price of house close to proposed Glastonbury style music festival

Nenen

We've seen a house for sale we like but found out that, following several planning appeals, permission has been granted for a local farmer to host a yearly music festival (on the lines of a smaller Glastonbury) one weekend per year (probably August bank holiday for around 30,000 people).

Apparently the locals are up in arms about it... it is a small village about 7 miles from Cambridge and will obviously create loads of traffic and noise. They are also convinced that there will be a huge increase in crime and that no one will be able to leave their home unattended during this time.

Personally, one weekend of noise and inconvenience in an otherwise tranquil setting doesn't worry me too much (I try hard not to be too much of a judgemental NIMBY):rotfl: . However, I am worried about paying over the odds for the situation or buying a property that will be hard to sell if this does come to be a regular festival. Does anyone have any knowledge of what house prices are like around Glastonbury or if these festivals really do affect the crime rate etc?

One more thing... the house was originally on for 295K and we put an offer of 240K in a fortnight ago (it needs quite a lot doing to it as well as the festival issue). Our offer was declined (the agents said they had already turned down offers of 275K and 280K) and yet today I noticed that they had dropped the price to 'offers over 250K'. Do you think this is to stimulate a 'bidding war' on an otherwise difficult to sell property?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated!:beer:

Gorgeous_George

The residents of Pilton (nr Glastonbury) suffered crime and nuisance (including people defecating in their gardens). Things have improved somewhat over recent years.

Not for me.



GG

Nenen

Thanks for that advice gorgeous do you happen to know if it has affected house prices round there?

david29dpo

offers over £250000? are the sellers paying the stamp duty?

barnaby-bear

Nenen wrote: »

We've seen a house for sale we like but found out that, following several planning appeals, permission has been granted for a local farmer to host a yearly music festival (on the lines of a smaller Glastonbury) one weekend per year (probably August bank holiday for around 30,000 people).

Apparently the locals are up in arms about it... it is a small village about 7 miles from Cambridge and will obviously create loads of traffic and noise. They are also convinced that there will be a huge increase in crime and that no one will be able to leave their home unattended during this time.

Personally, one weekend of noise and inconvenience in an otherwise tranquil setting doesn't worry me too much (I try hard not to be too much of a judgemental NIMBY):rotfl: . However, I am worried about paying over the odds for the situation or buying a property that will be hard to sell if this does come to be a regular festival. Does anyone have any knowledge of what house prices are like around Glastonbury or if these festivals really do affect the crime rate etc?

One more thing... the house was originally on for 295K and we put an offer of 240K in a fortnight ago (it needs quite a lot doing to it as well as the festival issue). Our offer was declined (the agents said they had already turned down offers of 275K and 280K) and yet today I noticed that they had dropped the price to 'offers over 250K'. Do you think this is to stimulate a 'bidding war' on an otherwise difficult to sell property?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated!:beer:

Are you talking LodeStar festival, if so festival wouldn't bother me.
However those eastern villages / north-eastern are in for some big changes in next few years with the eastern city expansion, will make entering city from that side a lot slower and congested development of 12,000 homes about half housing association. The east wards like Abbey already the poorest parts of the city. I'd investigate the plans closely. I guess Bottisham is nearest school (?) fairly good although does serve part of Abbey Estate. Personally I'd go for a village like Coton/Comberton/Barton/Harwick on the western side as nearest parts of city 'more salubrious' and easier to get in. If you don't need to use the city or work in the city and stick to county then Lode sounds good, but you are regarding it as do have a mile or two of the poorest/ grimest parts of Cambridge to get through before you find a chinese you'd park your car outside.

Nenen

Thank you so much for that detailed local knowledge Barnaby-bear... just what I was hoping for! :beer:
I'm not sure if it is the Lodestar festival (as it was a couple of colleagues at work who were telling me about it and they didn't mention a specific name just a huge festival 'all the locals were dead set against' due to potential noise, traffic and crime. However the house is in Lode so it sounds fairly likely. Do you have any more info on the 'Lodestar festival'? Is it likely to attract as much trouble as mnay seem to be believing? As I said in my OP a festival once a year wouldn't really bother me but what would bother me is buying a house that got trashed every year or was devalued because of it (not very Money saving ) . I knew they were expanding housing out towards Oakington and beyond that way but hadn't realised that it would affect Lode.

