We were viewing a house yesterday and the estate agent was extolling its location
“The village has all you need, shops, pubs and you can easily walk there so you don’t have to use your car, which is good.”
I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised because walkability not the sort of thing you expect to hear from estate agents in the area. I must have looked a bit taken aback because he went on to say, hurriedly
“I mean, I’m not implying that you like to get drunk or anything …”
If you popped into the village for breakfast, I’d have thought the deep-fried Mars Bar would soak up all the alcohol from the wee dram and pint of heavy chaser anyway. 😉
wouldn’t it be nice if estate agents mentioned walkability, cycle paths etc instead of parking in house blurbs.
Its not universal but where the local councils provide the data freely the real-estate industry will make use of it:
http://www.allhomes.com.au/ah/act/sale-residential/canberra/1039112/listed-date
If you pick a house from there you get a detailed local map including things such as easements and school catchments, and scroll to the bottom to see distances to important public amenities (as the crow flies but its a good start).
In fairness, we’re more looking for cycleability than walkability at the moment – rural locations don’t tend to be that walkable