Buying in the NW (Macclesfield) - thoughts on this RM ad?

D_M_E

There's some not very far away from that with a downstairs loo already in place, for example this new build

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-63276441.html

DoaM

What was wrong with your original thread?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6039948

JayRitchie

I like it more than the first one you posted - looks livable and a better price/ lower risk of major dramas selling again. Have you looked at flats? They seem a lot cheaper and one level which might help your partner and be more flexible if you need or want to move away?

Are you sure you won't look to buy a car? There are great places to drive to in the area or for a day/ weekend out?

Cakeguts

That is a bodged job. Look at the staircase. They have blocked off the access into the hallway at the bottom by building a wall. How are you going to get furniture up there? Not only that but I am fairly certain that it now contravenes fire exit regulations because you could find that you have furniture in the way unless you leave a bendy corridor through from the bottom of the stairs to either the back door or the front door.



Think of a normal staircase. You wake in the middle of the night and the house is pitch black and full of smoke. You go down the staircase and straight out the front door which is facing the bottom of your staircase. In this house you go down the staircase and meet a wall at the bottom. The living room will have to have a fire exit accross the middle of it to the dining area so furniture in the living room will have to be all round the walls with a huge gap across the middle.

movingtomacc

Yes, definitely more within the "norm" of the kind of properties in area.

We have looked at flats but found very few that are lifted or on the ground floor (just 2 actually). The ones we enquired had much higher service charges than I would expect. I would be vary of lifted blocks anyways, can be quite a money pit for leaseholders if things go wrong.

Not looking to buy a car presently. We're pretty happy with being able to rent cheaply from the local area (hiyacar, turo, etc) when needed.

JayRitchie wrote: »

I like it more than the first one you posted - looks livable and a better price/ lower risk of major dramas selling again. Have you looked at flats? They seem a lot cheaper and one level which might help your partner and be more flexible if you need or want to move away?

Are you sure you won't look to buy a car? There are great places to drive to in the area or for a day/ weekend out?

movingtomacc

I hadn't thought of that. Is that uncommon? It's the same in the house we're renting though.

Cakeguts wrote: »

That is a bodged job. Look at the staircase. They have blocked off the access into the hallway at the bottom by building a wall.

Cakeguts

I wouldn't pay anything to live in that street. £180k is way over the top for a terraced house in at street full of workshops and backing onto a factory. Awful area.



Looks like a London mews house but in Macclesfield is in a not very nice area.

movingtomacc

I see your point, but tbh, we're fine with the area. We're used to living in an inner city environment and Macclesfield town is super peaceful in comparison.

Cakeguts wrote: »

I wouldn't pay anything to live in that street. £180k is way over the top for a terraced house in at street full of workshops and backing onto a factory. Awful area.

Looks like a London mews house but in Macclesfield is in a not very nice area.

Cakeguts

movingtomacc wrote: »

I hadn't thought of that. Is that uncommon? It's the same in the house we're renting though.

Terraced houses in the North West either have staircases going from a front door with a hall and the staircase facing the front door. Or they go up the middle of the house with the bottom of the stair case coming out between the front room and the kitchen so that you can get out in either direction in a fire. Or they have a staircase that goes up from the kitchen. In all cases you come out into a room where there is a door to get out.



I can't tell if the staircase has been moved in that house. Sometimes if they go up the middle of the house people move them so that the bottom then faces the front door.



In this house the staircase could have started out as one of the ones that was postioned in the kitchen. Then someone has built an extension on the back of the house and so now the staircase comes out into a room that doesn't have an outside door which I can't think is very safe.



Some years ago we bought a house that had the stairs in the kitchen and they was a very tight bend near the top. We had to buy a single bed that was in two parts to get it round the bend. Sometimes in houses like this you have to take a window out in order to get larger pieces of furniture into the house if it won't go up the stairs.



What you are looking at here is not a nice little mews type house in a fashionable cobbled street. It would be that in London. In the North West it is an overpriced terraced house in a totally non desirable area in the middle of a town. The problem you have is that you are looking at terraced houses. If you are going to buy a terraced house in a town in the North West you have to buy the cheapest one you can find because none of them are going to be in desirable areas and the more new detached or semi detached housing they build the cheaper and cheaper the terraced housing is going to become. People don't aspire to live in a terraced house in the centre of town especially when the housing they do aspire to live in could be only a 10 minute bus journey to the station. In the North West you buy a terraced house only if you can't afford anything better. People will even buy flats before they will buy a terraced house and they will only buy a flat if they can't afford anything better.





I live in London but I have connections to the North West. So I can see what these houses look like to someone who is used to living in London but I can also see what the look like to someone who lives in the North West. We have rented housing in the North West and none of it is terraced housing like the housing that you are looking at simply because we know that people don't want to live in terraced houses. If you want to buy a terraced house it has to be described as a cottage and it has to be in a very expensive part of the town.



This is an example of the kind of old terraced house that people aspire to live in. It is very different to London.


https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-70797262.html


Here is another one



https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-72571771.html


Or something like this



https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-72586735.html


They don't aspire to live in an ordinary terraced house in the middle of an industrial area in the centre of town and especially not in a terraced house where the front door opens onto the street.



Here is an example of the type of house people are looking for. It is one mile from the centre of Macclesfield and you get a bus. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-82954589.html


Here is another one https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-83720108.html


Be careful of ex local authority houses. People don't want those they can afford something better.


Look for something with offstreet parking. You don't need it but the houses that have it are in more popular areas.



This isn't London. 1930s houses are sought after because there aren't so many of them.



What most people are looking for is a 3 bed semi or detached with offstreet parking within walking distance to shops. If they commute to Manchester they would also like to be near a station. What they are not looking for is a terraced house with the door straight onto the street with bad parking and in an area where there are businesses. This is not London. Tastes in housing are very different.

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

I think you are being a bit harsh there Cakeguts. OP knows what he/she wants and (from what I understand) is already renting in the area.

If they want a terraced house in the middle of town, that's what they will be looking at. People have different likes, tastes and preferences. Someone must be living in all those houses in the middle of town.