House next to railway?! advice please

macaque_2

I would be happy to live near a railway line if:

A property had no garden to look after
The idea of weeding flower beds with trains rushing past fifty feet away would be a non starter for me.

The property had thick walls and very good double glazing
Thick walls are good at absorbing sound and vibration. Good modern double glazing is very efficient.

I did not have children
I would not want my children playing in a garden next to a railway line. I would not want them exposed to the noise or the chemicals they spray on the track.

N9eav

My parents live 20 yards from the London -Penzance mainline. We got used to it as children and it never bothered us at all after a while. Mind you, there were no trains between 1100 and 0600.

Did lose a cat or 2 mind! I remember one time seeing my dead cat on the line.... Dad went over and disposed of it and told me it was a rabbit! Yeah right.... and why did'nt the cat come home anymore!

jonewer

Angelboots wrote: »

Thanks guys for your varied responses, i think i will give the property a miss. I can't wait to have a garden for once (i live on a 4th floor flat) and i dont want anything to spoil it, mice or noise!

Im sure i'll be posting more threads asking for advice on other properties.

Have a good weekend all.

K

You are quite correct to give it a miss.

We currently live spitting distance (literally) from the reading/windsor to Waterloo line, just adjacent to a set of points. Its really terrible. Fine to say "you get used to it" but with trains every five minutes so loud you have to crank up the volume on the tv just to hear it...... you never get used to that!

And croydon? Are you sure you want to live in croydon?

egamar

It's not only the inconvenience of living with it and the effect on the value of the house, but also - in my opinion most importantly - the length of time it will take to sell while waiting for a buyer who's OK with all the problems.
Yup, give it a miss.

Shame, though: SOMEONE has to live in Croydon, else what's its point?

jonewer

egamar wrote: »

Shame, though: SOMEONE has to live in Croydon, else what's its point?

Scary thing is that Croydon is actually quite nice compared to Selhurst and Thronton Heath :eek:

LilMissEmmylou

ok i might be daft but people saying it will effect the resale value surely are wrong? Any effect on the value will already be there if this person buys the property so it wont effect it again iykwim?

I live near a railway line, we are double glazed but sometimes the noisy freight trains will wake me up at night. No ideal in the long run tbh - but im only renting

egamar

LilMissEmmylou wrote: »

ok i might be daft but people saying it will effect the resale value surely are wrong? Any effect on the value will already be there if this person buys the property so it wont effect it again iykwim?

Everyone's monetary assessment of the annoyance will be different: for some it'll be £10k for others £50k. If you as the seller assess it at £10k but all the buyers assess it at £50k you aren't going to be selling any time soon!

You need to be able to sell your house when YOU need to sell it, not when you can find the rare buyer to buy it.

Garetha

We live next to a railway line and hardly notice the 24 trains a day. It takes a few seconds for each train to pass. No problem! - particularly since the new rails with no gaps.

We bought this house 5 years ago at the market price - so any effect - negative or positive will have already been factored in.

A railway line makes a good neighbour - we'd do it again.

GingerSte

One thing you might want to watch out for iving next to a busy railway. Are they thinking of increasing the amount of traffic on that line? This could happen by either just putting more trains on or by building new track on the same corridor. I have to admit I don't know the situation in East Croydon (as I live in Birmingham), but I know that London railways are very busy and there are lots of projects to increase capacity - Crossrail and Thameslink being just the two famous ones at the moment.

egamar

GingerSte wrote: »

Today's greatest labour-saving device is tomorrow!

You know, some sigs should be banned for being just too seductive!