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If you own a freehold or leasehold house, flat or other residential property that is situated near to the planned route for the High Speed 2, or HS2, rail network, you may face extra challenges in finding a buyer for your home. This guide details those potential hurdles and also offers tips on how you can nevertheless attract a competitive and swift offer for your property.
- What is the HS2 project?
- Advantages of owning a home near HS2
- Drawbacks of properties located close to HS2
- Why selling a home near HS2 could be difficult
- Reducing the noise impact of HS2 on your home
- Your options for selling a house or flat near HS2
- Top queries about selling a home by HS2
What is the HS2 project?
The High Speed 2 project, better known as just HS2 is an ambitious yet controversial plan introduced by the UK government to create a new high speed and zero carbon railway as part of broader development plans that aim to revitalise the economy of northern England.
The project was first announced in 2009 by the UK government, with a proposal for the eventual route released one year later, but further reviews have delayed the launch of the network.
Under the current plans, the high speed railway route will connect the northwest and southeast parts of the country, with stops planned for Birmingham, Manchester and London. HS2 will connect to the existing railway network so that it can also stop in other locations, like Scotland – but the network has yet to open and has faced a number of major delays.
Altogether, the HS2 line once fully completed will stretch more than 250 miles, according to the HS2 project’s official website. The project has already seen £23 billion in contracts awarded for necessary supplies, with 350 sites where work is currently taking place.
The first phase of the service is expected to connect Birmingham, London and the West Midlands, with the second phase expanding the network out to Crewe, followed by completion of the route to Manchester. Initial trains will operate from Birmingham Curzon Street station through to London’s Old Oak Common station sometime between 2029 and 2033.
But, as this guide will explain, if you own a freehold or leasehold residential property near the planned HS2 route and want to sell your home, you might face some extra complications. Still, there are steps you can take to nevertheless get a fast and fair offer for your flat or house.
Advantages of owning a home near HS2
Although many homeowners may find that the drawbacks of owning a property close to HS2 outweigh the benefits, there are nevertheless some potential advantages of this type of home.
Once HS2 is operational, a home that is located close to the line but is not disrupted by the noise from the trains should eventually see its value increase, according to the website Property Road. That’s because potential buyers at that time will enjoy the easy connection to the nearby HS2 station, which increases their opportunities for work and other travel via the high speed train.
If the HS2 station will be convenient for someone for their daily routine, then the short distance to your property is likely to be considered a plus by this specific category of buyer.
You might also find that some buyers just like to watch trains pass by and are excited about the HS2 route and the possibility of living close to it. However, this is likely to be a fairly small group of prospective buyers and therefore you shouldn’t base your selling plans on these people. Be sure to also read out guide on selling your house near railway lines for more information.
Drawbacks of properties located close to HS2
Although there might be some perceived advantages of buying a home located near the HS2 route, there are also some notable drawbacks that sellers should learn about.
Fully understanding the potential problems with living by the high speed train route is important so that you can understand concerns that buyers might express to you. It also gives you the ability to research ways that could potentially address some or all of their worries about buying a house that would be located close to where the HS2 network is slated to operate.
Perhaps the biggest problem that prospective buyers will predict about owning a home near HS2 is the noise from the project, both during construction and when it is operating.
The work involved with digging up and installing the high speed rail line will take months or years in specific locations, and generate excessive noise. Indeed, this specific concern has been enough to cause the price of some homes located by the planned route to drop sharply, according to a recent article in The Telegraph.
In addition to noise problems, some people might be concerned about potential air pollution associated with the diggers and other equipment being used to build the line. Emissions are not a concern for the HS2 train itself, because it promises to be a zero-carbon railway.
Vibrations from the passing trains could also be a concern for some buyers, because they might be worried about how those vibrations may potentially affect the home’s structural integrity.
Why selling a home near HS2 could be difficult
As you prepare to sell your leasehold or freehold home, you may find that the negative aspects of owning a property close to the HS2 route may make it harder to attract buyers.
That’s because the problems outlined in the previous section of this guide could be enough to make someone who was initially interested in buying your home no longer have any interest in doing so. This type of buyer will likely be unpersuaded by any sound insulation you might seek to install, as the proximity to the rail line will be enough to make them walk away.
There are other buyers who will still be open to making an offer on your property, but they will significantly reduce the price that they offer based on how close the house or flat is to HS2. Similarly, there may be little that you can do to make these buyers increase their offers.
And there’s a third category of buyers that may be willing to give you a decent price offer for your property, if you invest in work on the home to help reduce the noise impact from HS2. The next section of this guide will explain in further detail what to do in this scenario.
