (which I would always choose over top floor). I have friends that live in South Norwood. They seem to like it - I think they hang out at Crystal Palace quite a lot. Do check terms of lease though, ground rent, service charge etc.

South Norwood is absolutely fine.

Enjoy your new flat OP.

I like it. Good kitchen and bathroom, nice internal joinery. Won't take much to make it look great.

I'm intrigued by the storage down the side? What's the cupboard off the living room?

About noise, judging by the huge speakers in the spare room I reckon the neighbours will be very pleased to be rid of the old owners

The flat is decent.
Do your next door neighbours not also have access to the garden? Even if they don’t I would feel uncomfortable using my garden with their windows being face on - the upstairs flats wouldn’t bother me as that’s part of living in a garden flat.

@MuchTooTired - Thanks for these! It's a leasehold, and I believe the Freeholder is the council but I need to double check that. I'd also like to know the neighbouring flats are mostly owned or tenanted but have no idea how to find out!

@Lockthedoorbehindyou - It didn't feel small to me either, but London flats are different than houses everywhere else I suppose! How do I find out if there are any major works coming up? Is that a question for the freeholder? Sorry - might be a dumb question but..

@Crucible - Oh thank you! Yeah, there was even more musical stuff in the house than is on display. Lots of soundproofing wall hangings were up in the spare room, so I imagine they've done their best with the space they have/ But yeah, I'm more of a headphones and postcast person so the neighbours might bake me a cake!

@JMSA - Haha, a societal experiment! But it's good to get the views of both sides so I know what I'm getting into. I know at my price point nowhere will be perfect, but it's best to know now if I'm missing something major. I love the expression "peaceful wee idyll" - that's the big hope after a couple years of massive instability.

The railway wouldn't bother me at all. Train noise is impersonal, unlike people noise, and at least you know there'll never be some hideous development built overlooking your garden. Railway land usually has an endemic rat population though so you'll need to be ready for that, scrupulous with your rubbish and proactive if any of your neighbours aren't.

I'm astonished that whole garden is yours, rather than shared or communal. Looking at the front of the building, it looks like the garden goes double or triple wide, as well as it being a 3-storey building, so basically you'd have sole use of a garden designed for 6-9 dwellings. I'd prepare to be unpopular! Have you actually bought it or just made an offer? I just ask as you don't seem completely familiar with the terms of the lease, and if not then use of the garden is absolutely something I'd be getting my solicitor to nail down, as it's a big part of the flat's value imo. It's very nice, though, and South Norwood is okay really - safe, just not necessarily very snazzy.

Not gonna tell you what's wrong with it. I live up the hill and it looks good to me, a good size for that prize, great garden, gets you on the ladder, plus you're nearer to Norwood Jcn which is very handy for fast connections and has got some nicer coffee shops etc in recent times. Hope you're very happy there!

Are any of the flats in the block still council / social housing? The thing that would worry me about that is that you hear horror stories of charges for major works with some flats with the council as freeholder when there are still social tenants. I’d definitely want to look into thar aspect a bit more.

Otherwise it looks a nice flat.

The flat is fine . Things that woukd concern me woukd be:

1. Noise from people going in and out of the two flats abive you- their front doors are against rooms in your flat.
2. This is the biggest concern for me. If you go onto map and street view, you can get a very clear view of the space at the side of your garden. You can go down the track into it. It is full of vans and cars (not just from the two flats above you), parked quite haphazardly and the route into it is right against the side of your flat. Your garden seems open onto it. I would hate that. It could be a very troublesome, noisy space, very dark at night, possibly attracting criminals. I'd want to know lots more about that.

Agree with this. Get the solicitor to scrutinise the details of the garden. When we bought our first flat we bought it with 'private garden' but our solicitor had failed to highlight that it was actually a shared garden that had been informally subdivided across flats. We then had to considerably drop asking price when we sold and our buyer's solicitor was clearly a bit sharper!

It's nice! Nice and light, a few minutes to the station, big garden. I think it's a good buy OP

I'd swap the living room and bedroom around, put a door onto the garden at the back and add a canopy or gazebo on the patio to extend the living space outdoors.

I would then be able to use bedroom 2 as a dining room/study and make the long thin storage space alongside my new bedroom into more of a wardrobe area.

I'd put some sort of partition up between that room and the kitchen so it was more bedroom-y.

Can't comment on the area as I'm in the North, but as a living space for a single person or small family it looks lovely 🙂

Your solicitor should check the lease for you and talk you through it at a later stage in the process of buying it.

I like the flat. It has downsides like being so close to the train tracks but you know that for the price. Our friends live really close to a train station and they say you don't notice it after a while. Tbh I even stop noticing it when staying with them for a weekend.

It looks like ex local authority which tends to reduce the price too as people can be snobby about ex LA. It's a lot of property for the money.

I don't know the area (or London residential areas at all) but here are a few comments:

1. I would want to know the exact details regarding the garden - if any of it is communal or subdivided then it makes a big difference to value and attractiveness.

2. Privacy and security - I'd want to install a big fence along that right-hand side of the garden, as well as beef up security (doors, gates) to the full extent you're able to.

3. That car parking area to the right is problematic. It looks dodgy - evidence of fly-tipping and discarded beer cans, etc. As it stands, if assorted ruffians and riff-raff do congregate there of a night, they could spill over into "your" garden as there's nothing stopping them besides a short run of chicken wire. Could you go there at night (not alone) to see if anything goes on there?

Otherwise the space looks good for what it is (nice sized living room as well), and it looks recently refurbished, so it's very move-in-able without much work required.

I think it might be twin babies as one of the photos show 2 X bouncer chairs.

Great space and garden. Train line wouldn’t bother me, and connections from Norwood Junction are ok. I would be happy with a 160 year lease, but wary of the council being freeholders. A friend had no end of issues with Lewisham council as freeholders and producing HUGE repairs bills that they had to remortgage to cover. Aside from that, S Norwood isn’t the nicest of places but I guess you know that.

Service charges , ground rent?
The block looks a bit tired.
Can't believe agents publish photos like that , with the washing on the airer ??

For the money looks pretty decent!!

Where are people seeing evidence of fly tipping?

I would ask the neighbours about the garden situation,one of the other flats has a BBQ so clearly people do sit out side.

@PinkRoses1245 - Ah sorry.. I didn't quite understand what "terms of the leasehold" meant. Though I do need to double check service charges. I know the ground rent is peppercorn. Could Croydon being bankrupt have a massive impact on them as a leaseholder?

@CharSiu - Ah yeah. The open fence (with cars beside!!) I didn't notice at first pass. Good eye. I'll absolutely have to put up a big fence and a security light + camera. Thanks. And thanks for the research tips! Haha

@Heronwatcher - Oh wow! Interesting about checking the terms as I do have an idea for a side hustle that I'd like to eventually grow into a small business. I hadn't even considered extending as I just assumed flats had to stay as they were. That could be a fun project - it'll be a while yet until I can even consider laying out that amount of money, but gosh would that be gorgeous! A huge eat-in kitchen that opens straight into the garden would be amazing for hosting. Alas, I'm spending everything just to get this place (Facebook marketplace freebies will be the decor for a bit!) but I can deffo start dreaming about it as soon as I exchange.

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor + @LittleBrenda - I've heard that about ex-council flats. Here's hoping!!

@Ilefttownonsaturday - Would you be afraid walking at night? Or is it more of a run down thing? I don't need more than what I'm buying - even 2 bedrooms feels greedy! Haha

@111111111a - Oh, thank you!

@MNetcurtains - Yeah, as someone pointed out above there are parents and baby twins living there. Which is, I imagine, why they were keen to sell!