Buying a flat above a takeaway!?

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Hi everyone. We're currently looking for a new home and there's a beautiful flat available close to where we currently live. It's stunning inside but it's above a pizza/kebab takeaway shop! Has anyone else looked at properties like this before or lived in one? Even though it's beautiful and we get that lovely homely feel from it we're worried. It's shared freehold, and we're worried about fire hazards etc. we've been in and there was no smells or anything. we're mainly worried about it being shared and the fire issue, the aesthetic of it obviously isn't great either but it's got many pros as well as in space inside and location. Just want some opinions :) thank you!

Smelly food and grease smells will waft up and get into everything.

Your bedrooms will likely face an industrial extractor fan. These are usually tucked away at the back of the property, also contributing to the grease smells not to mention unsightly.

Noise from takeaway drivers and late night revellers.

Mice and rats are very likely and unavoidable, even food businesses with strict hygiene do not stop attracting rodents due to the food waste and smells.

Difficult to resell.

If it’s the interior you like, save the pictures and copy the style somewhere else.

also you don’t know what it’s hiding, we had to completely redo the interior when we bought.

My friend live a above an Indian restaurant and there is no smell. But there has been a fire.

Would you be able to knock on someone else’s door in the building and have a chat about what it’s like living above the shop? That’ll give you a better idea.

As for resale value I think you’ll always find someone. Might not be at the price you’d like but there’ll always be someone looking at getting on the ladder.

Check what time their bins are emptied! My friend lived opposite a takeaway and their bins were emptied (noisily!) at 6am twice a week.

I'd be concerned about revellers congregating outside.
And the smells.

I wouldn't but others might not be bothered.

Your re-sale value might not be as high as other flats in residential properties.

I rented a flat above an Italian restaurant for a few years and was never bothered by sound or smells oddly enough. The owners were lovely and often sent over freebies! I chose it for the location and also the amount of space. My ex rented a flat above an ice cream shop but not directly above, 2nd floor above and also never had any issues. So I can certainly testify that such flats can be rented, and don't always cause issues with smells/sounds/lairy customers - but of course this is dependent on the shop. Plenty of people do live in such places of course.

I’m a take away kid as in my parents ran one, well it was a sit down with a takeaway and no way on bloody earth would I live above one.

Noise
Smell
Rodents

Apparently I thwarted rodent killing efforts by pushing smarties down tiny holes in the wall to feed the mice.

Have you spoke to your mortgage broker as I viewed a beautiful flat the other day but it was a dominoes and my mortgage broker told me not to as lenders won't entertain it

I live in a purpose-built block of flats above a row of six shops, been there nearly 18 years, no plans to move. One unit (directly below me) is a chip shop and another has two units as a restaurant (it does take-away but it's v quiet). I don't have problems with noise/smells but I'm two storeys up. Regarding mortgages, I got one with through a broker with a high-street bank that had previously told me it didn't lend on flats over shops. I'd check if any action has been taken by the local environmental health department regarding hygiene, fire safety, vermin, noise from fans etc. Visit when and just after the area's likely to be busy. And, as @Rosiiee says, talk to neighbours.

My office is above a kebab shop and Thai takeaway (two different restaurants). The smells don't travel and I don't hear any noise either during the day. Not sure about 4am when the kebab place is closing.

What time do they start prep in the morning? And when do they close? Unlike another residence, they don't really owe you a duty of peaceful enjoyment, so they're going to be shouting and banging pots and using machinery with no thought for you.

I'd be most worried about rats

Constant noise
Constant smells
Extractor fan on ALL THE TIME
Undesirables banging on your door
Undesirables banging each other in the alley behind
Constant parking issues
Rats
Maggoty bins
Cockroaches. Fucking big bastards.

Don't do it op.

(I keep editing as I think I'm unearthing years of trauma. Seriously, don't do it)

I did once. It was awful. Everything stank of grease all the time. And it was open really late and noisy.

Never in a million years

You could make another flat beautiful inside!

Unless you've been there at 10.30 pm on a Saturday evening and are still happy with the noise/smells (and ideally not a winter post-Christmas Saturday!) then I'd steer clear.

I wouldn't, there was a takeaway in out town that had an early morning chip pan fire, spread shockingly fast and the whole street was on fire in under 5 minutes. Everything was completely destroyed its now just an empty lot.

Luckily it was a non residential street and there was only a couple of people in cleaning and setting up ready for opening and they all got out but the extreme fire was a shock, you could see it for miles.

If people had been asleep in flats upstairs it could have easily had a death toll.

Mortgage may be an issue - lenders don’t like properties above takeaways and food shops!

the smell can be awful depending on their vents and fans

I wouldn’t do it unless really cheap rent or great location.
student DS lived above one for a year and it was smelly and noisy

Personally I wouldn't, for these reasons:

• The noise potential. You will get people drunk and shouting at weekends. Just because they close at 11pm, doesn't mean noise will abate then. People hanging around; moped noise from delivery drivers; shop staff clearing up etc.
• Food establishments often attract vermin.
• It may not smell much now, but what about summer when you want your windows open? Smells and noise will be more noticeable.
• Fire risk may be greater.

I’d be worried about the idiots at pub kicking out time. 11pm seems quite early to shut, maybe visit tonight or tomorrow night to see how busy it gets. Also bear in mind it’ll be far busier in the summer months than a wet weekend in March.

Personally I wouldn’t touch it with a barge poll, but if it’s a good deal and you think you’ll be happy there for a few years then go for it.

We lived above a pizza shop and a restaurant when I was in uni. The only issue we ever had was the smell drifting up through the open windows in summer. We never heard any noise from people in the shop/restaurant or people being rowdy outside. And that was a converted maisonette type flat in London, so if your flat is more modern then you might be fine.

It may well be an attractive flat inside but I'd be concerned about selling on in the future

Above a shop/restaurant/other commercial property will always have drawbacks which put off/prevent buyers from proceeding

People may well have lived above a kebab/takeaway/whatever, but actually buying the property is another thing

I would happily live over a shop again, would possibly cautiously consider buying over a shop in the right circumstances, but would be very wary of buying over a takeaway. Very hard to mortgage and thus hard to sell.

I've lived in close proximity to takeaways in the past and indeed currently, and it's been a mixed bag in terms of noise etc. When I lived in a city centre near the run of takeaways people would go to after nights out, it was very loud, and I would quite regularly come out in the morning to the eternal question of 'is it sweet and sour sauce or is it blood?' when looking at odd stains on the pavement. Currently I live close to takeaways that are more just places you go to get dinner, if that makes sense, and they're no bother at all. (My only real issue is that there are two Indian takeaways in town and the good one is the one right up the other end rather than the one two doors down from me!)

Dont do it! Lived over one for a year and a half! Constant noise! The smell seeps into all your clothes! The noise of their extractor fans was awful and in the hot weather made the apartment really warm!