Thoughts on new-build townhouses in general?

ash4040

As the title says really. Been looking at a few options and houses down in London and found a townhouse that fits the budget. Not sure if the consensus on townhouses are that they are good homes or not?

Background info: It will me my first house and will be my home to live in.

Any advise will help  

UnderOffer

Town house with 3 floors? Is the living room on the 1st floor (not ground)? I always thought that would be a pain, but really depends on layout, I.e if there is a toilet on all floors then that’s a good point, sometimes the bedrooms are better sized too when across 3 floors. Can you describe where rooms are located to help get advice. 

dimbo61

We have lived in a 3 storey house with master bedroom on the top floor.
Great exercise running up and down two flights of stairs 

deannagone

I lived in a three story property.  Kitchen downstairs, lounge and bedroom on upper two floors.  I have to say, it was a complete pain when someone knocked on the door trying to get to the door before they gave up waiting.  I'd panic if there was a knock lol.

zagubov

We rented one for about a year. The plus side is you get a lot more space for your money than if you bought an older property in London. They often come with parking spaces or garages which is otherwise rare to nonexistent in this part of the world.

Cons: three-floor living was unexpectedly a pain. Third storey's really only suitable for guests, storage, maybe an office. You'd curse yourself every time you reached the ground floor and found you'd left something on the top floor.

Kitchens can be small so despite the space, you may be stuck with a fitted washer-dryer that takes forever to do your laundry. May also be difficult to fit in one of the bigger fridge-freezers many people prefer nowadays.

Soundproofing seemed weak. You could hear your next door neighbours blinking or changing their mind.

user1977

I get the impression they have all the disadvantages of normal terraced houses, with the added one of constantly finding yourself at least two floors away from whatever you're needing.

Flugelhorn

I live near some newish ones with garage / bedroom/ shower room on the ground floor and  kitchen / living room on the first / bedrooms on the second - many find the kitchen on the first is a pain with shopping having to be carried up etc and some tricky staircases wich make sofa deliveries interesting 

jenni_fer

Flugelhorn said:

I live near some newish ones with garage / bedroom/ shower room on the ground floor and  kitchen / living room on the first / bedrooms on the second - many find the kitchen on the first is a pain with shopping having to be carried up etc and some tricky staircases wich make sofa deliveries interesting 

We owned one like this for a few years. As young adults it was fab as we had a second en-suite for guests and there was a lot of space for a first home. We generally found that we essentially lived in the 1st and 2nd floors (so a two up two down) with the added bonus of garage, utility and extra study on a lower floor that we used as needed.

We moved because we couldn't fathom how it worked with babies, although plenty in the street did have young kids so clearly it wasn't that hard.

We did have the take the banister off for sofa removal though! 

Doozergirl

We had one, briefly, that I loved but my husband didn't like it.  We also rented a
different one for a while.  

There are so many possible
layouts, it's really important that you can see it working for you.   I loved the layout of our first, the living space was all
downstairs, it had been extended and had a separate garage, so living vs sleeping space felt balanced.  We had the entire top floor as a suite and the kids both had good sized bedrooms and a bathroom in the middle.  

I did, however, take a look at one on the In My Home board recently for someone who was
looking to buy and to make changes.  I did the maths and it was so badly
laid out with hallways everywhere that it had virtually NO extra space compared to a two storey with the same footprint.  It had been designed by an idiot, had awkward room shapes and sizes and didn't seem to have any redeeming features, IMO.  

Make sure you are getting the space you think you are paying for.  In order to work best, the stairs need to be very close to the front door.  
 

TripleH

We live in one. Have a lounge /Kitchen and an office on middle floor, 3 bedrooms and bathroom on top floor. Garage shower room and utility room on ground floor.

It's a pain for me in that I have to answer the door as I'm on the middle floor but it works for us.

andy444

The last house I lived in was a 3 storey townhouse. I generally liked it but there are some quirks of living in one. It can be difficult to hear the doorbell if you are on the top floor and having to go up and down two flights of stairs may not suit everyone. 

They can have poor sound proofing; we heard virtually nothing from one set of neighbours but we could hear the TV and music occasionally from the other neighbours, but I suppose that's the same with most new builds.