If you are finding it hard to generate any interest from buyers in your property because it is close to the planned HS2 route, one viable solution is to get in touch with a quick buyer like LDN Properties. These companies make fast and fair offers to purchase almost any type of home, including those deemed as "problem" properties because of issues that other buyers might see as dealbreakers, which in your situation would be the closeness to the high speed rail route.
Reducing the noise impact of HS2 on your home
Whether you’re selling a house or a new build flat, you might be thinking about steps you could take to reduce the noise impact that HS2 might have on your property, perhaps hoping this could make it attract more buyers.
The main action that you can take is spending time, money and effort on changes to your home that would have the effect of reducing he noise that can be heard from the railway line. As the website Soundproofed explains, this can include work done both inside and outside.
Outside your property, if you have a garden or other green space, planting trees and bushes can act as an artificial barrier that reduces the noise you’ll be able to hear from the train line. Similarly, installing a thick fence around the perimeter of your property can help with catching some of the noise vibrations from the railway and reducing what you hear inside the house.
Inside your property, there are several options available, including hanging industrial soundproofed curtains to help absorb any noise that you might hear from the high speed train. Installing double glazed windows or drywall are also feasible ways to lessen or completely eliminate the noise that you might hear from the HS2 as the service passes by.
If you pursue these steps then this could help to effectively negate buyers’ concerns about the noise problems associated with living close to HS2, and keep them interested in your home. If you do the work in advance, then it removes the possibility of a buyer reducing their offer price by the amount of money they predict it would cost them to do the work as the next owner.
However, there are many homeowners throughout the UK living close to the HS2 planned route that simply will not have the money, the time or the effort available for doing this work.
If you find yourself in this situation, don’t be alarmed that you will never be able to sell your property for a decent price. Instead, get in touch with LDN Properties or another quick buyer because these companies are known for buying a wide range of homes, and they’ll commit to giving you a fair price regardless of the fact that the property is located close to HS2.
Your options for selling a house or flat near HS2
If you are ready to sell your freehold or leasehold home near the planned HS2 route, you’ll need to next decide on which approach you would like to take for finding a buyer.
You can choose from selling with an estate agent, selling on your own, selling via an auction or selling to a quick buyer. There are some cons associated with a few of the choices, for example the lengthy process and fees involved with using an estate agent. Other methods have prominent benefits, such as quick buyers completing the purchase a property within weeks.
To find the ideal option for your unique selling situation, write down your main aims such as the preferred property sale price, how fast you’d like to sell and whether you can accept paying any commission. Then compare this information against the specifics of the four options outlined below and this should help you with narrowing down the best match for your needs.
Selling with an estate agent
Sellers won’t have to put in much effort when selling via an estate agent, as the latter will be responsible for all of the work in finding a buyer. This includes preparing a listing that features photographs of the interior and exterior of the home and describes its main features, advertising the listing in local newspapers, online and in their office, organising viewings to take potential buyers on a tour of the property, and fielding any offers from genuine buyers.
This can be a relatively slow way to sell any type of property, including homes near the HS2 route, and you should be prepared to wait more than an entire year before getting an offer.
Remember also that buyers using this method can withdraw their offer up until the moment before contracts are exchanged, and they won’t be subject to any penalties. What this unfortunate outcome would mean is that you’ll have to begin again with the process of trying to find a buyer for your property, and that can add much more time to the schedule.
Another disadvantage of using an estate agent is that they will charge you commission, and this will increase your selling expenses because the fee is taken immediately out of the final sale proceeds. Usually, estate agents charge fees based on a home’s sale price. If one priority with selling is making sure that you keep your costs low, you might want to think about other methods, such as selling to a no-fee quick home buyer.
If you decide to sell using an estate agent, you should inquire with specific companies about their past success, if any, with selling a home near the HS2 line. If they have never managed to sell such a property, they could find it hard to get buyers interested in your home, so you should avoid using the services of an estate agent that does not have this experience.
Selling on your own
When you sell without any third party help, you’ll have to handle every step of the process, including creating a listing, advertising it, scheduling viewings and hearing offers from buyers.
It’s a lot of work and will be very stressful, and not something that you can just do in your spare time. That’s why it’s only suggested for people that have a qualified family member or friend willing to help them out for free, or they have personal experience with selling properties. Otherwise you could be looking at a process that takes more than a year to find a buyer.
Similar to how buyers through estate agents can rescind their offers without penalty until contracts are exchanged, the same applies when selling on your own. Should that occur, you’ll face many months of delay whilst you start over with trying to attract a buyer.
The only obvious pro of selling this way is that you won’t have to pay any commission to an estate agent or auctioneer, but this saving could be eliminated by the other expenses you’ll have, such as the advertising costs associated with promoting your listing.
