Would you buy a house close to a main road?

[booksboo]

I've viewed and fallen in love with a house with a huge garden. But (and it's a big but) the house's garden backs onto a field that has planning for a major road to be built on it (single carriageway 40mph road).

This will be slap bang in the middle of the field that the back garden faces.

I'd estimate the road will be about 100m away from the actual house (length of a football pitch). However a good 50% of that distance is due to the garden.

I have checked as thoroughly as I can and it seems this road is going ahead but it likely won't be built for a long time (years).

The other side of the house is an extremely quiet little collection of houses.

I do have kids but the garden is totally enclosed with no direct access to get to the road so safety isn't an issue. It's more noise, resell value, eyesore etc.

P.s for anyone who saw my last post about the house near the lake, unfortunately it sold before I could view it!

It wouldn't be my preference at all, but millions of people do, it is a very common thing.
Have you ever lived near a main road? I think if you have never lived that way it would take a lot of getting used to.
My sister lived close to a main road and she always had constant build up of a fine black dust in her house, keeping it cleaned away was virtually a daily task.

We did...BUT....we didn't know how busy it was until COVID properly started settlendown and everyone went back to normality. Road is 30mph busy main route in/out of small town.

The road is out the front for us so back garden reasonably quiet, the main thing for us is that kids can't play on the street but they just gather in someone's back garden instead. I can't lie, we moved from a cul-de-sac and the difference in noise was v noticeable, however totally used to it now and don't notice. I do worry about the air quality for us all aswell.

I wouldn't be as bothered about a 40mph road as to a main A road if it was out the back to be honest and if I didn't know any other I'm not sure it would put me off. We have the same plans in our town and honestly it's been 20 odd years and still not been built!

Is the impending road the reason they are selling???
I lived on a busy road, not fast, just busy with cars/buses. I too had a soot substance on window sills daily- even closed windows! I can't prove it, but do wonder if this pollution was the reason we TTC 12yrs without success and no cause for infertility ever found.

Now live on a very quiet no through road. No soot and 100x quieter. Note though that sounds travels, in particular at night in summer when you might want windows open. We are 10 houses along the lane from a B road which is only 30m/hr. We can hear the odd truck/car and sirens. We are a fair distance, so having a road at the back of the garden will likely be much noisier than you expect! Even worse at night.

I'd also think about the actual building of the road! Would it be day time only? How long will there be lorries, noise, diggers, night spot lights etc? Personally, I'd keep looking. Sounds like it WAS a lovely house and garden, but certainly won't be the same once the road goes in.

It would put me off because of noise, the building of the road, the impact on the value of the house should you want to sell later, but mainly the pollution. I wouldn't want my kids breathing that in.

A 40mph road does make a lot of noise unfortunately.
There are always compromises of some sort though with any house. Personally I might still be considering it if everything else was right - but only IF I was getting the house at a price to reflect the expected disturbance and the effect on re-sale in future. From your description of its location - its certainly going to reduce the enjoyment of the garden and have a considerable effect on the noise in any back facing bedrooms.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I've decided against it

One thing to remember is by the time it's built it will probably be all electric cars so pollution will be much less of a concern. But I think the disruption due to the build would put me off and the "unknown" aspect of it- like it's impossible to tell now how noisy or busy it will be.