House on street - pros and cons

marvin80

We're looking at buying at the moment. We've both lived in estates growing up but we've seen a house that ticks a lot of boxes but it's on a street close to a town centre.

Do people have any pros and cons for houses like this?
Parking could be an issue because only on-street is available.

Bio Mech

marvin80 wrote: »

We're looking at buying at the moment. We've both lived in estates growing up but we've seen a house that ticks a lot of boxes but it's on a street close to a town centre.

Do people have any pros and cons for houses like this?
Parking could be an issue because only on-street is available.

Yeah parking issues and drunks knocking on your windows and ringing your doorbell spring to mind. Traffic noise too? Is the road busy.

jrosen

I would be extremely reluctant to buy a house that didnt have a driveway to park in or at the very least allocated patrolled spaces. So look into the parking element.

I lived somewhere before with on street parking and coming home from work to no parking was a regular occurrence.

stargazer 68

The parking would be a deal breaker for me too. Let alone trying to find parking for yourself, visitors too and workmen etc.

I know visitors would have to find parking outside anyway but at least if residents have driveways it's a bit easier.

You may also find people parking for shops, transport etc.

yabadabado

No parking forget about it.Unless it's a city centre location but it doesn't seem to be.

gmisk

Struggling to think of any pros tbh

Del2005

gmisk wrote: »

Struggling to think of any pros tbh

No front garden to tend.



What way are the bins? Does it have rear access for them or through the house?

twowheelsonly

Have a look at the area at different times of day and night.
See if there's schools or pubs nearby and if the street is used as a main thoroughfare, a rat run or convenient parking for the town centre.
I wouldn't rule it out completely if, as you say, it ticks a lot of other boxes.
Something else to bear in mind if it's a terraced house is getting wheelie bins in and out and whether there's room on the path for them.
Personally, if I didn't have children, living in a street facing house wouldn't bother me.

olestoepoke

Pros....If you have kids and the neighbours have kids you can let them out to play
Cons....Too many to mention, neighbours cutting grass at 8am, houses overlooking your back garden, assholes parking across your driveway, having to be nice to people when you leave the house all the time even when youre in a bad mood ha ha.

Tails142

No garden and own door access are about the only pro's.

There's a good few negatives as mentioned in the thread. Suits some people though and being in a town within very short walking distance of things can be really great.

sterz

Username checks out.

Mrs OBumble

gmisk wrote: »

Struggling to think of any pros tbh

No estate management charges.

No estate management company to deal with.

Likely closer to pubs / shops that houses in estates (depends on the town).

Less interraction with the neighbours, typically fewer curtain twitchers around.

Typically no front lawn to worry about.


It will all come down to your need for parking, and the facilities in the town.

yabadabado

olestoepoke wrote: »

Pros....If you have kids and the neighbours have kids you can let them out to play
Cons....Too many to mention, neighbours cutting grass at 8am, houses overlooking your back garden, assholes parking across your driveway, having to be nice to people when you leave the house all the time even when youre in a bad mood ha ha.

All of those could be cons in an estate .

Unless you build a stand alone house then hard avoid most of that anywhere else.

Caranica

Noise, noise, noise. And parking.

Wouldn't do it if you paid me.

10pennymixup

Comes down to the individual property's location that you're looking at.

I have a rental that's a town house. It's in a small rural town where the street outside goes so quiet after 9 o'clock, metaphorical tumbleweed roll by.

Coupled with shops and post office bank etc all being within 150m of the front door it's ideal for the incumbent tenants that have been there years.

One drawback not yet mentioned is that town houses tend to have been built a long time ago when building methods were different. If it gets that far, employ an engineer used to such houses prior to completing contracts, and any work to be done by someone used to working on same.

My house is over 150 years old, with dry rubble filled walls on a spreader foundation, some of the internal lintels made of wood. Not ideal for a DIYer to fit vents with a kango hammer, if you know what I mean.

Choice of house insurance can also be limited by owning an old house

Of course your property might be newly built on a demolished site, which brings me back to my original point. It all depends on your individual property.

