Basement flat

cherry76

What are the disadvantages of buying a basement flat? Thanks

19lottie82

My ex rented one and didn't like it much due to the lack of natural light. Also the security aspect might cause some concern.

G_M

The Gobbie-dobblies always hang out at night down in the basement....

dacouch

It can often be difficult to get large furniture eg sofas and wardrobes into basement flats

Degenerate

Avoid basement flats near large water mains.

poppysarah

Light, access, potential for flooding, plumbing issues, upstairs neighbours. etc.

DannyboyMidlands

There are no advantages unless you like damp, dark places. Maybe you like growing mushrooms?

smith121

Water may come during rainy season. Lack of natural light, suffocation. This may happen after you purchase flat in basement.

richardw

They're dark, one winter was enough, moved out in October to avoid the next.

sirmosh

The only advantage is they'll be a bit cheaper than a ground floor or above flat. They're not a light, can be damp, and the risk of flood is greater but everyone has to live somewhere and if you can get a good deal it's better than being homeless.

kmmr

I should declare an interest here - I live in a basement flat, but actually we were looking for one and wouldn't have accepted an upstairs flat. Reasons

- The garden is ours. this was the biggest reason to get a basement flat
- Own front door and front 'porch' area
- Feels much more seperate to the rest of the block of flats
- We put on a massive extension and have a beautiful big flat now. Much less scope to do that in upstairs flats.
- Can dig down and put in underfloor heating.
- Front vaults (under the pavement) can be very large. Great for storage, and even bathroom or extra bedroom. The 'vault' bedrooms are always a bit miserable though... and it seems to me that flats with vault bedrooms seem to struggle to sell.

In my area (West Kensington) basement flats are more expensive that upper flats, due to the outdoor space.

There are negatives:

- Limited windows. Only front and back, which makes re-organising the interior hard if you want to do that. We got around this with a big extension and being clever with space
- Damp. There was some to begin with, but we spent a few thousand right after completion to do the messy work to fix this and no trouble since.
- Related to damp - Maintenance of the building is important as the basement gets the impact of broken pipes, old leaks etc. So you need to be involved in the maintainence and make sure it happens.
- Upstairs leaked into our second bedroom! But insurance took care of it.
- I have recently decided not to buy another basement flat which has a history of flooding from the mains pipes, so I agree I would always avoid that.
- You often have to pay for all the common area maintenance, and you don't use it, but you can possibly negotiate you way out of that. We have share of freehold, and manage it comunally - so the other owners all informally agreed to take a larger share of 'their' common area costs