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House on street - pros and cons

  • 03-04-2021 9:03am
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,817 ✭✭✭


    We're looking at buying at the moment. We've both lived in estates growing up but we've seen a house that ticks a lot of boxes but it's on a street close to a town centre.

    Do people have any pros and cons for houses like this?
    Parking could be an issue because only on-street is available.


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,046 ✭✭✭Bio Mech


    marvin80 wrote: »
    We're looking at buying at the moment. We've both lived in estates growing up but we've seen a house that ticks a lot of boxes but it's on a street close to a town centre.

    Do people have any pros and cons for houses like this?
    Parking could be an issue because only on-street is available.

    Yeah parking issues and drunks knocking on your windows and ringing your doorbell spring to mind. Traffic noise too? Is the road busy.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,630 ✭✭✭jrosen


    I would be extremely reluctant to buy a house that didnt have a driveway to park in or at the very least allocated patrolled spaces. So look into the parking element.

    I lived somewhere before with on street parking and coming home from work to no parking was a regular occurrence.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,165 ✭✭✭stargazer 68


    The parking would be a deal breaker for me too. Let alone trying to find parking for yourself, visitors too and workmen etc.

    I know visitors would have to find parking outside anyway but at least if residents have driveways it's a bit easier.

    You may also find people parking for shops, transport etc.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,573 ✭✭✭✭yabadabado


    No parking forget about it.Unless it's a city centre location but it doesn't seem to be.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 33,878 ✭✭✭✭gmisk


    Struggling to think of any pros tbh


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,102 ✭✭✭✭Del2005


    gmisk wrote: »
    Struggling to think of any pros tbh

    No front garden to tend.



    What way are the bins? Does it have rear access for them or through the house?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,273 ✭✭✭twowheelsonly


    Have a look at the area at different times of day and night.
    See if there's schools or pubs nearby and if the street is used as a main thoroughfare, a rat run or convenient parking for the town centre.
    I wouldn't rule it out completely if, as you say, it ticks a lot of other boxes.
    Something else to bear in mind if it's a terraced house is getting wheelie bins in and out and whether there's room on the path for them.
    Personally, if I didn't have children, living in a street facing house wouldn't bother me.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,391 ✭✭✭olestoepoke


    Pros....If you have kids and the neighbours have kids you can let them out to play
    Cons....Too many to mention, neighbours cutting grass at 8am, houses overlooking your back garden, assholes parking across your driveway, having to be nice to people when you leave the house all the time even when youre in a bad mood ha ha.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,119 ✭✭✭Tails142


    No garden and own door access are about the only pro's.

    There's a good few negatives as mentioned in the thread. Suits some people though and being in a town within very short walking distance of things can be really great.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 527 ✭✭✭sterz


    7zXSNsR.png

    Username checks out.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,292 ✭✭✭✭Mrs OBumble


    gmisk wrote: »
    Struggling to think of any pros tbh

    No estate management charges.

    No estate management company to deal with.

    Likely closer to pubs / shops that houses in estates (depends on the town).

    Less interraction with the neighbours, typically fewer curtain twitchers around.

    Typically no front lawn to worry about.


    It will all come down to your need for parking, and the facilities in the town.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,573 ✭✭✭✭yabadabado


    Pros....If you have kids and the neighbours have kids you can let them out to play
    Cons....Too many to mention, neighbours cutting grass at 8am, houses overlooking your back garden, assholes parking across your driveway, having to be nice to people when you leave the house all the time even when youre in a bad mood ha ha.

    All of those could be cons in an estate .

    Unless you build a stand alone house then hard avoid most of that anywhere else.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,177 ✭✭✭✭Caranica


    Noise, noise, noise. And parking.

    Wouldn't do it if you paid me.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 516 ✭✭✭10pennymixup


    Comes down to the individual property's location that you're looking at.

    I have a rental that's a town house. It's in a small rural town where the street outside goes so quiet after 9 o'clock, metaphorical tumbleweed roll by.

    Coupled with shops and post office bank etc all being within 150m of the front door it's ideal for the incumbent tenants that have been there years.

    One drawback not yet mentioned is that town houses tend to have been built a long time ago when building methods were different. If it gets that far, employ an engineer used to such houses prior to completing contracts, and any work to be done by someone used to working on same.

    My house is over 150 years old, with dry rubble filled walls on a spreader foundation, some of the internal lintels made of wood. Not ideal for a DIYer to fit vents with a kango hammer, if you know what I mean.

    Choice of house insurance can also be limited by owning an old house

    Of course your property might be newly built on a demolished site, which brings me back to my original point. It all depends on your individual property.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 516 ✭✭✭10pennymixup


    Pros....If you have kids and the neighbours have kids you can let them out to play
    Cons....Too many to mention, neighbours cutting grass at 8am, houses overlooking your back garden, assholes parking across your driveway, having to be nice to people when you leave the house all the time even when youre in a bad mood ha ha.

    To be fair, that sound more like what you are describing are more associated with an estate house rather than a street house.

