Purchasing above/next to restaurant

brizza

Thank you all. I never fail to be amazed by the time and effort people go to, to discuss the problems of others on MSE.

I've probably painted a more negative picture of the property than necessary, but that's fine, I'd rather have the worst case scenario considered, rather than the best case!

Some very useful points to consider in there - a lot we'd thought of ourselves, but also it's useful to see others thinking in the same way and know that we're not being overly cautious.

There's not a lot of through traffic in terms of drunks because of the location, but the deliveries and extractor fans aren't something I'd thought of in any great detail.

I absolutely love happycamel's idea and it makes perfect sense, can't believe I've never read that anywhere else. We did a minor version of this on Friday night, going to the pub two doors down to check out the area and the busyness, in truth, it was pretty quiet. By the time we left the pub, the restaurant was fully closed and locked up. Much more research required though.

AlexMac

I'd be cautious too, although you could argue that 'you get what you pay for' so the flat may also be cheap because of its context?. I recall however, that some 10 years + ago, when I was saddled with managing commercial properties built by a Housing Association (about 40 shop units which the HA had built at Planners' insistence!) a big headache was the constant friction between tenants of catering units and the flats above- mostly smells and noise from the extractors and their metal vents which amplified the fan vibration. When discussing amelioration of the problem, I also got caught in the crossfire between the tenants, Council Environmental Health Officers (who wanted fans and vents running right up to 4th floor roof level) and Planners (who wanted less visually intrusive low level extractors with filters- which the EHOs argued would simply clog with grease!). A bit of a headache and I didn't have to live there

brizza

Absolutely agree about getting what we pay for, by way of comparison - this is a 1,000ish square foot property with a large garden, for a similar price 400 yards away we would get a 650 square foot property, with a tiny garden. To get a property this size, in this area, without the commercial property headache, would cost a little under double the price.

What I'm becoming less convinced about however, is whether the very significant downsides to this outweigh the potential positives.

Nynaeve

I have rented a flat next door to a resteraunt (quite posh actually) but still had problems with delivery vans coming early and blocking the road, food smells, people being loud when they come outside for a cigarette, and staff hanging around at 2am in the morning after work!!

I know everyone is different but please think really hard about this.

1886

I would walk away from this one OP. The noise and smell will get on your nerves, in the summer it will be worse with people staying out longer and your windows being open.
I used to rent above a hairdressers. We could hear people's conversations almost word for word and we would often be able to smell bleach. Listening to an old granny's conversation whilst she gets a blue rinse is'nt what I needed on a saturday morning