If you still want a zero-commission sale but on a much speedier timeline, consider instead contracting LDN Properties or another quick buyer. These companies can generally complete the purchase of almost any home in just a handful of weeks, and that includes the time that it takes for paying sellers the proceeds and the key step of exchanging contracts. It’s a stress-free and streamlined alternative to the often difficult process of selling without any help.
Selling via an auction
A third option for selling your home near the HS2 line is using an auction, where people will place bids on your property at ever-increasing prices. The goal is to get many buyers interested in your home so that the final sale price produces a decent profit for you.
But remember that auctioneers will charge commission and this will increase your costs with selling. You might be able to negotiate a lower fee with some auctioneers, or have the buyer pay some of your expenses, so it’s worth asking about this possibility.
This is not a very quick way to find a buyer, because there are some delays involved when selling by auction. You will face a wait of several weeks or longer after you decide to sell your property and before the auction occurs. And then if the property does manage to sell at the auction, the winning high bidder will usually have about 28 days to complete all of their mandatory paperwork and other required steps in order to finalise the sale.
It’s possible that some auctioneers could be open to setting a shorter deadline for the buyer to do these tasks, so you should inquire with individual auction houses about this. But be prepared for some auctioneers to tell you that they’ll give the buyer even more time than 28 days.
If your property does not receive any bids then it is deemed unsold and you will have to start again with trying to generate interest from buyers, slowing the process even further.
Selling to a quick buyer
Quick buyers are renowned for making fair and speedy offers to purchase all types of freehold and leasehold homes regardless of their age, condition, location, shape and size.
For example, LDN Properties launched more than a decade ago and since then the company has made fast and competitive offers on a wide range of properties, including homes close to the planned HS2 route, as well as vandalised flats, houses that have low Energy Performance Certificate ratings, car repair garages and MOT stations,
They are known as quick buyers because they can complete the purchase of most homes in just a handful of weeks, and that covers the time that it takes to exchange contracts and pay owners their sale proceeds. That’s much speedier than the three other options for selling a property, which can all take at least many months and sometimes more than a full year.
Quick buyers are able to proceed so speedily because they already have the funds needed to purchase your property, so they don’t have to wait for many weeks or months to initially get approved for a mortgage that would cover the cost of the transaction.
The honest quick property buying companies will also never make you pay any commission for selling your house or flat, which helps with keeping your overall selling costs low. That compares favourably to using an estate agent or auctioneer, which are two methods of selling a home that include fees, which will ultimately be taken out of the eventual sale proceeds.
Top queries and answers about selling property near HS2
Property owners thinking of selling quickly often have some questions they need answers to, ranging from the areas of the country they can sell in through to selling a home near railway lines. Here are some of the top questions we’re asked about selling property close to HS2:
Your top questions when selling property near HS2
Known as either High Speed 2 or just HS2, it’s an ambitious and highly expensive rail project designed to connects parts of the north and south of England with a zero-carbon, high speed rail system. The network has faced a number of delays since the initial announcement of tentative work to assess the viability of the project by the UK government in 2009.
Yes, you will find that some potential buyers will be more interested in your property because of its proximity to the HS2 route, as the rail network will be convenient for their work and other travel plans. There is also a specific group of buyers that like to watch trains pass by from their home and are looking to live close to a railway line, including the planned HS2 route.
There are several possible drawbacks of owning a home close to HS2 that could make it harder to sell the property. The main concern for many prospective buyers will be the noise that could be generated both from the work involved in building the route, and also from the train once it is operating. Another concern is about how vibrations from the train may affect the property.
In order to address buyers’ concerns about noise pollution from being located so close to the HS2 route, you could spend money, effort and time on efforts to mitigate or eliminate that noise. For the interior of your home this can include double glazed windows and soundproof curtains, and for the exterior for the property you could plant fences or trees to reduce the noise.
Your speediest option will usually be getting in touch with LDN Properties or another quick home buying company, because they can complete the process of purchasing a freehold or leasehold house or flat in just a few short weeks. By contrast, it can take many months at least to sell a home when you do so without any help, via an estate agent or using an auctioneer.
You could sell your home without any third party assistance, which would remove the need to pay an estate agent or auctioneer any commission. Or you could sell to an honest no-fee quick buying company as another way to avoid this extra expense. Just remember that estate agents and auctioneers will always charge fees and they’ll be deducted from the home sale proceeds.
Legitimate quick home buyers are registered with The Property Ombudsman (TPO), a third party organisation that publishes regulations to protect owners against scams in the industry. If you visit TPO’s website you can enter a company’s name and, if they are a TPO member, you’ll see their registration details and have peace of mind knowing they follow those rules.
