Terraced House - Honest Opinions?

Associate
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Hello!, my wife and I are buying our first house, we have seen a few and are currently quite interested in a a terraced house, I understand the high level trade off with a terraced house - neighbors both side etc

I was just hoping to get opinions from people who actually live in terraced houses of their honest experience, I can't imagine unless you move in next to someone particularly difficult it's too bad?

Thanks!
 
Tea Drinker
Don
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If you can't afford or don't want to buy a semi or a detached the question is a bit moot isn't it?

Terrace is okay, you probably know all the down sides. It could all be ruined by one neighbour and that would be the same for any property type.
 
Associate
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Coming from a semi, im living in one now, and have been here the past 20 months.

Have the odd issue of overhearing neighbours screaming at each other, and feel like your also in the room with them. Also not the biggest fan of being in the garden at the same time ,as the walls are so low, you might as well be in the same garden too :D

Plus side, i have a 3 bedroom house, 2 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms for 90k :D :lol:
 

Sui

Sui

Soldato
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Bought ours (first house) in August, I can only assume it depends on the neighbours but our direct neighbours are lovely and not too noisy. There was one occassion where the older son seemed to have some friends round to play the new FIFA I assume as we could often here them shouting but it was a Saturday afternoon so no real issue. You do get the odd noise/clatter but it's really not that bad.

Although the police did come knocking at 11pm the other night and ask if I had seen or heard anything due to 'an incident involving a neighbour'. I had just gone to sleep, so in my sleepy state I ended up donning my girlfriends polka dot dressing gown, that was fun.
 
Man of Honour
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Lived in an end terrace for a few years but it was an 1885 build and walls thick enough to be a castle so never heard the neighbour.

I think the experience will be highly varied depending on property and obviously the kind of people you live alongside.
 
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Soldato
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Lived in a terrace for most of my life.

Main issue as others have said is if you have noisy neighbours - generally mine are good, but the young exuberant kid on one side can be noisy - but then he is only young and trying to have fun.

Thing I actually hate the most is the fact that I cannot get anything into my garden without it going through the house - so anything too big is very awkward and when I cut the lawn I have to carry the crass cuttings through the house to the wheelie bin
 
Associate
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I live in a mid-terrace and find it fine, but then I lived in flats before that so my tolerance may be different to yours. Would I prefer a detached house? Sure, but it's London and location trumps a large or detached house for me and I'm not rich enough to get something else :D.
 
Soldato
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I'm end of terrace and luckily our living room and bedroom are both on the end side but late at night if I'm in the end bedroom I can occasionally hear the TV through the walls or the odd coughing fit but they are (or were, his wife has just died) elderly so I assume quite deaf.

Terrace is fine as long as your neighbours aren't selfish with noise and music, then it can be a bit of a nightmare. I'd say any house you were serious about, scope the neighbourhood a few evenings, I'm not saying full blown covert ops but stroll past from time to time. See if you can see who lives there :)

We did this with a house we were looking at, two of the three times one of the neighbours was listening to very loud drum n bass midweek evenings. Now I like loud music but that would have grated on me.
 
Associate
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Depends on the quality of the build.

Found newer builds terrible with paper thin walls which are that bad, it sounds like the neighbour is upstairs in your house when moving about in there's. LOL!

Like others have mentioned older builds tend to have thinker walls which to me, is something I would look to have.
 
Soldato
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detached > semi-detached > end of terrace > terrace > maisonette > flat!

Good luck, at least it is better than owning a flat or a maisonette to live in.
 
Associate
OP
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Hi all, thanks for the responses - we can afford the semi detached we are just finding that you seem to get a lot more space (bigger) in the terraced then you do in the semi detached, we are weighing up if we prefer a bigger place over having nobody on one side and wanted opinions, it seems largely what i assumed - it just depends who you get.

It's a pretty quiet area which I'm hoping will help and neither of us are that fussed about the garden so the access should be fine, many thanks for the input guys!
 
Soldato
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Lived in an end terrace for 20 years in January, it was a new build then. Luckily only neighbours on one side but either problems are exaggerated or we have just been incredibly lucky over the years. Hardly ever hear the neighbours at all.
 
Associate
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My partner and I rented a terraced house for many years before we got our first house together. There were a number of things about it I did not like which ultimately meant we only considered detached houses when we came to buy. Some things that annoyed me were:
  • The neighbours to the left of us were so territorial and unreasonable it was laughable. The man was beyond OCD with his 1996 Corsa (used to clean the headlights with a toothbrush!) and erected a small metal railing fence to divide up the front drive because apparently we kept hitting his car with our car door. We didn't, couldn't physically reach.
  • I had to really turn down my home cinema sound system and had to practically turn off the subwoofer.
  • In general, you need to be far more aware of how much noise you are making.
  • No easy access to the back of the property meant coming home with a muddy dog in need of a wash was a pain.
  • Having to hear your neighbours in their garden when you are all out in the garden.
Now we have a detached house I would never buy anything other than that. We have woodlands around us so don't have to worry about making noise, I can turn the home cinema right up, can easily take our dog around the back and hose him off and don't have to deal with pathetic neighbours!
 
Associate
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I don't think anybody would choose to live in a terrace house if they could afford something else, such as a detached house. So there's no question to ask really is there, wouldn't you move into the best style of house which is affordable to you. If that's a terraced house, then it's a terraced house - or else what's the alternative, don't move?
 
Soldato
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I don't think anybody would choose to live in a terrace house if they could afford something else, such as a detached house. So there's no question to ask really is there, wouldn't you move into the best style of house which is affordable to you. If that's a terraced house, then it's a terraced house - or else what's the alternative, don't move?

Depends on loads of factors though.

I know people who would much rather live in a terraced house in Didsbury in Manchester compared to a detached in Burnage.

Personally, i'd take an old Victorian terraced house over a detached new build.
 
Soldato
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Lived in a terraced house for 18 months and almost never heard anything from the neighbours (early 1900s build).

Really depends on the house in question/alternatives in area.

If I was convinced by the sound insulation I'd consider it if I had to. Luckily I can afford a semi or detached in current area.
 
Soldato
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I lived in a mid-terrace for 10 years and I can honestly say it was absolutely fine!

The only issue I ever had was the fact that access to my garden at the rear was through next door's garden - luckily though the woman next door was always lovely but it might not always be the case!
 
Associate
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I lived in a end terraced house for 12 years before buying my own. I had no problems with mine, never heard the neighbours through the house and never really had any bad neighbours. while it wasn't an issue for us some of the others on our street had a real issue with parking. some of the houses had 3 cars and most had 2, it was something I seriously looked at when buying my house.
 
Associate
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I own a 1900 standard mid terraced house in a "trendy" area in Cardiff. It certainly has it's downfalls and I can't say it's where I would want to end up long-term. But it's in part of the city where house prices are dramatically increasing and is great fun to live in. I chose location over size, I guess it depends what stage of life you are at or your lifestyle.
 
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