High speed brings high risk for home buyers

Published: 03/06/2011

The proposed High Speed 2 (HS2), the high speed railway between London, the Midlands and the North of England, could have a detrimental effect on more property than initially considered.

Currently, the local authority search (CON29) is “only required to notify whether a property is within 200 metres of HS2.”¹

However, with the construction guaranteed to contribute excessive noise, dust and fumes to the immediate area and beyond, this tiny radius appears somewhat naïve thus leaving potential home buyers oblivious to the potential risk in purchasing property in, unofficially, affected areas.

According to Searchflow, “the noise alone will affect 4,700 homes with £97 million being wiped off property values and £90 million worth of property being demolished.”¹

Staggeringly, only one of the 22 affected Local Authorities are willing to share “any information ‘above and beyond’ the 200 metre mark stated in the CON29”.¹

This reluctance to share information could result in home buyers becoming “trapped into buying a property that they don’t know will suffer at the hands of HS2”¹ and conveyancers cast as the part of the villain.

Director of Searchflow, David Kempster, explains:

“Only small sections of the route will utilise existing railway lines. This is clearly a huge project that will lead to disruption on a corresponding scale. The majority of the route will require new lines and associated works such as tunnels, viaducts and bridges. Hundreds of properties will need to be demolished and thousands will be blighted by their proximity to it during the construction process and from disturbance when the line is built – it’s certainly enough to devalue your home significantly.”¹

If approved, construction for HS2 could begin as early as 2017 and first trains running from 2025.

Source:
¹Today’s Conveyancer (May 2011)

Content correct at time of publication