Help! Deep in to the buying/selling process and we’ve just found out about a huge housing development in the quaint village we were buying in!

[Pebble65]

I’ll start this off by explaining that we don’t necessarily WANT to move but due to schools, costs of remortgaging and aging parents we’ve felt we should sell up and move. Hence why we already had slight reluctance about moving house.

We accepted an offer on ours mid September and had an offer accepted on a house mid October. Since then the process has gone pretty fast and we’re being chased to name a completion date by our buyers. We wanted the searches and valuation done before we had a survey done as we had an inkling that the price had on the house we’re buying was a bit high. We also had some concerns about the local area.

Saying that, it’s a quaint village, lovely community with lots of events going on and access to excellent schools so we were pretty happy.

Anyway, we’ve just heard that there is a plan to build almost 600 homes in and around the village - many of them 1 bedroom houses, so not necessarily family homes.

This worries us a lot! It’s not what we were looking for and we have concerns that the schools/doctors etc won’t cope and it will affect the feel of the village. They are also planning to build close to the house at the end of the lane so the slice of countryside we loved will be gone. We wouldn’t have made an offer if we’d known this.

I guess we pull out and try to keep our buyers happy and reassured??! They’ve sold and have moved in with family and there is a specific reason that they want our house so I think it will take a lot for them to back out of the purchase, but I can’t guarantee that, obviously!

Any advice/ reassurance gratefully received!!

If your wouldn’t have offered on the house you are buying if you’d known of the development, then obviously you need to pull out.

Hooefully your buyers will wait for you to lfind another house. If they do pull out, then you’ll just have to wait for another buyer.

Ultimately you just need to do what is right for you, no matter who you annoy. Continuing to buy this house is no longer right for you.

Well at least now you know why your vendors have been pushing for you to confirm completion dates!

Based on your post I would pull out and look elsewhere.

Definitely pull out.
thank goodness you found out in time, I’d have felt sick moving in and then discovering this was happening.

if you’re not that excited about moving anyway then something like this would just eat away at you. We did similar and our buyers waited; but ultimately finding other buyers if necessary is better than buying the wrong house !

We've just had our buyer pull out, for different reasons. All I'd say is;

1. Waste no time. Tell them asap.
2. Dont assume they're moving quick for this reasons, chances are they have other reasons such as financial, family or the house they love etc.
3. Be prepared to lose your buyers. Unless you're willing to move out to family or rented, you may lose your buyers if they're keen to move quickly. That's just a risk you take.
4. The government has been pushing for 1000s more homes affecting villages and towns all over the country. If you're after the quiet life, I fear you may struggle to find this unless you go somewhere really rather remote. Good schools and facilities attract new builds. New builds are EVERYWHERE.

Pull out

This is what searches are for

Out of interest, roughly where is it?

Thank goodness you found out before you exchanged. If you aren't desperate to move right now, then pull out asap so everyone knows where they stand.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

We’ve not been excited about the move but the house is nice and definitely the best we’d seen and at a good price. The school is also one of the best in the area.

If we bought the house we’d definitely be in the catchment for it. If we bought in one of the surrounding small villages, with all the planned development, there’s a chance the catchment would change and we would be out of catchment then.

The development I mentioned is a proposal at the moment and it’s going through local consultation (with everyone locally seeming to loudly protest against it). It didn’t show up in the searches because it doesn’t have planning permission but as the council is proposing it I’m guessing it won’t be long until it’s approved. We only found out about it through a FB post.

If I sound like I’m trying to convince myself to buy the house …I probably am. We looked at houses last night and there really isn’t a lot on the market at the moment and panic started to set in! I know we don’t want to live near all that development but I don’t know what we’re going to do.

My DD is in year 5 and so we have to move before school applications next year.

Building is going on literally everywhere. What guarantee is there that you'll find a better house before your buyers pull out? Are you prepared to move to rented to keep your buyer?

This sounds really tricky and I completely understand why you’d consider moving out - even the building works themselves will be a nightmare.

I guess the question is, it sounds like you’re still planning to move if you don’t want to lose your buyers so where would you move to? Have the reasons for choosing that specific village (bar the school thing) changed? Eg is it close to the aging parents etc?

As pp said, Labour are making a massive push to develop so the danger is you pass this one up - which works for you in lots of other ways - and you find a different village and then get landed with the same issue a year or two down the line.

In a way sticking with this one means you know exactly what’s coming. But I think what would put me off more than anything would be the potential building works throughout the area (including road works, lorries up and down etc).

Maybe the solution is looking for somewhere already pretty developed?

It sounds like this housing proposal is part of a local plan?

Be prepared that any village with amenities - eg schools, shop, public transport, doctors etc is highly likely to be deemed suitable for development. If you pull out of this and choose another similar village you may well have exactly the same problem.

If you don't want any development you will need to look at much smaller villages with no or minimal facilities - even then small developments (less than 10 homes) would probably still be approved if they came up.

I am very surprised to hear that this is 600 largely 1 bed homes. Seems an odd mix for a village. I would clarify that that is correct and not people on FB getting the wrong end of the stick.

