Any reason not to buy in Cavendish Road, Balham Post Reply

[adubs]

Hi,

We are thinking of making an offer on a Victorian terraced house in need of modernisation at the Tooting Bec Common end of Cavendish Road in Balham.

We don't know the area particularly well and are concerned that it has been sitting on the market for a while - price recently dropped from 650 to 625 and comparable modernised houses are on the market for 700 (not extended) and 770 (extended).

It looks to me as though it would be in the catchment for Henry Cavendish school.

Can anyone with local knowledge tell me why it might not be shifting? Other pluses or minuses to living there also very welcome!

Thanks

[MrsAmanda]

If its the house I'm thinking of, you ought to be in the catchment for HC school as its literally just around the corner. We were, until recently, in a side street further up Cavendish and for this year's intake to HC we wouldn't have got in.

That end of Cavendish is close to Balham town centre, such as it is, and the train station as well as the common. You'll get some train noise, we did, but it didn't bother us.
What I find a pain is the traffic. I hate driving along it, and parking can be tricky.

[Goldhawk]

Is it on the Lambeth side or Wandsworth side?
iirc the council tax is quite different

[womblemama]

I think you're still in the Wandsworth borough until you hit Emmanuel Rd, so council tax will be low. It's a good area in general , close to Balham and transport, close to common and as long as you're within the Henry cavendish catchment (I think it was 190m last year - you'd need to check with Lambeth / the school) and lots of young families in the area. I can't see any 'hidden' downsides. The only obvious downside is the main road - it's always busy and lots of speeding up and slowing down because of the narrowness / traffic calming, plus difficult to park I'd imagine. That's the only reason I can think of why it would have been on the market for a while, and is cheaper than comparables (that presumably aren't on a main road?) hope that helps.

[Goldhawk]

one side of the street is Lambeth, the other side is Wandsworth

[Medway]

We very nearly bought a house right at the Tooting Common end of Cavendish Road 3 years ago - but were 'gazumped' by a property developer. We were gutted at the time - it was a sweet house and in the catchment for HC...but now with the wonder of hindsight I am really relieved we did not get it as actually these houses are quite small and I think we would have outgrown the house v quickly.

[runningmummy]

Cavendish Road is a lovely road to live on. Only downside is it is a busy road, however we found inside and in the garden we could barely hear it.

[Camille]

traffic....

[ExitPursuedByABear]

Have you tried property-bee? It tracks changes estate agents make to a listing on Rightmove - highly addictive! http://www.property-bee.com/

The changes for that house are quite interesting ... seems like it's had a couple of offers that fell through. Obviously nothing's certain but that could be because of bad surveys.


Sat May 19 22:56:19 2012

Price changed: from '£640,000' to '£625,000'

Sun Apr 29 23:34:09 2012

Status changed: from 'Sold STC' to 'Available'

Fri Apr 27 05:05:56 2012

Status changed: from 'Available' to 'Sold STC'

Wed Apr 25 01:11:58 2012

Status changed: from 'Sold STC' to 'Available'

Tue Apr 3 14:12:56 2012

Status changed: from 'Available' to 'Sold STC'

Wed Mar 28 19:05:36 2012

Brief Description changed: Attractive 3 bedroom Victorian house in sought after central Balham. Well placed for excellent local amenities as well as being close to the Common. Balham location.

Wed Mar 28 09:43:50 2012

Initial entry found.

[boonkoh]

You could easily blow a £70k budget for modernisation of an entire house, especially if you don't have experience with renovation before or spotting all the problems prior to purchase. And that's not including all the hours/days wasted and stress in choosing items, making sure things are delivered on schedule, visiting to check up on progress, finding a building contractor, etc etc.

Maybe that is why it is not shifting at 620k... if modernised ones are going for 700k, I would probably go in with max 700k budget, and go for a full structural survey (PM me for a recommendation).

[daddy72]

Definitely Traffic - I lived on Cavendish for a while and it seemed to act almost like a by-pass for traffic in a similar way to Franciscan Road in Tooting.