About Countryside

Countryside is an award-winning UK property developer specialising in urban regenerations. Countryside homes always demonstrate a focus on green space and sustainability. Countryside operates across London, the South East, the North West of England and the West Midlands, and was founded in 1958.

Countryside also create affordable and private housing for local authorities and housing associations through planning agreements, PRS housing, mixed use schemes and joint ventures.

Countryside developments

Countryside properties on HomeViews include sought-after neighbourhoods like Greenwich Millennium Village (a joint venture with Taylor Wimpey Central London), St Paul’s Square and Hoxton Wharf – all of which team stylish apartments with well-connected London locations.

Many developments we looked at felt like they were just a faceless high rise and we wanted to make friends and meet like minded people. Greenwich Millennium Village has been perfect for us, with so many facilities on site and the open park areas you don’t feel that you are living in a city. We have also made lots of friends through the nursery and primary school.” – Margot, resident at Greenwich Millennium Village

Countryside properties reviews

This area is very nice and quiet, nice people and very clean , lovely looking buildings , and local shops, maintained daily , there is plenty of green space , also has nice views, local schools and close to public transport.” – Clare, verified resident at St Paul’s Square

Click on the developments below to read Countryside homes reviews from residents. Do you live in a Countryside development? Leave a review here. If you can’t find a particular Countryside development on HomeViews, click here to submit a new listing.

 

Number of Developments

52

Ratings

4.00 Rating

Rating (based on 542 reviews)

Excellent

34.50%

Very Good

48.52%

Average

11.25%

Disappointing

3.14%

Very Poor

2.58%

Developments

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Showing all 52 developments

Countryside reviews

Reviews

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Showing 542 reviews

A pretty good and accessible property development (T&Cs apply)

The internal and external designs of the house will live up to your standards if you have done your research and explored the show-homes in person beforehand or viewed the floor-plans of the house when shopping online.

The facilities and building management seems good for bin collections and parking space. However, there have been a lot of complains by the development’s residents of litter and fouling from dog walkers who live outside the neighbourhood and garbage blowing away from bins and being left in the public green area for days, if not weeks.

Property management has been extremely slow, either due to the pandemic or a poor after-care ticketing system. It can take weeks and several months to get some of your complains heard to fix the major and minor issues. On average, it can take up to half or a full year to resolve all the items on your snag-list, unless your chase the project managers on a daily or weekly basis.

Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:

Although, Eccles still needs a lot of investment to improve its image within Greater Manchester, the property development is located in a pretty good accessible location. If your don’t drive then this location is very beneficial for commuting to work as the train station, metrolink tram station and the bus station are all 10-15 minutes of walking distance. The local town has all your typical shops, take-aways, pubs, post-offices, banks including two big supermarkets, Aldi and Morrisons for your weekly shopping. One of the biggest shopping centres in the UK, the Trafford Centre is also a 20 minutes walk away.

The inside of the neighbourhood feels pretty safe, regardless of what the crime rate is like in Eccles.

I don’t hear any traffic noise from the main roads outside the neighbourhood as my house is in located in the middle. However, there is a big problem about the constant low humming noise apparently coming from the CarGrill factory based in the industrial state that is across the canal which is located behind the property development.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

If you are a light sleeper or appreciate peace and quiet, then you might not enjoy the sound pollution of the constant humming noise that is apparently coming from an industrial factory owned by CarGrill across the canal, which is behind the development located at Guinness Road, Trafford Park, Stretford, Manchester.

If you live in a 3 story house, then you can hear the noise through the roof walls or the 6 Velux skylight windows of the master bedroom on the 3rd floor almost every night and sometimes even during the day. You can’t hear it that much from the 1st or 2nd floors, as the windows and walls are a bit sound proof.

However, the frequency of the sounds fluctuates from day-to-day and it can be very irritating when you’re trying to sleep every night. This is an issue that possibly may have stopped me from buying my house, had I knew this noise was always there as it is taking months to almost a year to get complaints heard by Salford and Trafford Council from my neighbours.

Also, almost every house in the development has had an issue with poor drainage in their back garden, which apparently takes several months to a year to get your complaints heard by the developer in getting your garden soil dug up again and new grass tiles relayed by the landscapers.

What is the best feature of your home:

The best feature of my home are the skylight windows in the master bedroom on the 3rd floor and kitchen/dining room. I also like the skin basin/vanity units in the main bathroom and en-suite.

4
Facilities
4
Design
3
Location
3
Value
3
Management
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Lovely area, nice views, quiet and good for families

The houses are beautifully designed and very functional. All come with sola panels and every garden – when the area was built – had a fruit tree in the backyard. It’s a good mixture of houses. Our house is North/South facing, so we always have one side shade and one side sun, depending on the time of the day.
Our house came with a car port, which also has two power sockets to power electric cars, which I think is a good future investment to make, same with the solar panels on the roof. There is no fibre-to-home (yet), but generally fibre is available up to the nearest box and to the house it’s copper lines; we still get ~50mbps download rates, which is more than sufficient for everyday use.

The only thing I currently don’t like too much is the street design and neighbours parking up the roads. The streets are designed to be narrow with dedicated parking bays and crossing exits and neighbours decided to ignore everything and park their cars all over the place, even if it means that they are blocking the narrow part of the street or the crossing or other people’s car ports. The property management was meant to put parking restrictions in place and get a traffic warden, but they find plenty of excuses not to do so (hence a lower property management and design score).

The house is also about a 10-15min walk away from High Barnet station (again, 2 bus stops) and 2 bus lines lead through the development as well.

