Marina Villages - Particularly Port Solent

[ds7971]

Anyone got any experience of living in these "developments"? I'm mainly looking at Port Solent, Hythe Marina Village and Ocean Village.

Are the houses well insulated (both heat and sound)?

I've been looking at prices over the last few years and they don't seem to have gone up or down, just stayed almost exactly the same....

Thanks.

[Guest DissipatedYouthIsValuable]

Anyone got any experience of living in these "developments"? I'm mainly looking at Port Solent, Hythe Marina Village and Ocean Village.

Are the houses well insulated (both heat and sound)?

I've been looking at prices over the last few years and they don't seem to have gone up or down, just stayed almost exactly the same....

Thanks.

I once visited a Malaysian family in Ocean Village.

They had carpets and I could see the sea.

[Jason]

Port Solent is a nice place, but it's not cheap - not just to buy, but the restaurants are expensive too. I think id only ever buy there if I had a boat, but I'd need to be a millionaire for that.

This place http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sa...ty-9553455.html has been on the market since feb08, and has only dropped 17.5%... still way too expensive at 470k. For that I'd expect a nice detached with garage and drive in east Cosham, southsea etc - just avoid Paulsgrove.

[AvidFan]

Port Solent is a nice place, but it's not cheap - not just to buy, but the restaurants are expensive too. I think id only ever buy there if I had a boat, but I'd need to be a millionaire for that.

This place http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sa...ty-9553455.html has been on the market since feb08, and has only dropped 17.5%... still way too expensive at 470k. For that I'd expect a nice detached with garage and drive in east Cosham, southsea etc - just avoid Paulsgrove.

You can still find apartments in these developments being advertised for a mil+. Pure fantasy.

Edited July 10, 2009 by AvidFan

[silver surfer]

Avoid 'em like the plague. Halliard rattle will turn you pyschotic after a while.

[tiggerthetiger]

Port Solent is a nice place, but it's not cheap - not just to buy, but the restaurants are expensive too. I think id only ever buy there if I had a boat, but I'd need to be a millionaire for that.

This place http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sa...ty-9553455.html has been on the market since feb08, and has only dropped 17.5%... still way too expensive at 470k. For that I'd expect a nice detached with garage and drive in east Cosham, southsea etc - just avoid Paulsgrove.

Gawddd just look at the shower cubicle in that flat...(sorry penthouse)..its like something you would get in a mobile home !

[Guest happy?]

Anyone got any experience of living in these "developments"? I'm mainly looking at Port Solent, Hythe Marina Village and Ocean Village.

Are the houses well insulated (both heat and sound)?

I've been looking at prices over the last few years and they don't seem to have gone up or down, just stayed almost exactly the same....

Thanks.

Port Solent was built on a rubbish tip. Look carefully at some of the lamp-posts - at the top you'll see that instead of a light there's a little twirly/spinny thing. These pipes are venting methane.

The properties themselves are reasonably well constructed and will maintain value for the most part. You can buy a property without a marina berth - but berths come-up only rarely and sell for about £30-£40k each. You'll definitely need a car if you live at Port Solent as it's at the far end of Portsmouth Harbour. You'll also find that getting in and out of the marina is restricted - being so far up harbour you're reliant on tidal windows.

As others have commented the constant clanging of wire on mast will drive most normal people insane. The alternative to these places would be any property in a 5-10 mile radius and a mooring at a club or a swinging mooring. There are plenty of harbours to choose from - from Chichester down to Poole. Most people who live in the area would have a cheap mooring and not bother with an expensive marina - heated showers and restaurants appeal to weekend types down from the city but have no attraction if home's a short drive away.

[Hoolie]

Port Solent is built on reclaimed land and has those pretty little twirly posts for the emission of gases beneath, coupled with a nice view of a rubbish tip. Not my cup of tea!

[ds7971]

Great comments guys thanks for your help. Even though I'm a regular sailor (no jokes!!), the point about halyards clanging hadn't clicked in my mind....

Any further comments?

[Guest skullingtonjoe]

just avoid Paulsgrove.

Seriously good advice. Port Solent is too close for comfort IMHO and - as others have noted - it`s built on a rubbish tip. Is it worth it really?

[Pindar]

Gawddd just look at the shower cubicle in that flat...(sorry penthouse)..its like something you would get in a mobile home !

And for such a squalid little flat. It makes Oslo seem cheap.

http://www.finn.no/finn/viewimage?finnkode...4dcbxpzwh730325

[pl1]

Port Solent is a nice place, but it's not cheap - not just to buy, but the restaurants are expensive too. I think id only ever buy there if I had a boat, but I'd need to be a millionaire for that.