    I wouldn't let my kids play on a street, and the cons you mention all have happened to me in an estate house.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,102 ✭✭✭Notmything


    From personal experience: handy as i lived in town. So could walk to most places, meant i could leave the car at home. To front garden to look after.

    But......the noise and constant traffic. People knocking your door/window for a laugh. Parking was a serious issue, people would park up for the day and head off shopping. The house constantly looked grimy due to the dust. Dragging bins through the house, gob****es knocking the bins over.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 766 ✭✭✭ger vallely


    We bought a terraced house on a street 10 minutes walk to the city centre. I grew up in an estate and had lived in many other estates. I love my terraced house. Yes we bring the bins through but that is my one and only gripe. We have a lovely little city back garden which we've turned into a beautiful oasis. I love the people walking past and the general bustle about the place. We sleep to the back of the house and there's no traffic noise issues. We've had the odd few kids doing a knick knack but that's it. I live in a student city but there's not been any grief or wild drunken madness outside. I highly recommend it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,817 ✭✭✭marvin80


    Thanks for all the replies.

    There's a few offices (solicitors, accountants on the street) so during the day parking is tricky but at night there's no issues.
    We'd have access to the rear so bins wouldn't go through the house.

    The street is away from pubs so would hope there's no issues on that side.

    Big plus is it's close proximity to shops, town etc.. and the property is in quite good condition as well.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11 seabelle


    Pros - living in a town you have lots of shops and facilities close by. I have 4 supermarkets within walking distance of my house, it's been handy in lockdown to have so many things close by.

    Cons - front doors that open straight onto paths are inconvenient, I have neighbours that open their doors directly on to the road which I wouldn't be OK with.

    Can't get a skip and some deliveries can be difficult, on my street they mainly just stop on the road and hold up traffic to deliver furniture.

    There are pubs near to my house and I'd occasionally be woken up by shouting and singing outside. There's also a chipper just down the road and drunks leave their empty wrappers outside my house. If I'm slow bringing in the bin people throw rubbish in it and it seems they always throw a full cup of coffee in the recycling.

    Overall I love my house but I had lived in a city centre for 10 years prior to buying it, if you're used to something else it could be a bit of a shock.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,184 ✭✭✭riclad


    cons , House on a street, unless theres a a side entrance you have to bring out bins through the front door.

    pro old house usually have high ceilings .
    check is there a parking meter on the street,
    eg non residents have to buy a parking ticket to park in that street.
    pros old houses, are usually surrounded by a rear wall 9 foot high, more privacy.
    new estates cons theres usually maybe a 6 ft wooden fence between houses, lack of privacy
    there may be a row of houses behind your house.
    pro you get a driveway to park your car.

    Think about traffic noise, is it a cul de sac street,
    or is there cars ,people passing by all day.
    cul de sacs tend to be quiet,
    only people that live there go there .
    no random passer bys.

    Cons estate , tend to have large gardens and maybe a small
    front garden parking space for 2 cars usually.
    street you have a choice of buying a small house or a large 3bed house.

    most estate houses are identical in size.

    some corner house have a larger garden than the neighbours house


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,754 ✭✭✭MrMusician18


    seabelle wrote: »
    Pros - living in a town you have lots of shops and facilities close by. I have 4 supermarkets within walking distance of my house, it's been handy in lockdown to have so many things close by.

    Cons - front doors that open straight onto paths are inconvenient, I have neighbours that open their doors directly on to the road which I wouldn't be OK with.

    Can't get a skip and some deliveries can be difficult, on my street they mainly just stop on the road and hold up traffic to deliver furniture.

    There are pubs near to my house and I'd occasionally be woken up by shouting and singing outside. There's also a chipper just down the road and drunks leave their empty wrappers outside my house. If I'm slow bringing in the bin people throw rubbish in it and it seems they always throw a full cup of coffee in the recycling.

    Overall I love my house but I had lived in a city centre for 10 years prior to buying it, if you're used to something else it could be a bit of a shock.

    The big plus is that that this type of housing is usually in town and city centres so is close to amenities. I'm house hunting myself though and I've ruled then out for one reason: parking.

    At the moment I could live with on street parking, but as the Irish fleet moves towards electrification, the ability to charge at home will become more and more important.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 60 ✭✭Apoapsis Rex


    No estate management charges.

    No estate management company to deal with.

    This reminds me, if the house was part of a development but one of a few that are on the main road 'outside' of the estate. Are these houses expected to pay management charges does anyone know?

