would you buy a property thats 200yards away from a motorway?

[vannah]

DH and I are completely devasted.
We saw our dream house 2 days ago, so unbelievably perfect as if it were made for us. Excellent schools nearby too.

After the viewing we went to see one more property which was 1 road away, and were shocked to see the busy M1 just beyond the back garden. How we had missed that in the A-Z I dont know.

Anyway, when we came home and looked up health/living close to motorway, reports were awful. Particularly bad for children, and my 2 are already asthmatic.

THe dream house is in a cul-de-sac, with big trees in the garden. But its only about 120m away from the motorway.

What would you do?

It can make your house very dirty too. We used to live on an A road in London which meant flithy windows and lots of dust, especially in the summer

Message withdrawn

Message withdrawn

no way

probably not - even if you can't hear the noise now, no guarantee the motorway won't be widened one day.

No way, we haven't even bothered viewing a number of properties for that reason. I did see a beautiful property (didn't realise how close it was) but the drone really put us off. Also if you come to sell it on in a few years time it will go against it.

no

I live 800yds as the crow flies from the M1 (just checked multimap!). It's not noisy in our back garden although you can hear the hum of traffic if you listen but I don't think there are many places around here you couldn't hear traffic if you listened hard enough.

A friend who lived 300 yards from the M1, between me and it, iyswim, came to visit and was amazed at the difference between her back garden noise level and mine.

Thing is, there is ALWAYS another house to fall in love with. I wouldn't compromise - it's such an important purchase.
Good luck x

Not in a million years...

My gut instinct would be to say no.

BUT, you say it is your dream house in every respect other than the road. If the motorway was not there, would the house still be within budget?

My best friend bought her dream house. The only drawback was the fact it was on a busy B road (busy as in lorries as well as cars, so noisy)
The house itself is beautiful, with a big garden backing onto fields of horses and woodland beyond.

If it was not for the busy road, the house would have been beyond my friend's budget, so she readily accepts that she was able to get her dream house not in spite of but because of the road.
She has a love/hate relationship with the road, but loves the house and cannot see herself ever living elsewhere.

She has become accustomed to the noise. And I have to say, when you are in the garden it is not really noticeable after the first few minutes.

No

We are in a cul-de-sac, 150 metres away from the motorway. No problems whatsoever with noise or fumes. (the motorway is in a cutting tho, which probably helps.

A friend of mine has recently moved close to a dual carriageway, the garden backs onto it.
Within a few weeks of moving in, there was a fatal accident right outside her back garden and the police told her how lucky she was that the crash barriers worked. Her children are too scared to play in the garden now and they are desperate to move.

DWP I went to view an office today and asked if he could confirm it was about 8m x 8m. He said he could tell me how many square feet it was and I said but we've been metric ever since before I started school!!!

Anyway I was almost right - apparently it was 56sqm so about 8x7.

Multimap.com gives distances in yards/miles.

Location Location Location

No way.

SueW - 800yds is a LONG way, though - practically half a mile!

My cousin lives within sight of M25, biggest problems are noise and amount of cleaning required due to road dust, which just gets everywhere. In your case, even if no noise, would not do it with two asthmatic kids. If they end up ill or more prone to illness as a result it's going to make all your lives miserable no matter how nice the house.

Message withdrawn

We were going to buy a house that was about a mile from the M25 but the road noise was terrible.

Please please don't do it!

I am renting on a main road and it was the worst decision ever. The reason I am typing this so late is that I have to stay up late at night to wait for the traffic noise to die down before I can try and get to sleep. Lorries will often vibrate the house, cars sit at the traffic lights with music literally thundering (DD trying to sleep upstairs at the same time), noise of container lorries, motorbikes - you name it, we have it. Also, when there is an accident on another road, traffic can triple on our road.

There are so many properties on the market at the moment that you really don't need to compromise!

no

No we saw a lovely house but it was about 100 yards facing onto the M8 (main Glasgow to Edinburgh road) they had put up a huge 20 foot fence to screen it but still, it was front garden, about 6 feet of grass verge, fence then motorway.

I said to DP I wasn't even getting out the car but estate agent was very keen (!) said we would get used to the noise! We kept looking and now live on the quietest cul de sac ever maybe 2 people a day pass our front window.

We live quite close to the M6, probably about 300-400 yards, you can hear it when the wind is right but it doesn't bother me.

pollution wise, i would have thought a few hundred yards from a motorway can't be worse than being smack on a busy A road, or in a townhouse fronting onto the street where traffic crawls past solidly for several hours a day in the rush hour?

No. Trust me, as someone who took 9 months to sell their 'dream home' which was close to a main A road, don't do it! If it's putting you off, it will put others off too.