This place http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sa...ty-9553455.html has been on the market since feb08, and has only dropped 17.5%... still way too expensive at 470k. For that I'd expect a nice detached with garage and drive in east Cosham, southsea etc - just avoid Paulsgrove.

Aspirational nonsense & look at that shower and that no-nails kitchen.

Half a million for a view of a couple of old boats.

[buytoilet]

Great comments guys thanks for your help. Even though I'm a regular sailor (no jokes!!), the point about halyards clanging hadn't clicked in my mind....

Any further comments?

Most mast these days have the halyard running through the middle of the mast to stop the rattle

[200p]

Port Solent - I believe all the houses are leasehold. [999 year virtual freehold from when they were built].

Check this out before you buy, [i maybe wrong] - service charge, ground rent and restrictions maybe applicable.

I prefer Hythe marina for location though.

Edited July 10, 2009 by Pseudo Lord Sandwich

[Jason]

Seriously good advice. Port Solent is too close for comfort IMHO and - as others have noted - it`s built on a rubbish tip. Is it worth it really?

Talking of Paulsgrove, this is where a local mob burnt down some paediatricians house because the profession sounded like another word. This is the mentality of the people who live there.

You can rent a tidal mooring for a few hundred pounds in Langstone harbour, failing that why don't you just buy a large house with land to store a boat on a trailer. Then get yourself a mutha trucking huge vechicle to put it in the water at Eastney or Haying?

[Guest skullingtonjoe]

Talking of Paulsgrove, this is where a local mob burnt down some paediatricians house because the profession sounded like another word. This is the mentality of the people who live there.

Yep. The inbred herd of quasi-zombies haven`t got a brain cell between them (the last one in that estate died a long time ago). They`re fu<king scum of the worst possible sort.

[justthisbloke]

In 1995-ish, I rented a place in Port Solent (a house without a berth set back from the water) while I spent a year or so house hunting.

I'm no surveyor but I thought some aspects of the build quality were poor. At the time, I also thought the rooms were ridiculously tiny but since then I'm fed up with rambling houses and have become a total minimalist. I mean - how much space do you need?

One thing that was, without doubt, utterly useless was the electric-only heating system. I never really figured it out.

The demographic of the area is odd. The majority of houses are bases for weekend yachtsmen and empty Monday to Friday and October to May. Most of the rest of the houses are rented with a transient population of middle-management and consultant type people.

I never had a problem with halyard rattling but then (a) I was set back from the boats and (b ) I like the sounds of sailing. OTOH, I didn't hear much at all except for traffic on the motorway which Port Solent is hard up against.

The location and area of Port Solent is crap. It's an old out of town municipal dump next to a motorway junction. There's nothing within walking distance; the only way out by bike is on the A27 and there's only about one bus an hour.

The nearest town centre is Paulsgrove, just across the A27. I never went there 'cos I is scaredy cat. The oiks from there did occasionally visit but were surprisingly well behaved.

Prompted by this thread, I've just looked at prices in Port Solent. There seem to be three bedders going for £250k which doesn't seem radically high compared to the £180k they were going for in 1995. There's a couple of attractive rentals there as well; £995pm for a three bedder with mooring. To put that in perspective, I'm currently paying almost £500pm for just a mooring on the Hamble.

Would I live there again? No. But that's really because of the location rather than the houses themselves. If I'm going to live somewhere that requires a car, it has to be somewhere a damn sight more perfect than Port Solent.

[200p]

That reminds me, a family friend bought an apartment in the Oyster building, had to sell for a £20K+ loss, in the 90s after deciding he did not like the location through lack of amenities.

Fenwicks has just gone under - I believe it occupies a few shops there, adding to the void shops. This might be an issue.

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/newshome/Busin...goes.5378150.jp

[justthisbloke]

Well, I was back there last night and it was spookily similar to when I lived there 15 years ago.

Loads of voids in the shops/restaurants - the defunct Fenwicks carrying a handwritten note explaining that they had become victims of the recession. The question to me is not how they went out of business but more, how on earth did they run a business selling mere trinkets that required three big shop units at Port Solent?

Since I lived there, the cinema has been built which seems to bring a lot of people in so it wasn't the total ghost town that I remember.