    Even though the house is getting no benefit from the charges as being on the public road it would be the council lighting, road surface etc...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,598 ✭✭✭the_pen_turner


    Far too many deal breakers for me.
    No parking
    No privacy
    Cant open windows fully
    People looking in
    Road noise
    People talking outside
    No rear acrss for bins etc without going all around if at all
    Scumbags and drunks during the night
    Far too near pubs etc
    Probably street lighting coming in the windows
    People sitting on your window fills
    Pure headache trying to paint or clean gutters etc
    Drunks using the street as a toilet right outside your house

    No pros I can see over an estate house


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,184 ✭✭✭riclad


    i live on a street i have never seen scumbags hanging around,
    you should not see random drunks unless you live on busy road near a pub,
    never seen 1 person drunk
    side streets tend to be quiet,
    people looking in , maybe buy some curtains.
    if you buy house on a main road it will be more noisey .more passers by.
    i think pen turner is talking about a house located on a busy main road .
    not a quiet side street or a cul de sac
    before you buy drive by house at 8pm,
    10pm,
    see is it quiet .
    eg buyer beware .

    every area is different.do your research.

    its alot more complex than street =bad,
    estates =good.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,292 ✭✭✭✭Mrs OBumble


    Far too many deal breakers for me.
    ....
    No privacy
    Cant open windows fully
    People looking in
    ....
    People talking outside
    ....
    Scumbags and drunks during the night
    ...
    Probably street lighting coming in the windows
    ....
    Pure headache trying to paint or clean gutters etc
    .......

    No pros I can see over an estate house

    Quite a few ( as above) also apply in estates.

    Estates also tend to have more of other people's pets and kids annoying you.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,598 ✭✭✭the_pen_turner


    Quite a few ( as above) also apply in estates.

    Estates also tend to have more of other people's pets and kids annoying you.

    I know they apply to estate too but there are pros to estates


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Ah people don't knock on door as much as you think.. Lived off street for 4 years and rarely hapened... I didn't find noise an issue either..

    From my experience housing estate's can be just as noisy..

    However lack of parking would turn me off it again..


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,598 ✭✭✭the_pen_turner


    riclad wrote: »
    i live on a street i have never seen scumbags hanging around,
    you should not see random drunks unless you live on busy road near a pub,
    never seen 1 person drunk
    side streets tend to be quiet,
    people looking in , maybe buy some curtains.
    if you buy house on a main road it will be more noisey .more passers by.
    i think pen turner is talking about a house located on a busy main road .
    not a quiet side street or a cul de sac
    before you buy drive by house at 8pm,
    10pm,
    see is it quiet .
    eg buyer beware .

    every area is different.do your research.

    its alot more complex than street =bad,
    estates =good.

    Where is this lovely place.
    Any town or large village I have been in has been like that in places


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11 seabelle


    I don't think you can generalise houses in a town vs estates because it really depends on the town and the estate. There are some Celtic tiger era estates built in the back of beyonds that have very little going for them and there are towns without much going on in them.

    I live just off the main street in my town, I have an allocated parking space that I can see from my house and as the end of terrace I have a side gate to access my garden. There are some estates with houses that have an identical setup to mine, and some estates with massive detached houses with parking for 4 and huge gardens. It's hard to generalise what an estate house is.


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  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    The big plus is that that this type of housing is usually in town and city centres so is close to amenities. I'm house hunting myself though and I've ruled then out for one reason: parking.

    At the moment I could live with on street parking, but as the Irish fleet moves towards electrification, the ability to charge at home will become more and more important.

    People (especially younger) are also slowly moving towards car sharing in cities (Zipcar, Go car etc). So not all in the future will have the need for a 24/7 car. I'd like to see these rolled out in every major town in Ireland.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,184 ✭✭✭riclad


    i think alot of younger people are happy to use bus,luas, electric bikes to travel if they live in an area with public transport.
    Not everyone has to drive a car.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 198 ✭✭brio09


    marvin80 wrote: »
    We're looking at buying at the moment. We've both lived in estates growing up but we've seen a house that ticks a lot of boxes but it's on a street close to a town centre.

    Do people have any pros and cons for houses like this?
    Parking could be an issue because only on-street is available.
    my criteria for house purchase was to avoid houses on a busy street. sometimes you'll find a nice house not on a main street but its backyard is to the main street. i avoided those too.

    reason -

    road noise and people gawking into your house.
    research says road noise pollution reduces quality of life to people living nearby.
    research also shows that children who studied next to a train track scored less.
    i used to live on a very busy street in another country and our sleep used to get disturbed, during the day on noisy days we would "know" it is a busy day, we would know every cop car chase or ambulance that zipped by, and we would always hesitate about opening the window since we aren't just getting fresh air but also a lot of noise.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,901 ✭✭✭✭ted1


    No estate management charges.

    No estate management company to deal with.

    Likely closer to pubs / shops that houses in estates (depends on the town).

    Less interraction with the neighbours, typically fewer curtain twitchers around.

    Typically no front lawn to worry about.


    It will all come down to your need for parking, and the facilities in the town.

    Only some estates have management charges and companies.
    Pubs and shops are no further away.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,184 ✭✭✭riclad


    Look for a side street or a cúl de sac That has few passers by,
    I think management charges refer to someone buying an
    apartment very few estates charge management fees
    Walk down the street at 3pm or 5pm on a weekday to check for traffic noise
    Seei if the street has a parking meter
    This means non residents need to buy a ticket if they park a car there


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,367 ✭✭✭JimmyVik


    People have been living in that type of house since the year dot.
    You probably think it would be bad until you live there.
    And then you'll find you'll get used to it like everyone else in history who has lived in such a house :)


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