location verses house - your opinion please!

Mrs_Arcanum

Trouble is new build estates end up with no identity and the better location aspect can change or only be a better location because the new estate has been built.

Cissi

No contest, for me: unless there is any antisocial stuff going on in the area then go for the older house with character! It's lovely and the street doesn't look bad either. Those 30s semis look reasonably well maintained and it's a nice and green road. The other one I'd personally never even consider - couldn't imagine anything worse than living in one of a number of identikit boxes all squeezed in on an estate!

When it comes to reselling too, with the new house you'd almost certainly be competing with a number of identical boxes so it would come down to price, whereas there is a good chance that someone will fall in love with the older house, especially judging by reactions on here.

The big question has to be why the larger house seems so cheap - is there something that you haven't discovered yet? This may not have to do with the area, so if you do go for it then a full structural survey would be essential in my opinion.

Edited to add that normally I too would say location, location, location - but in this case I don't necessarily agree that the location on a newbuild estate is better than where the older house is - but of course I don't know the area at all, so do a lot of research in any case.

fawd1

It might also be worth noting that almost every single house on the street of the older one looks to be very well looked after, which is always a good sign that your neighbours care about their houses and community. I'd go for the big one myself. The newbuild seems completely soulless, and don't they depreciate in value anyway? It really depends on whether you're looking for a great home, or a good investment, I'm not sure you can really have both, unless you're already loaded!!

seven-day-weekend

The larger house knoocks spots off the other one, imho, and the estate that the second one is on would really be a no-no for me....in the end it depends what you want. I would want a house within walking distance of shops and local amenities on a good bus route, and not on an estate, or at least on the very outside edge of one. So I think for me there would be no contest, the bigger house it would be.

Scabarella

Thank you to all of you for your help and opinions, we have decided to do another viewing on the both properties and fault hunt, but unless we see something really bad I think we will be opting for the big house!

Miss_Ratty

I would always say location, but do plenty of research. Look at police.uk website and that will give you crime rates for your area, including antisocial behaviour. We've been using that a lot as are looking for a house too. Also follow others advice...go at dusk/Friday night, rush hour, school drop off times etc as places can really change! Good luck whatever you choose x

RenStar

The bigger house certainly has the wow factor. However, I will still seriously consider the location. You may not have kids now but believe me things like proximity to good schools become really important when or if you have kids. All I can say is think very carefully about establishing roots in an area if you're not sure about it to start with, you can change a house but you can never change an area.

lou72

Wow, I'd be pleased to live in either of those:) if I had to choose though I would say the larger one. Unless it was in a rough road, it wouldn't bother me and when you go home you close the door on everything anyway. If and when you decide to have children, you can send them to a more desireable school if you wish. Good luck with your decision

olly300

I've had many friends who brought houses and flats due to the size rather than the location. When they had children they realised their properties were in unsuitable areas to bring children up in i.e. nurseries, schools, crime so stressed about selling them so they could move to more desirable places.

I personally would always go for location if you are planning to have children in the next 7 years.

phoebe1989seb

I'd personally definitely never buy a *new* house on an estate and agree the older house has much more kerb-appeal, wow-factor etc......but I would certainly research, research and research again regarding the location and why it is so cheap.

We once moved to an area we hadn't researched properly, having fallen in love with the house on RM. It was a real one-off, chocolate-box type period house and having sold in a very expensive area with the intention of downsizing dramatically we were amazed that for half the price we'd sold for we could still get a fairly large property in this new area..........it was a HUGE mistake and we lost loads of money when we sold last year, having discovered that the area - whilst appearing perfectly ok when we viewed - was actually absolutely awful

My advice would be to try to establish exactly why the older house is such a *bargain* before you fall head over heels in love with it........hope it all works out for you!