For children there is also a little park in the centre, though depending on the expansion of the area, there may be the need for a second playground as on some days it gets a bit crowded there.

Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:

Nice area, friendly people and it’s very quiet. Neighbours mostly keep to themselves. There are plenty of schools and nurseries in the area, which is good for any family thinking of moving here. Barnet high street is only 10-15min on foot (or 2-3 bus stops) away and there is a massive green park area a few minutes away, as well as a Coop mini market and 4 free to use tennis courts.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

The area is generally very family friendly and most neighbours do have children. So if you’re looking for a retirement home, this won’t be it. This is more for families trying to find the best and safest home for their children with Ofsted outstanding nurseries and schools around the corner. GPs are generally not the best here, but to be fair, they haven’t been anywhere I have lived so far.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

Slow, partial responses; though this may be Corona related. The traffic management is quite bad in the area and the property management so far has used Corona for not getting double yellow lines put down, in over a year now.

5
Facilities
4
Design
5
Location
5
Value
4
Management
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Wonderful place for families in London

The design of North Greenwich rivals the best of London design and it has a Scandinavian feel to it, think Copenhagen 🙂 Literarily, as you step out of the North Greenwich tube station you’ll start to see the art installations, on the riverside but also on the mirroring walk to the river. In the words of one of our guests who came to visit us: ‘ it looks like this place is a competition in design! Each building or facility gets nicer and nicer to look at, as you walk!’ Soon the Design District will be built, and with Ravensbourne University of Design right opposite it, North Greenwich will become THE focus place for designers in London!
The facilities are stunning, the Tide bridge incredibly beautiful to walk on, the riverside has creative benches to rest and relax and there are even meditation spots along beautiful peaceful areas at the tap of button. The building management that manages our development is Rendall&Rittner and so far we are happy with them. They provide high quality customer service through their polite and helpful staff members, insights and reminders through their community newsletters, a parcel collection service, and their fees are reasonable. R&R also help us to connect to property management teams should any problems arise. We have appreciated their support in times of need, such as lift breaking down or car park door being blown away by the wind! Thank you.

Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:

Really awesome location in London! Very close to the Thames river, and surrounded by natural beauty such as parks and the gorgeous Nature Reserve. Fabulous shops and restaurants practically on our doorstep or maximum 20 minutes walk away. Safe Bicycle lanes, but nowhere near enough car parking spaces. Super crowded schools and nurseries, we need more of those! Also a new GP practice would be highly beneficial, as well as a better quality gym within the development, accessible to all residents.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

I wish I had known about the fact that we don’t have access to a fob key to automatically open the doors to the car park…it’s inconvenient to get our bicycles out thorough the very heavy doors of our building. But hey, at least they are secure!

What is the best feature of your home:

I think the best feature is noise and heat insulation! This couldn’t be any better! We love the bricklaying, and the modern ventilation system is so innovative! Everything is high quality, from the floors to the stain resistant carpets to the door handles and shower facilities and all the taps! We also love the wooden finishes in the bathrooms, looks so cosy! Very well spaced throughout, and lovely balcony.

4
Facilities
5
Design
5
Location
4
Value
5
Management
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Quiet and Beautiful Scenery

The development is lovely. Situated at the bottom of Nellie Spindler Drive off Neil Fox way, its a little tucked away from the bulk of homes at City Fields, which is to the development’s benefit.
The frontage of the estate is across the road from a protected washlands area/nature reserve so is the only estate in City Fields which will never have other housing developments built opposite/overlooking the front so it does feel quite Countryside-y (excuse the pun).
Due to above nature reserve there are some great quiet walks for walking with family and dogs, and lots of great pubs within walking distance if that’s your thing.
One of the standout features is the design of the houses. They are aesthetically fantastic and the interiors benefit from loads of light thanks to huge Velux roof lights in the kitchen areas and some living rooms.
Some of the less brilliant things are that its still being built around us and some of the outstanding items like block paving the roads have not been completed more than 6 months after people moved in. This is a little frustrating as it brings the overall feel of the estate down somewhat. Countryside need to get on and finish building the roads but their focus is on getting the next phase of the development built it would seem.
That said its still a wonderful, quiet and enjoyable place to live and I’d recommend it to anyone just purely from the design and location.

Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:

Good:
– Location, location, location. The development is on the doorstep of the Canal and there are loads of beautiful nature walks near by.
– Close to the City Centre. Its a really short drive into the city centre and a reasonable walk if you prefer.
– Quiet. Its nice and quiet on the development and near by.

Not so Good:
– Parking. Every house has a double driveway (I think), but there isn’t really much on street parking.
– Finish. As per all new builds the finish is at times questionable. Countryside have been relatively quick to fix everything but there are parts when we moved in that felt rushed.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

You need to prepare yourself to spend lots of time chasing up outstanding work and snags as the houses seem to be handed over in pretty poor condition when new. The snags are numerous but generally not serious (I’ve not heard of any massive leaks or movement like with some other developers) but an eye for detail will help you identify where corners have been cut on the finish. For example its worth checking that your walls have had a proper even coat of paint and that woodwork has been sanded and finished properly before being painted.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

Generally they have been responsive, especially when we first moved in. It has become harder and harder to get snags resolved as more houses are handed over and as mentioned above there are large items outstanding on the estate which keep getting promised but never finished.

3
Facilities
5
Design
5
Location
3
Value
3
Management
User submitted image of  Countryside at City Fields, WF3
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These reviews are the subjective opinion of a HomeViews member and not of HomeViews

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