Lower ground floor flat like this one: would you consider?

[AfterTheRainComesSun]

I am still searching and considering options and came across a few lower ground garden flats like this one (now sold) in ny area. We cannot afford a house here as FTB and very £££ but an option like this would allow us to have a garden and some are truly beautiful, like this one.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139536782#/?channel=RES_BUY

Issue is that I know lower ground flats can bring problems, mainly humidity/dampness, low light, potential flooding and less safe? Would it be a big mistake??

Is the second bedroom off the kitchen??

The flat looks lovely but I wouldn't buy a flat because of leasehold and especially with a communal garden.

@Littlebitpsycho this was just an example, it‘s sold so not the exact flat I’d buy obviously

@caringcarer this one has a private patio. Obviously I’d also prefer a nice house but sometimes life is a compromise, especially in London

That's a beautiful flat and living in Brighton we have a lot of regency basements. Personally I always thought a basement or ground floor would be scary to live in due to breakins etc. but we live in a bungalow now which is no different and I'm not scared.

Lease hold is perfectly normal for flats, wouldn't like a communal garden myself, but it is beautiful.

For that budget you could get a house not too far away from Surbiton though, or is Surbiton and the budget just an example?

Thousands of people own and live in these sort of flats without issue. Can some of the flats have problems? Yes. But that is true of any property type.
Get a survey, examine the property carefully. How is the bathroom and kitchen ventilated? Are the brick work, windows and drains in good conditions?

A sub ground floor flat in a Victorian property is part of a building that was designed that way, including ways to make it work. It is not a property that had a basement grafted on to it later.

You will get lots of people posting saying: "I wouldn't live in a sub basement/have that layout/would need a bigger utility/etc" but it's all fairly irrelevant. If you want to live in that area and that is the budget you have, then a sub ground floor flat is a perfectly sensible choice. The one linked above looks nice.

In theory I would certainly view flats like that, and see how it felt once I was there - the one you linked to is barely 'lower' ground floor and has a lot of natural light. But I would not view that particular flat because it looks as if there is no window/natural light in the kitchen (or bathroom). So I would in theory, but it would depend on the particular flat.

@Jessforless where though? I don’t like Tolworth andd Chessington and Walton & surroundings are a bit less convenient

I wouldn’t take a basement apartment because of the damp risks/issues. It’s a massive potential liability.

I’d be concerned about noise above

I looked at a few like that, and rented one half of which (the bedrooms) was on the LG when I lived in London. I wouldn't buy one, as:

The LG floor was always fairly dark and felt dank, even though it wasn't actually damp
Pollution levels were noticeably higher on the LG than the UG floor
Noise also seemed to carry down more

Having a garden in London is nice, and many very swanky houses in London have their living area on the LG floor, but they are not great for sleeping in IMO.

The thing about any posts on Mumsnet relating to flats is that you will get loads of responses from people who have enough money to afford a house saying they could never live in a flat and it would be too ghastly to contemplate. Which is all very well but not much help if all your budget will stretch to is a flat.

My take would be that not all flats are created equal, so I'd be looking for one that avoided as many of the potential issues as possible, but I wouldn't write flats off altogether and have lived in them very happily without the world ending.

Years ago, I rented a lower ground floor flat just down the A3 from you in Guildford (is this too far out for you? It’s convenient for London if that’s what you need and there are small house options around your budget).

The flat did have damp problems, but it was a more modern building with an issue with the balconies that was apparently causing it. We never had any problems with noise.

I’d definitely consider it, with a decent survey, though most include so many caveats that they’re not really worth anything as insurance. If you know someone in the trade that you trust, I’d ask them to visit with you. I have a family member whose view means more to me than any surveyor.

I wouldn't rule out a lower ground floor flat, especially if it's in area where lots of the houses have been converted like that (an indicator that plenty of people are living in them just fine). The light very much depends on the individual property so I would view at different times of the day, and ideally be viewing in winter when light is at its lowest. Have you looked in New Malden? That's close to Surbiton.

Kingston, New Malden, Worcester Park maybe? Could get a 3 bed house (from a quick right move search, looks like there are a few)

The flat shown has a 995 year lease and a share of the freehold so none of the issues that can arise with short leases / exploitive freeholders apply.

If you can get a flat with that sort of leasehold / freehold arrangement, it solves most of the issues.

Looks lovely. Pros and cons to everything. Pros to your ground floor flat being garden access and no stairs.

I recognise you from all your other threads. I am also committed to raising a family in London and so committed to living in flats.

You seem to be set on a period conversion, which brings the benefits of the architecture and possibly a share of freehold, but the potential problems are:

bad sound insulation
damp/ not enough ventilation
not enough storage
unusual layout

Only you can decide which of these compromises you’re happy with/ how you want to compromise on them.

With a basement flat you are increasing the likelihood of damp so you need to think about:

where / how will you dry clothes?
is the bathroom properly ventilated?
what is the cost of ongoing damp proofing work (eg annually/ every 5 years) going to be?

Plus of course you need to take a close look at the survey.

personally - I would avoid a basement flat because I hate the damp, but as they tend to be cheaper this would of course come at the cost of a compromise elsewhere eg on space

Looks absolutely lovely and very bright for a basement flat .

In the flat you’ve posted, I would worry that there’s no ventilation for the bathroom, kitchen or utility. You will have to have extractor fans on constantly, which could be a problem for the 2nd bedroomn

I wouldn't buy a place with a green chimney.

I always like the look of these and the fact they tend to have their own entrance, a little haven tucked away from the rest of the house and the street. However when it's raining hard and the water is pouring down that gap, I'm always glad I'm not living there because they must surely get much more damp even when you take all the precautions. So no, I'd resist the temptation and if the budget was too tight for a house, I'd go for a purpose built flat, ex-LA maybe as they tend to have more space. I'd rather have space and robust structure than a period basement flat with potential damp problems.

(Tbf the one you've linked to isn't very basementy, many are much lower than that and more of a trap for floodwater. That one you linked to is kind of ground floor, it's just the design of the building that has the ground floor above ground. That might be less troublesome, but I'd avoid the much lower kind.)

I know that area well. Look at this one OP. Gorgeous square, beautiful architecture. Your own garden. Moments from fab restaurants, shops, farmer's market, good primary school, the station.

I would!