House and garden very overlooked by others

[cowrice]

I have come across a house that I really want to buy, but there are things that I don’t like about the house. It is built near an elevated public footpath on a slope, where anyone passing by can look right through every windows, the garden and even the bi-fold doors at the ground floor facing the garden. There are very few trees planted on the two sides of the footpath. I have drawn a [picture](https://imgur.com/a/O4OD6tG) showing how it looks.

The footpath is owned by the local authority. I wonder if it is possible to grow any tall plants or grass along the footpath so that the house and the garden are less overlooked by other people?

I am also worried about its resale value. It has been on the market for more than six months, although obviously overpriced, its asking price is still the lowest among all detached houses in the area (it is tiny). It also has high surface water flooding risk, and the fact that its position is low-lying compared to any other houses on the same road, make me even more worried about that. There is also a management fee of £600 per year as it is on a private road.

I have dreamt of living in a detached house but I am priced out of the area. This is the only detached house that I can still afford. Will you buy it if you were me?

The problem is you can’t tell how much noise you’ll be able to hear from your neighbours til you move in, and then it’s too late!
I wish every semi detached had an official ‘noise rating’ for what you can hear from next door…

Thank you for the lovely drawing 😄. I think the privacy thing would annoy me if the footpath is busy- I know a few people who live in house directly onto busy routes and you get nosey people peering in constantly. I also have a dog that keeps watch and her barking every time someone walked by would be tedious. The flooding thing though is also a worry. I'm watching a lovely house for sale here which keeps reducing in price because there's risk of flooding.

No, I wouldn’t, it doesn’t count as a detached for me in this set up plus other issues are bad enough on their own.

If it bothers you in theory it will bother you x1000 in practice

There are too many negatives to buying this property @cowrice which you have, yourself, noted - especially the risk of flooding. And, if you've recognised them, so will anyone else once you come to sell. Wouldn't touch this one.. 🌹

I would be more concerned about the flood risk and if I could adequately insure the property.

I wouldn’t buy it, but I love the drawing. The faces on those stickmen! Brilliant.

Why make compromises for a detached house? A semi or terraced with good sound insulation is absolutely fine and much better value. Detached costs more to heat and is not worth it.

💯 for the drawing.

Is the ground floor also very dark because there is effectively a big earthwork next to it? Is that made up for by a nice view from the first floor? Is the path only really popular at weekends or is it heaving with dog walkers every day of the week?

It looks very much like an arrangement near me. Why is the footpath raised and what is the other side of it...is it the source of the flooding risk? Like, for example, a river given to high tides that could well wash over the embankmented path and straight into the garden and ground floor of what will be your house?

The houses near us used to face this flood risk but it has been sorted for decades by impressive and modern flood barriers. Whether climate change means in the next 40 years they face the prob again, who can tell. But agree with others. See if you can find out whether it is more of a historic risk or a present and future risk.

Re the privacy issue, the film on windows works well, as do gauzy blinds etc that allow you to see out but not others in.

Is it overpriced? In a falling market could you get a hefty bargain? Even so, the flooding risk is by far the greatest worry to bottom out.

So many questions! Sorry about that...oops.

Great drawing! Is it on a canal? Personally I wouldn't, as PPs say the flooding risk is simply too much of a big deal (and might be the reason it's been on so long?). Also if it is a popular walkway, you'll have people walking all hours of the day, 24/7...not great for privacy

I wouldn't because of the potential flooding issue (I work in insurance btw).

I wouldn't because of the flood risk. It's not just the flooding itself, but the fact that you'll feel anxious every time there's heavy rain. It's not worth the worry.

No. It sounds like a liability to live in and to sell on. I vastly prefer detached properties but wouldn’t compromise all the things you list in the OP to live in one. Is an adjacent area with slightly average lower prices an option? If not, I’d go for a good quality semi, sharing the ‘stairs wall’ with the reception room and main bedroom on the opposite side to the connected neighbour, so as to minimise the noise.

Excellent drawing though

No, I felt the same as you, really wanted a detached. I ended up in a semi and it’s honestly okay. It’s quite a bit bigger than any detached I could afford too.

With further global warming, flood risk is going to get worse not better. For this reason alone I would avoid. As the lowest point in the road, guess where the water will congregate?

For me it would depend on how much use the path gets
we downsized to a smaller 4 bed detached from a really large 3 bed detached with extra rooms downstairs. Made lots of money in the move … but lasted 18 months before we started the process again. Losing about £60k in house doing up and fees etc because there was a path the entire frontage of the house

it Was used 8 x a day with school and nursery run mums and kids plus a short cut to the bus stop for that Side of the estate. Plus for the new estate over the bypass that used the pub in our bit so all freaking evening and night too.
talking shouting bike & scooter wheels high heels smelling weed and just fag smoke … it was hell

nice drawing but I wouldn't go anywhere near that house. Look for a semi detached with more privacy.

Do not touch it with a barge pole!
The risk of flooding would be too much for me.
Climate change and severe weather events ain’t going away any time soon.
That alone and the heartbreak it will bring would put me off straightaway.
Do not buy it!

Take your time, keep the faith that there IS a little house somewhere just meant for you.

Agree - I’m a bit of a privacy hawk and don’t even like the fact that one house can see into my garden - but much more importantly the flood risk may make that impossible to get a mortgage on, if not now then quite likely in future as flooding worsens generally. That would make it almost unsellable.

Beware of pedestrians dropping litter as they walk by. We get this a lot and are forever finding fast food wrappers in the front hedge. I think some is thrown from cars, too. Large detached house well set back from the road, in a "nice" area. It seems most places get this problem. My DD lived next to a footpath near a beauty spot and would get loads of litter, plus needles and foil!

Litter and being overlooked would worry me more than whether the house is detached or not.

Privacy one way film on the windows maybe?

I think in modern new builds a lot of houses overlook each other.

I am in an area where high lower cost houses (mine) dominate over lower higher cost houses. The higher cost houses could screen off some of that dominance with trees, but many don't bother.

There is a big difference between being overlooked by a few neighbours and the public in general though. The idea of the public being able to look entirely into the house from a footpath I wouldn't like at all. It depends also as well on how busy the footpath is, a cut through that allows people to get to the local pub is unlikely to be quiet on a Saturday night.