I must admit that north of Cambridge city centre isn't my first choice by a long way but of course it is much cheaper. We are currently renting a house in Hardwick and must say i really like this area (as well as the other villages you mention). I do have to get into city centre for my work and ds to 6th form college.
Thanks again :beer: any more advice gratefully received

Nenen

david29dpo wrote: »

offers over £250000? are the sellers paying the stamp duty?

Not as far as I know david... nothing in the estate agent blurb about that anyway.... weird I know! We emailed an increased offer last night of 250K (maximum we could go to whilst avoiding the 3% stamp duty) emphasising that we had sold our house (currently in a short term rented property) and had a mortgage agreed in principal so no chain and strong position etc. We also mentioned we knew about the planned festival and work needing doing on the house (so they'd know it was a seriously considered offer and not just some cheeky person who would then try and lower the offer at a later date when they found out about this). We got an email back from EA today saying,
"Thank you for your mail we will speak to our client today and come back to you. I would doubt very much that they will be interested at this level."

If you say 'offers over 250K' surely an offer of 250K isn't so beneath contempt as to even create a slight stir of interest?

It just seems really odd to market a property at 295K then suddenly change to 'offers over 250K' particularly when that is the stamp duty threshold!
Opinions anyone???

HenryWeston

Nenen wrote: »

We've seen a house for sale we like but found out that, following several planning appeals, permission has been granted for a local farmer to host a yearly music festival (on the lines of a smaller Glastonbury) one weekend per year (probably August bank holiday for around 30,000 people).

:beer:

Sounds great:beer: :cool: you'll probably get free tickets to the festival if you live near

barnaby-bear

Nenen wrote: »

I must admit that north of Cambridge city centre isn't my first choice by a long way but of course it is much cheaper. We are currently renting a house in Hardwick and must say i really like this area (as well as the other villages you mention). I do have to get into city centre for my work and ds to 6th form college.
Thanks again :beer: any more advice gratefully received

My gut feeling is that the southern/western villages will become relatively more expensive to the north-eastern/eastern ones, particularly near the east city expansion. I suspect schooling and the 'social-demographic' is going to affect prices plus it's going to be extremely difficult to get into the city (already at rush hour I'd guess 30min from lode - I'd guess that could double seeing the plans - which will make it less desirable). I personally think the 1970s 3-4 bed private estates although not that pretty in Cherry Hinton are undervalued relative to rest of the city and that type of housing in Hardwick / Comberton etc offers better investment/quality of life - basically employed/middle-class/family-oriented and associated facilities all on that side of city... things are usually cheaper for a *reason*. If you don't have kids/young kids/adult kids less of an issue - but if you have teenagers I'd consider things carefully - catch the buses they would to go to city facilities, look at what there actually is to do (clubs / guides / sports centres) in that area and errr well the kids using them. The massive east expansion is going to bring Lode very near to a massive 'affordable' housing area and make transport into city much harder so long term I wouldn't consider it as an investment but since you are looking for a home - if the village works for you and you can figure a long-term transport method into the city then it's a home not an investment at the end of day.

King_Of_Fools

Nenen wrote: »

Do you have any more info on the 'Lodestar festival'?

http://www.lodestarfestival.com/

King_Of_Fools

Nenen wrote: »

It just seems really odd to market a property at 295K then suddenly change to 'offers over 250K' particularly when that is the stamp duty threshold!

I have seen this a lot in and around Cambridge recently. The market seems to have slowed right down and houses over £250k do not seem to be selling. I think the general idea is to get a lot of people interested (who would not have been otherwise if it was priced at £295k) and then stimulate a bidding war to hopefully get a good price around the original valuation.

It does seem to work as a house in Milton recently did this and sold in a day!