[leftiebeard]

Interesting thread....my folks have had an apartment in Port Solent (Oyster Quay) since 1992; purchased I think for c.£120k (3 beds) It has fantastic views over Porchester Castle and the Harbour. They use it almost all weekends, and have a small yacht down there - which is used regularly. They also have elderly parents close by as well. It suits them perfectly for what they wanted it for. I have never known of them having any problems whatsoever. Oyster Quay is well managed, and is kept in very good nick by the management company.

But - accept some of the criticisms made in earlier posts; as a place to put down any sort of roots; probably not desirable!. It is isolated in terms of walking anywhere else - though its location close to Paulsgrove is a complete non issue. The shops and restaurants are convenient once in a while, and I certainly accept that any purchase / rental of a house / apartment must be checked for motorway noise.

[VacantPossession]

I live on a harbour development further east, and like all experiences similar to this, it is up to you to make the most of what you have. I chose very carefully, so my rented flat is right on the beach, away from the ghastly harbour "centre" which has a collection of utterly useless gift shops and low rent chain restaurants to satisfy not the residents, but visitors. The local supermarket, a mile away, and association of tourist based retailers have seen to it that any shop that is actually useful, ie a newsagent or somewhere you can buy milk, is entirely absent.

Absent too are any community facilities whatsoever, the local council having completely ditched its pledge to force the harbour developers to set aside space for play areas for children, a community centre, useful shops, local cafes which are not ghastly chains, or any other useful endeavour. All this earmarked land has now been built on to excess. The result is of course that prices have plummeted. A good third of the available builds were snapped up by dealers who did all sorts of dodgy deals with developers, then quickly tried to get rid of them and register misleading and inflated prices with the Land Registry.

Half the owners or mortgage holders here are BTLs, and most have had a good slap round the face, having climbed on an insanely greedy band wagon of ludicrous optimism. Many now rent to the local authority so we have a large collection of the unemployed, single parent families and a fair proportion of human jetsam and flotsam, but reports of resulting social disorder as a consequence have actually been exaggerated. Personally I think that's a good thing and gives many people a better quality of life than some faceless in-town flat. On the whole things are reasonably peaceful.

The most disappointed residents are the social climbing retirees or semi retirees who thought, quite idiotically, that they were buying a bargain priced passport to a burgeois paradise. They spend an inordinate time forming closed "resident management companies" whose sole purpose is to keep what they consider the riff raff under control (odd since they are really little different themselves) and keep the perception of prices high - an amusing and losing battle.

There is almost zero cultural actvity on these developments, unless you consider a yacht club bash full of cravats and little britain types "culture".

There are large numbers of just about to be repossessed big plastic yachts and cruisers, and the repossession rate of these monstrosities, which barely see an hour a week actually on the sea, probably exceeds the property repossession rate. So there is downward pressure on berthing fees. The whole infrastructure is teetering on collapse while maintaining an entirely false impression that everything is fine.

The complete lack of community foliage gives the whole harbour development a feel of being a giant urban ghetto, and this is a major contributor to a bare and incomplete landscape.

But I paint perhaps an unjust picture. If one ignores all this and concentrate on the sea, the sunrise and sunset, the fresh air and the glorious atmosphere of being by the sea, which the worst development could not destroy even if it tried, you can get a high quality of life. To its credit, the one thing this development has is a fabulous network of generous cycle paths and walking opportunities. Anywhere there is water can be a calming and satisfying environment, and that's how this development succeeds. But nothing the builders have done, with the exception of a reasonable standard of architecture, has contributed to this.

[ds7971]

Are you referring to Sovereign Harbour (Eastbourne) by any chance?

[Guest skullingtonjoe]

Are you referring to Sovereign Harbour (Eastbourne) by any chance?

Sigh....

It`s near Portsmouth -( a real fu<king shithole if ever there was! )

[Guest happy?]

I live on a harbour development further east, and like all experiences similar to this, it is up to you to make the most of what you have....

A good and balanced response. Most of these developments seem to be aspirational, and for a weekend base they're adequate rather than ideal. I'd still recommend to anyone serious about such a permanent move to consider the surrounding area for a home and look at some of the cheaper boatyards along the Solent.

There are many 'unglamorous' boat yards which have all the facilities a yachtsman needs (e.g. lifting, storage, clubhouse, etc.) but without the expense associated with the prestige developments. And for those prepared to rough it - swinging moorings are very cheap.

Port Solent is I believe landlocked at low tide.

[piece of paper]

Most mast these days have the halyard running through the middle of the mast to stop the rattle

I thought that it was reduce chafe.

p-o-p