New 2 Bedroom House/Flat Above 3 Garages - Why?

mew

While looking for at new houses, I have come across a strange (to me anyway) house layout and I am wondering if anyone knows about the design and possible reasons for it?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-38418623.html

Personaly I was thinking it was becuse the house was built on a flood plane (different development) but then I saw the development above which shows standard design houses next door. Obviously your car would be safer in a garage, especially in the area of the development above but 3 garges for a two bedroomed 'budget' house?

G_M

It is not clear that the 3 garages all belong to the flat above, though I agree the floor plan implies it. I suspect it's a poorly put-together property description.

Or maybe it was designed with a collector of classic cars in mind....

[Deleted User]

Reviewing the site plan I'm fairly confident in speculating that the garages have no connection to the property -- although one of the garages may be available for each property.

There is no parking available on the site plan except for the garages and from my rudimentary counting of plots and garages it seems that there is a garage for each plot. I would guess that they needed to use land to build garages for the houses that don't have a room for a garage on the plot and so they figured "if we have to use this land to build a structure, let's make good use of it and throw a property on top!".

savingbee

one garage would be for the property and the other two would be for surrounding properties. many flats like that in the town I live in!

moneyistooshorttomention

"Coach houses" as they get euphemistically called.

They had started to be built where I have just moved from.

I went round one of them and, whilst its nice not to have neighbours to the side or above, its not the same as having a detached house set-up.

Neighbours might possibly be using "their" garages under your property for noisy type work (working on their car/doing DIY type work/etc). They might just be using their garages to park in as per normal...but in the middle of the night and disturbing the "coach house" above with that noise.

I believe there are also problems with stuff like insurance cover/"flying freehold" and the like??? Though someone else would be able to answer this better.

My reading indicates that fumes from cars would rise up through the garage ceilings into the home above and I wouldn't want a "coach house" just for that reason, as I don't fancy taking the risk of my indoor air getting polluted. Bad enough to have to put up with car fumes whilst out and about...but wondering whether you were going to get them in your own home too:eek:

Callie22

A few of my friends live in these as they've built loads of them on the new estates in my area. They tend to be absolutely freezing.

mew

Thanks for the replies, On closer inspection of the floor plans, as people have mentioned, it does only appear to be one garage for the house. With the other flaws mentioned, I think I'll give this style of house a miss, even though it's quite a bargain.


I originally saw the exact same design of house in a more desirable location of the town for £119,999 (50% more expensive). I wrongly assumed at the time you was paying a premium for the three garage spaces but it look like you will probably get just one.

ca55ie

Seems to be common on many newer estates. There's a few like that around here. It seems to be where they have odd shaped bits of land left and have an obligation to provide parking as part of the development.
It always amazes me what properties people will buy.

Prothet_of_Doom

I rented a room in a house opposite, a similar layout, but 4 not 3 garages. One of the garages belonged to the apartment and the other 3 to houses that backed onto the access road

http://goo.gl/maps/fgG6G check out this street view image, and then rotate 180 degrees for another similar one.

Prothet_of_Doom

ca55ie wrote: »

It always amazes me what properties people will buy.

Personally my dream house would be 4 garages under a 4 bed house.

MamaMoo_2

Where I live the council stock contains a lot of places like this. They're called "mews flats" around here, and there's usually a large row of garages with flats above. The garages are let by the council, and I think they just figured they'd make a few quid extra by adding property on top.

They're not the warmest of properties, as has been said, and around here a lot of the garages are used as workshops/storage so there's people in and out at all hours.

https://maps.gstatic.com/m/streetview/?panoid=J66Kt5nyl56aTqr_3J41aQ&cbp=0,291.6055272453983,,0,0