Havenswood, M30

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.

It has been very easy to communicate with them throughout the process, and they have been always in touch to reply to our queries. They made our completion day really unforgettable: our front door had a ribbon on it, and we were given a tour of the house, a welcome pack, a bottle of champagne and additional gifts.
They also followed up to check how we were getting on with the house and made sure we were settling alright.

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

The area is full of shops, gyms, supermarkets (including Morrison’s, Costco, Asda…) facilities and nice restaurants and cafes. the development is very well served by public transports: metrolink, bus station and train station are all walking distance! The Trafford centre is very closed at a walking distance too. The development is also close by to nice walking areas (eg. Worsley) by the water. The area is served with schools for children and very close to city centre. The area is very quiet and the neighbourhood feels nice and safe. There is an online community for people living in the estate where we exchange info, and keep in touch. We are overall very satisfied with the place we live in!

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

Definitely I wished I joined the Havenswood Facebook community sooner so I would have been able to exchange info about the development (eg window sizes etc..) with residents and finish my house sooner instead of having to wait to get in.

If there is one thing you would change about your flat or property what would it be:

I would change the front garden as it has two manholes and I don’t really like the chosen plants.

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

Property is in a great location,just 10
Minutes walk into the town centre and a 20 minute walk to Trafford centre.it’s a lovely quiet estate and bourses are well maintained.
Only issue I have is that people park right at the entrance/exit of the estate and this causes big issues getting in and out m

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

I wish that I had been able to see my plot as it was being developed.I literally had to wait until the day I got the keys.a lot of other property developers allow you to see your home once it’s safe to do so (and supervised)

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

Any issues were sorted within 6 months of me moving in

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

Local area is fine. Close transport links with trains, trams and motorway junction. Trafford Centre is very close for shopping & leisure. Monton is also very close for restaurants, bars and independent stores. Plenty of green space nearby too.

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

As a first-time buyer it would have been useful to know about estimated costs for things such as installing a TV aerial on the roof.

If there is one thing you would change about your flat or property what would it be:

Some of the light fittings seem to be in odd places.

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

It’s a really lovely area closw to the Trafford Centre of a 20 minute walk/5 minute drive. The communal garden area us always well maintained. Theres an Aldi and Morrisons in Eccles city centre which is again a 10/15 minute walk away where there’s also a post office should it be needed. There’s Eccles gateway which houses a library and a swimming pool/gym just opposite that alongside a dentist. Just a little further on there is another gym at West One retail park and an Iceland. The area is slap bang in the middle of retail shopping and food shopping and any leisure activities.
Great acces to the motorway too!

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

When it’s hot, it can get very hot indoors. You might need some fans as there aren’t any windows in the back houses/flats for safety and the ventilation system doesn’t really cool rooms down.

If there is one thing you would change about your flat or property what would it be:

I don’t really think there is anything I would change! It’s an amazing area, I get updates from my landlord when needed and I know I can get in touch if I should need anything.

We faced a few issues with individuals various things outside our apartments, which would then cause a prolonged smell due to the vents, however we managed to resolve this be contacting the property manager.

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

The area has great connectivity to the M60, along with access to plenty of different shopping places for essentials.

The area is great and the has been little trouble so far.

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

I think it would have been useful to understand how the vents worked. We were very much under the impression they would act as air conditioning, but they are very loud, passive and allow smells from outside to enter the apartment

If there is one thing you would change about your flat or property what would it be:

Unfortunately, due to the positioning of the apartment, we currently don’t have open windows. It can get a little warm on hot days, and this would be a welcome addition.

The estate management has been abysmal – we have lived here a year and a half now and we still have a long list of unresolved snags.

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

We have the Trafford Centre on our doorstep, which is excellent, and has an M&S food where we do a lot of our shopping. There is also a Morrisons in the middle of Eccles which is good for shopping too.

The selection of nice bars and restaurants is poor. There are essentially no nice places to eat or drink in Eccles, so we find ourselves getting taxis into Manchester. Hopefully with all the new developments in Eccles, there will be an increased range of outlets to eat and drink.

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

There is a lovely park in the middle of Eccles, 2 minutes walk away which is a fantastic asset – we were unaware of this until after we moved in.

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

Slowly. The only way we have had serious issues rectified has been by escalating to top execs at Countryside.

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

We were new to the area and we unsure at the beginning, but we now love living in this area, it is a short work to Eccles town centre where there are a range of shops, bars and restaurants which is perfect for us.
We are a 5 minute walking distance from the tram station which going into Manchester City centre, this is great for my partners work commitments.
The estate is lovely, all the houses are different and everyone looks after them and there hasn’t been any problems at all. We have a double drive which is also great for when we have visitors. We are off the main road so is also lovely and quite and no not get any traffic going past our new home. We love it here and are so great full we choice countryside to buy our new home ?

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

We are so please with how big our garden is and no not believe this was stressed enough when we were buying the house. If we new anyone buying a house on the estate we would be telling them how happy we are

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

We have been able to email the site manager a list of any problems we has and then we just left a key with them and they were then able to come and go into the house to make it perfect

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

The location is very good, I am very happy with the facilities around in Eccles and the transportation is very convenient, with very few exceptions when it’s sometimes not working and tricky to get to but this is rare. There is some parking although I find some neighbours to be rude and to block my driveway because they don’t have enough space. There is quite a lot of noise from the industrial factory nearby but you get used to it. Some neighbours from the older houses near the development tend to be a bit anti social and sometimes make horrible noises, I am yet to identify who those people are so that is a bit stressful, but asides from that it is fairly a quiet area. The rest of the neighbours from the development are very nice.

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

the noise, the shared driveway, the small garden

If there is one thing you would change about your flat or property what would it be:

I would redesign the private shared driveway, it creates clutter for the houses when trying to park

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

The development is close to a wide range of local shops and supermarkets and has lots of good schools. There is also a few parks near by. It is close to main bus routes and tram stops. The estate is quiet and everyone is very friendly.

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

That you have to pay 2 water bills

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

They have an easy to use complaints system and respond very quickly to any needs.