Visitor Parking Bays

Hyper

Hyper

Hyper

Soldato
Joined
2 Jul 2005
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Newcastle
Hey all,

Looking for a second opinion really on a house we are looking to purchase on a new development. Its a really nice estate in the perfect location and everything about the house and plot ticks all the boxes we just have a niggling feeling regarding the visitor parking bays outside the house.

Its the only south facing plot on the development of this house type and isnt on a shared drive which was a big no go for us after a previous bad experience so we could just be overthinking this but wanted your thoughts.

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So its plot 19 we are looking to buy, all houses have double drives and as you can see there is plenty visitor parking around the estate but if everything else was perfect would those two visitor bays outside put you off.

Thanks, Sam.
 
Without really knowing the area, I doubt the visitor parking bays would be a real issue.

Is the front fenced or just open?
 
The front of the houses are just open driveways with some grass and a low level bush so the cars would be visible from the living room window but at least they are not directly outside the house. Also the rear of the property has a large kitchen diner and the reason we want the south facing plot is because this is the room we will use the most.
 
Participant said:
It wouldn't put me off visually, but prepare for someone to stick their white van there permanently and treat it as their own private space, rather than its intended use.
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Sadly that is what tends to happen, or someone parks up a bunch of cars from their business such as dodgy used car sales or "secure airport parking" gig over spilling the space moving one out when they have another to go in.
 
From the image, it doesn't look like it would impact that much however, as has been said, be prepared for it to have a vehicle in the bays 24/7 and normally by a fellow resident who will treat it as their own private space.

Re: commercial vehicles using it - Check the deeds. A lot of developments ban commercial/business vehicles from designated visitor bays (unless actually there to do work) and they are only allowed in private drives
 
Speaking from experience of living on a new build estate for almost 7 years with "visitor bays" on our road - they end up getting used a permanent addition to another household, and you can bet it's a contentious issue. This doesn't particularly bother us, but it does bother our neighbour who has one outside of their house.

For example, we have a house on our street, a 5 bed detached, with drive space for 2 cars, yet they have 4 cars. I'll give you one guess as to where those 2 extra cars are parked, and I'll give you another guess as to who is the first to complain when they can't park there because, God forbid, they're being used by actual visitors.

It wouldn't put me off the house completely (we had one outside of our house when we moved in, but it was removed and grassed over), but you definitely need to prepare yourself for that eventuality.
 
I think others have summed it up about right, they are going to be in permanent use. The designator of visitor is only used by the developers to add parking spaces as new build developments are constrained by how much parking they allowed to offer on the site as a whole.

So, will it bother you that they are parked in or not? I wouldn't be too bothered at all.
 
Thekwango said:
Plant Portuguese Laurel front of the house and forget about the parking spots :)
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Do this, or accept that your view will probably end up being one of your neighbours long wheelbase Transit van :p

They at least look far enough away that anyone doing that won't be blocking the light to the house.
 
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Dynix said:
Speaking from experience of living on a new build estate for almost 7 years with "visitor bays" on our road - they end up getting used a permanent addition to another household, and you can bet it's a contentious issue. This doesn't particularly bother us, but it does bother our neighbour who has one outside of their house.

For example, we have a house on our street, a 5 bed detached, with drive space for 2 cars, yet they have 4 cars. I'll give you one guess as to where those 2 extra cars are parked, and I'll give you another guess as to who is the first to complain when they can't park there because, God forbid, they're being used by actual visitors.

It wouldn't put me off the house completely (we had one outside of our house when we moved in, but it was removed and grassed over), but you definitely need to prepare yourself for that eventuality.
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Tbf a 5 bed house should have more parking, but they should have thought about that before getting 2 extra cars. I'd like to see a ban on road parking entirely (I know people would love that :D ).
 
theone8181 said:
Tbf a 5 bed house should have more parking, but they should have thought about that before getting 2 extra cars. I'd like to see a ban on road parking entirely (I know people would love that :D ).
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Oh absolutely. And believe me, I've told them that on more than one occasion :D They have a double garage which I think developers class as a parking space, so on paper they have 4 spaces, but in reality new build garages are useless for cars.
 
Dynix said:
Oh absolutely. And believe me, I've told them that on more than one occasion :D They have a double garage which I think developers class as a parking space, so on paper they have 4 spaces, but in reality new build garages are useless for cars.
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That and depending on timing of people going out might not be practical.
 
Thanks for the thoughts guys, pretty much what we expected. We totally expect these spaces to be in use at all times and if not it's a bonus.
 
i'd still have a nice hedgerow of some sort along there anyway, parking spaces or not, just for the added privacy from the footpath and road.
 
When Highfields was first announced we had no intention of moving really, shortly after we listed our property(we put ours up for sale Dec 21) we were told the first properties were due to buyers Spring22, AFAIK they've only just recently opened their sales office!

It's just outside Whickham, so technically Dunston (they're definatley charging the Whickham premium tho!)