10pennymixup

olestoepoke wrote: »

Pros....If you have kids and the neighbours have kids you can let them out to play
Cons....Too many to mention, neighbours cutting grass at 8am, houses overlooking your back garden, assholes parking across your driveway, having to be nice to people when you leave the house all the time even when youre in a bad mood ha ha.

To be fair, that sound more like what you are describing are more associated with an estate house rather than a street house.

I wouldn't let my kids play on a street, and the cons you mention all have happened to me in an estate house.

Notmything

From personal experience: handy as i lived in town. So could walk to most places, meant i could leave the car at home. To front garden to look after.

But......the noise and constant traffic. People knocking your door/window for a laugh. Parking was a serious issue, people would park up for the day and head off shopping. The house constantly looked grimy due to the dust. Dragging bins through the house, gob****es knocking the bins over.

ger vallely

We bought a terraced house on a street 10 minutes walk to the city centre. I grew up in an estate and had lived in many other estates. I love my terraced house. Yes we bring the bins through but that is my one and only gripe. We have a lovely little city back garden which we've turned into a beautiful oasis. I love the people walking past and the general bustle about the place. We sleep to the back of the house and there's no traffic noise issues. We've had the odd few kids doing a knick knack but that's it. I live in a student city but there's not been any grief or wild drunken madness outside. I highly recommend it.

marvin80

Thanks for all the replies.

There's a few offices (solicitors, accountants on the street) so during the day parking is tricky but at night there's no issues.
We'd have access to the rear so bins wouldn't go through the house.

The street is away from pubs so would hope there's no issues on that side.

Big plus is it's close proximity to shops, town etc.. and the property is in quite good condition as well.

seabelle

Pros - living in a town you have lots of shops and facilities close by. I have 4 supermarkets within walking distance of my house, it's been handy in lockdown to have so many things close by.

Cons - front doors that open straight onto paths are inconvenient, I have neighbours that open their doors directly on to the road which I wouldn't be OK with.

Can't get a skip and some deliveries can be difficult, on my street they mainly just stop on the road and hold up traffic to deliver furniture.

There are pubs near to my house and I'd occasionally be woken up by shouting and singing outside. There's also a chipper just down the road and drunks leave their empty wrappers outside my house. If I'm slow bringing in the bin people throw rubbish in it and it seems they always throw a full cup of coffee in the recycling.

Overall I love my house but I had lived in a city centre for 10 years prior to buying it, if you're used to something else it could be a bit of a shock.

riclad

cons , House on a street, unless theres a a side entrance you have to bring out bins through the front door.

pro old house usually have high ceilings .
check is there a parking meter on the street,
eg non residents have to buy a parking ticket to park in that street.
pros old houses, are usually surrounded by a rear wall 9 foot high, more privacy.
new estates cons theres usually maybe a 6 ft wooden fence between houses, lack of privacy
there may be a row of houses behind your house.
pro you get a driveway to park your car.

Think about traffic noise, is it a cul de sac street,
or is there cars ,people passing by all day.
cul de sacs tend to be quiet,
only people that live there go there .
no random passer bys.

Cons estate , tend to have large gardens and maybe a small
front garden parking space for 2 cars usually.
street you have a choice of buying a small house or a large 3bed house.

most estate houses are identical in size.

some corner house have a larger garden than the neighbours house

MrMusician18

seabelle wrote: »

Pros - living in a town you have lots of shops and facilities close by. I have 4 supermarkets within walking distance of my house, it's been handy in lockdown to have so many things close by.

Cons - front doors that open straight onto paths are inconvenient, I have neighbours that open their doors directly on to the road which I wouldn't be OK with.

Can't get a skip and some deliveries can be difficult, on my street they mainly just stop on the road and hold up traffic to deliver furniture.

There are pubs near to my house and I'd occasionally be woken up by shouting and singing outside. There's also a chipper just down the road and drunks leave their empty wrappers outside my house. If I'm slow bringing in the bin people throw rubbish in it and it seems they always throw a full cup of coffee in the recycling.

