Carrow Rd, Norwich

The original developer did a runner 2 or 3 years ago as he owed quite a lot of money on building them. I think he wanted £250k + for them back then. I remember talking to my mum about these houses and she says that they don't even have any double glazing in the windows!

Built right up against the pavement and a flux of football fans striding right by the windows every two Saturday afternoons. Fantastic.

Firstly, Welcome MattW!

Didn't know the original guy did a runner, but am not surprised...

The thing is though, comparatively, they're still a bargain - which would you go for? One of those, or a two bed flat overlooking the football ground for about the same price? The correct answer of course, when confronted by the choice of two evils is to say no to both. We'll have to wait and see how long it takes to shift these ones.

At least they're easy to locate, and work out the addresses for - I can't manage to work out head nor tail of the endless flats by the football ground - when looking on Nethouseprices it's impossible to get any idea of how much these properties are actually selling for (and that's if you can find a rough address to start with!)

Thanks for the welcome w&s.

I never thought to compare the prices of these against the 2 bedders by the football ground. At least with the houses, there isn't ground rent or an expensive service charge to pay either. Nices houses - but I don't think my double bed will go up the spiral staircase.

The 1st block of flats right beside the football ground comes under 'Geoffrey Watling Way'. I think the other blocks that stretch around the South Stand come under a different name. Not sure how good nethouseprices.com is but the one that I refer to: ourproperty.co.uk doesn't state how large the flats are. There can be a gulf of around £70k+ between the studio flats and the 2 bedders. IIRC, the studios started selling for around £100k. Bryant are having trouble shifting the studio plots @ £118k+ , so it seems.

I keep on putting dumb mare things like the obvious "Carrow Road" option, or Kings St, so thanks for the Geoffrey Watling way tip!

Like you say, the price of a football ground flat isn't the last of it - which makes them even more expensive still!!

We have a relatively conventional house, and had trouble getting the mattress up the stairs (mainly due to ceiling height at one particular point), so I don't know how people manage spiral staircases either (unless they hoist them up and go thru the window a la Amsterdam). We've since learnt that it will unzip into 2 pieces - here's hoping I remember that nugget of info when it comes to moving out!!

Cobblers Mews flats

NR3 4RD. Not sure if this is one plot or a number of plots as Bryant are a bit vague and confusing with all their brochure PDFs. Did start @ £139,995 but now down to £119,995.

Check out the floorplans for the Merrill 2 bedroom house, on at an eye-watering £157,995 or thereabouts. The master bedroom has an en-suite. Very handy but I would happily trade an en-suite for a cheaper priced house and larger bedroom(s). Ensuite means that there are 3 WCs in a 2 bedroomed house!

Re: the en-suite issue - I wonder if subliminally, developers realise how out of control house prices are and now actually design the houses for 2 single people sharing? The plot thickens.

The trouble with almost all of these new-build city houses is that there is no garden - a paved yard at most for having barbeques, but no grass. I had a look at the aerial photographs of those properties and sure enough, there is nothing - why would anyone pay all this money when there is such little land?. It's a complete con, as are all these new-builds - the land price is what makes property expensive so when there is so little land you have to wonder what you are paying for?..... are yes, the developers profits!

The old properties off Cozens Road and Hardy Road all come with gardens - the properties at the top of Hardy Road next to the railway line have a beautiful cottage charm to them and are all painted white. I don't know what the history of them is or when they were built, but I would rather live there than in some crummy new-build rabbit hutch with no garden

Oh yes! Just looked on Google Earth and they are tiny!

The price of those apartments in that 'Factory' building previously owned by Laurence & Scott are an absolute joke!