As someone who lives in a quiet village with good local schools I agree, people are always trying to build. We recently had a developer trying and build over a 100 homes on the field that is next to the village green. It would have more than doubled the number of homes in the village. It was a development that was "recommended" by the planning officer but then at committee rejected. We keep expecting an appeal but it hasn't happened yet. Another field recently had "permission in principle" for less than 10 home granted so if course the developer tried to put 40 homes there. That appears to have been stopped by the council and we wait to see if the 9 bungalows the council have said they're allowed to build will actually appear.

So yes, the threat of development in almost a hobby round here, waiting for the next thing, the next meeting to be advertised. I love my home and wouldn't move. You'll struggle to find any village that doesn't have to deal with it. 600 is A LOT though, I think I'd pull out if I didn't own the property and that was possibly a thing in the near future.

Listen to your gut. If the homes are going to be very close to your property and impact the green spaces and views directly then I would pull out.
You are probably also paying a premium at the moment with the undeveloped land around the property and the value may reduce once the green space doesn’t exist anymore. However as others have said, this is a common trend so you may want to consider living someone a bit more built up so at least you know what you are getting rather than buying a house next to fields.

If we bought the house we’d definitely be in the catchment for it. If we bought in one of the surrounding small villages, with all the planned development, there’s a chance the catchment would change and we would be out of catchment then.

If they haven't even applied for planning permission, much less built anything, the catchment won't change by the time you're applying if your dd is already year 5.

@Reallybadidea good point! I think siblings get precedence over feeder school or location kids so if we can get our eldest in then our youngest should also be able to go two years after.

@Mumlaplomb you make a good point about paying a premium. The housing market is a bit mad and house prices are eye watering.

Our lender has said that we’re overpaying and so they’re sending a surveyor to do an in person survey to confirm it this week. So that’s another issue to consider.

The panic last night was very real though! We’ve seen a couple of beautiful houses that are either in budget but are close to a busy road/ have an overlooked garden etc, or slightly out of budget but perfect for us.

@SushiGo it is part of a local
plan which seems to have only been communicated to the locals now, taking a lot of people by surprise.

The village is lovely and has some amenities but they’re quite limited. Public transport is also appallingly sparse already so it’s difficult to see how the village will support so many people.

Reading the plan the aim seems to be to lower the average house price there by building cheap 1 and 2 bed new builds and heavily discounting them for lower income families who currently privately rent, and by offering further discounts for people who are in social housing. The 1 bed thing is odd to me too… what is the target audience for those?

I guess you wouldn’t ever know about the best houses until you let the estate agents know you were looking again as the nicest places never even hit rightmove before they go off-market.

its such a gamble though as you’d have to pull out before you can do that - is an option to rent close to the school and then buy once you’re local and daughter is sorted ?

If they haven't even got planning yet, I very much doubt even your second child will be affected- if anything is finished, it will probably only be a first phase and not the full 600. These things always take much longer than expected. But I can see why you would feel nervous about proceeding.

As others have said, you never know what's around the corner. We bought in the middle of London many years ago and we are still having a development of 600 flats over 8 x 10 storey buildings between us and our nearest school / supermarket. But that has taken 2 years just to get to planning, before they even start sorting out the site. So I'm holding my breath that it will be finished anytime soon.

Well people keep piling into the country and they need somewhere to live.

If it is a dealbreaker to you, then it is a dealbreaker to you.

Just bear in mind that these days lots of places are getting extra housing. And the costs of buying a place that is kept "quaint" for the privilige of the locals is likely to be £££££ more for that very reason.

So either you are willing or able to pay £££££ more to protect yourself against the menace of the proles. Or you become one.

Is there a map showing the area that would be developed? I would visit the house you are buying and do a walk about of the development site to get a feel for what will change for you. To be honest 600 houses isn't all that many compared to other development sites I know of. Like others have said, this govt and the one before are really really pushing for housing growth. I would look in the adopted and draft Local Plans to see where the local council is allocating housing development. If there aren't other houses for you to consider that would avoid this issue, perhaps this will still be your best option.

I would be concerned that a development that size in a village will change the character of the village completely. It might be for the better or worse, but it is unlikely to remain the 'quaint' place it is now. If you are buying there because you particularly like the community, bear that in mind.

If you read council plans, it's pretty easy to find out which towns and villages are earmarked for development. Where we are it's primarily the ones with railway stations and bus routes. The tiny villages with no amenities or only a miniscule school and pub are not getting much or any development.

Why the concern about it being mainly 1 bed properties? Why do you want more families? One bed would suit couples trying to get on the property ladder, older people wanting to size down etc. At least the local school won't be flooded with children etc.

Obviously it doesn't sound like it's going to be good if you have one local shop etc

I'd be interested to see the plan to find out more about the argument for the 1 and 2 beds. (I understand you might not want to share!)

Practical advice: if this is a regulation 18 consultation and you think some of the assumptions/evidence that has gone towards making the plan is wrong submit a response to the consultation. For example, if the plan says the village has very good public transport and the evidence base lists buses that you know don't run anymore point this out.

On the other hand, I would probably move in anyway. The kind of village that is suitable for development is often also vulnerable to loss of services if it doesn't grow at all. Long term, local facilities fold without young people on lower incomes moving to the area. Pubs, schools and shops don't stay open in villages where all of the children grew up and moved out because they can't afford to live there anymore.