Overall I love my house but I had lived in a city centre for 10 years prior to buying it, if you're used to something else it could be a bit of a shock.

The big plus is that that this type of housing is usually in town and city centres so is close to amenities. I'm house hunting myself though and I've ruled then out for one reason: parking.

At the moment I could live with on street parking, but as the Irish fleet moves towards electrification, the ability to charge at home will become more and more important.

Apoapsis Rex

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

No estate management charges.

No estate management company to deal with.

This reminds me, if the house was part of a development but one of a few that are on the main road 'outside' of the estate. Are these houses expected to pay management charges does anyone know?

Even though the house is getting no benefit from the charges as being on the public road it would be the council lighting, road surface etc...

the_pen_turner

Far too many deal breakers for me.
No parking
No privacy
Cant open windows fully
People looking in
Road noise
People talking outside
No rear acrss for bins etc without going all around if at all
Scumbags and drunks during the night
Far too near pubs etc
Probably street lighting coming in the windows
People sitting on your window fills
Pure headache trying to paint or clean gutters etc
Drunks using the street as a toilet right outside your house

No pros I can see over an estate house

riclad

i live on a street i have never seen scumbags hanging around,
you should not see random drunks unless you live on busy road near a pub,
never seen 1 person drunk
side streets tend to be quiet,
people looking in , maybe buy some curtains.
if you buy house on a main road it will be more noisey .more passers by.
i think pen turner is talking about a house located on a busy main road .
not a quiet side street or a cul de sac
before you buy drive by house at 8pm,
10pm,
see is it quiet .
eg buyer beware .

every area is different.do your research.

its alot more complex than street =bad,
estates =good.

Mrs OBumble

the_pen_turner wrote: »

Far too many deal breakers for me.
....
No privacy
Cant open windows fully
People looking in
....
People talking outside
....
Scumbags and drunks during the night
...
Probably street lighting coming in the windows
....
Pure headache trying to paint or clean gutters etc
.......

No pros I can see over an estate house

Quite a few ( as above) also apply in estates.

Estates also tend to have more of other people's pets and kids annoying you.

the_pen_turner

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Quite a few ( as above) also apply in estates.

Estates also tend to have more of other people's pets and kids annoying you.

I know they apply to estate too but there are pros to estates

Ah people don't knock on door as much as you think.. Lived off street for 4 years and rarely hapened... I didn't find noise an issue either..

From my experience housing estate's can be just as noisy..

However lack of parking would turn me off it again..

the_pen_turner

riclad wrote: »

i live on a street i have never seen scumbags hanging around,
you should not see random drunks unless you live on busy road near a pub,
never seen 1 person drunk
side streets tend to be quiet,
people looking in , maybe buy some curtains.
if you buy house on a main road it will be more noisey .more passers by.
i think pen turner is talking about a house located on a busy main road .
not a quiet side street or a cul de sac
before you buy drive by house at 8pm,
10pm,
see is it quiet .
eg buyer beware .

every area is different.do your research.

its alot more complex than street =bad,
estates =good.

Where is this lovely place.
Any town or large village I have been in has been like that in places

seabelle

I don't think you can generalise houses in a town vs estates because it really depends on the town and the estate. There are some Celtic tiger era estates built in the back of beyonds that have very little going for them and there are towns without much going on in them.

I live just off the main street in my town, I have an allocated parking space that I can see from my house and as the end of terrace I have a side gate to access my garden. There are some estates with houses that have an identical setup to mine, and some estates with massive detached houses with parking for 4 and huge gardens. It's hard to generalise what an estate house is.

MrMusician18

MrMusician18 wrote: »

The big plus is that that this type of housing is usually in town and city centres so is close to amenities. I'm house hunting myself though and I've ruled then out for one reason: parking.

At the moment I could live with on street parking, but as the Irish fleet moves towards electrification, the ability to charge at home will become more and more important.

People (especially younger) are also slowly moving towards car sharing in cities (Zipcar, Go car etc). So not all in the future will have the need for a 24/7 car. I'd like to see these rolled out in every major town in Ireland.