This was our original New build that we were wanting to move to (lived in Whickham) simply for a larger house. When they delayed repeatedly we also looked over at the Callerton one, found one we liked and were at the point of exchange when our Buyer decided to start messing about :(
Subsequently we lost the plot :(

The Sales agent we dealt with at Callerton (Amber) was bloody fantastic, she really did go above and beyond for her clients, I don't think there would have even been any room for improvement for the service she offered so +++++ points there. I do believe that they're still releasing properties that way as well.

My understanding is that as soon as the rough prices were released for Highfields a lot of people that were interested actually switched their interest over to callerton and other devs (were were way past that point). We had already looked across all of their north east dev's compared prices, and added a good lump on to work out what we thought the prices may roughly be, and even with doing that the prices they announced suprised a lot of people.

We were looking at the Charlton over at Callerton @£469,995.
Even the Lawsons at Highfield are more expensive, we were given a rough figure of 520ish for the Charlton at highfields, yeah I wasn't paying that for Dunston.

I would suggest that you DON'T use their recommended mortgage broker, ultimately that was a large contributor to what cost us the plot :(
And almost the new build we ended up with as well due to the mortgage offer having a far shorter extension period than they said.

Whickham itself is a lovely area, very quiet (most of the time) good pubs/bars and a coupla little usefull shops, school run times and parking around those times have slowly been getting worse, Whickham highway does sometimes give canny wait times through.

Lots of nice walks and parks in the area if that's your thing as well. Good transport links to Newcastle/Gateshead and of course the Metrocentre just a short walk down the hill.
We lived there just shy of 11 years, and bar the first 4/5 years of the house being a constant building site (cats in walls under floors n everything haha) really happy with the time we spent there.

Have you looked at some of the older properties that are available, there's been some nice ones listed that have already been extended and done up :)
 
I've actually been following your progress on the nervous wait to exchange post and wondered where in Newcastle you were looking.

We actually sold our house in Dunston last year in preparation to reserve off plan on this development, it's a.small world!

So we know the area pretty well and although we would get much more value for money on an older property especially with the way the market is going we have our heart set on a Hewson with Story Homes. I agree they are certainly pushing their luck with the pricing but we are fully committed at this point and are pretty set on the area it's just a shame this plot has those bloody parking bays outside!

Where did you end up buying, reading on the other post you had one hell of a ride with your sale! We ended up using first mortgages in Dunston rather than the mortgage broker they recommended and offer extensions are high on our list of priorities with everything going on right now.
 
hahah that's mad! aye was a horrendous journey lmao

have you been and viewed any of the show homes yet? theyre a damn good standard tbh

We were 100% wanting there then delay after delay after we put ours up for sale so we looked over callerton,loved the plot at callerton right at the back of the dec with a massive field looking over to the poachers pub.

we used their mortgage broker initially but he could only get 2.2 or 2.4 or summit but he did advise of a nice extension possibility with natwest.
he told us to go direct as they could do 1.99% but this turned out to be 30 days when applications are made on their website tho

this set in place our 20/11/22 mortgage expiry!

When we had gotten so far we transferred the kids school to Ponteland, deciding to eat up the mileage short term.
when the sale fell thru didn't really feel fair to the kids to move them again so we were kinda stuck looking over here.

we were favouring new builds but not ruling out owt else, we looked in heddon, Ponteland, throckley.
even looked at a coupla doer upper over heddon, they sold on day of listing refused to let us view :(
they're still for sale now lol

We've ended up at jameson manor/ottermead bellway over Ponteland, bit of a distance from whickham but damn good schools
you should have a look :p

I should add by the skin of our teeth, mortgage offer ended 20th, we moved in on 17th lol
still managed to use the original natwest mortgage from the first new build too!

100% agree they're pushing their luck with the prices even the sales staff I spoke to seemed pretty suprised at the asking prices.
the only thing remotely comparable to. these were those new "barn conversions" near the stables.
other than that yer lookin south of whickham highway behind the trees, nothings even come close price wise.

Therea a good few for sale in the lakes estates now (that's where we were) but parking in there during school hours has become an utter **** show :(

I'd not let the parking bays put you off tbh most of the storey plots have decent sized drives and a canny bit space between them
 
Yeah we were initially set on the smaller Sanderson after viewing the show home at Durham however they changed the layout to make it open plan which was no good for us having two cats. We then viewed the Hewson show home at Callerton and were immediately sold but it was going to be a stretch on our budget.

We viewed 22 houses between March and July last year after our house sold within a week between Whickham, Dunston, Lobley Hill and even Low Fell but just couldn't find the one. We had been following the Highfields estate for a while but as things got delayed over and over it became clear if we wanted one we would have to take the gamble and allow our sale to go through otherwise risk losing our buyers as their mortgage offer was also running out. We started looking and committed to a rental property in June then a week later our daughter arrived 6 weeks early! Never the less we pushed on with our sale and im pleased we did looking at the market now and after more visits to the Hewson show home we are pretty much set on that house even with the inflated prices as we really love that area. Its a shame plot 19 is the only south facing one on the development but we feel we will use the back of the house so much it would be a shame to be in constant shade so it feels the visitor parking bays at the front are the only compromise.

Bloody hell you had one hell of a ride but i'm glad it worked out in the end, which house type were you going for with Story Homes and i'm very jealous of that mortgage rate!
 
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