Don't do it - find another property that has some north facing potential

you say the living areas are facing south. That to me means the grassed area is west. covered deck in south, entry is on the north, and carport on the east?? Is that correct.

Or is the grassed area south and the carport on the north side??

Either way, If the living areas truly face south towards the covered deck. Then you can put clear sheeting into the roof of the deck to let the light in. The back yard grassed area will get lots of sun from the west.

If the kitchen and grassed areas are on the southside, that means the home will get the wonderful morning east sun, (if you install clear sheeting in deck roof) and so will the back yard. it will get the morning and afternoon sun.

Is there another position you could park the vehicles, and open up the garage to the house and put a window in the north side into the home??

But to make everything clear. Where is North, South, East and West on your plans???

Could you mark where north is? If the covered deck is on the south side, the backyard would be North/South which would indicate some sun would get through. What area is the house? Impacts of orientation is very different in Far North Queensland compared to Tasmania.

Sorry I realise that was cropped out. The covered deck is east facing, the garden area at the rear is south facing. We also had the idea of adding louvre roofing to the deck to bring light into the kitchen/ living area. The garage seems to be the best part of the house facing north!

(For context this is in the inner west of sydney)

What a real estate agent told me is -facing refers to where the street is.

Plans are typically shown with north at the top.

I'm confused. The entry is on the right so I wondered if the street is to the right, and the garage is a drive-through to the carport at the back, but you say the garden is at the rear, which implies the street is at the bottom of your plan, so where is the driveway?

The longest side facing north is ideal.

That's not just for light but for reducing energy usage. Choosing the block and designing to make the most of it is the best thing you can do for ongoing benefits.

I agree with the earlier advice that you'd be better off finding another block, but if you want assistance with this one then a full site plan showing setbacks is needed.

So the property is a town house, one shared driveway with three properties coming off. The street is located north/east- virtually behind the covered deck. You can see from the satellite view, not a great image but I think it clarifies where the property sits on the block. The blue X is the backyard and the red X

is the covered deck. The townhouse we are looking at is located in the middle of the two.

what is the covered deck built out of and how would you use the space?...can the deck roofing be changed to allow more light inside and is there enough space to add a roof window above the kitchen and Solar Skylights could brighten the other downstairs rooms

Ask council if possible to put in some north facing windows. Particularly beside front door and on stairwell You could possibly flip stairs to south side and rooms upstairs if windows approved. This is the more extensive work. Certainly remove half of deck roof. And replace as much as poss with multi-walled laserlite or similar polycarbonate roofing

The house is a townhouse, connected to two different homes. Therefore you can’t adjust the northern side at all. And minimal changes would be able to take place on the north west side, as two thirds of the home is connected to the other townhouse. Only change could be installing a new pergola with louvres as mentioned. If the location is very special then maybe the bad orientation may override that. But personally with orientation, shared driveway, strata levy fees, I would not be rushing into purchasing this home. You are the only one who knows your long term situation and financial capacity.

This townhouse is almost the worst possible orientation you could achieve and as others have said, I wouldn't rush to buy it. If the price is too good to believe, that is the reason and it will reflect in your sale price down the track so don't have high expections when the time comes to sell. Light is the most important quality in a home to provide an enjoyable and healthy living environment and so should never be undervalued.

Having said that, if you are determined to buy it, as well as what others have suggested, I would look at the following.

It appears that the first floor lines up with the outside kitchen wall and the garage is single storey and that is why you do get north windows into the top two bedrooms. The large west facing window in bedroom 3 will need shading all year round to prevent overheating in the small room.

South light is still good even though it doesn't have much sun, especially in warmer climates so I would look at putting a window in the kitchen so you can see that back yard, possibly between the oven and the outside corner.

The main thing I would do however, is to put a big skylight over the stairs and keep the balustrading open to allow light to come down to the living space. You should get reflected light off the walls in the morning and direct sunlight in the afternoon. You will have to check the fire rating issues in relation to the joint wall with the neighbour as this part of the roof appears to be where the roof valley is but you might be able to get one in on the north facing triangular portion of the roof. To increase the amount of light, you could change the stairs to have an open riser to let more light penetrate.

You could also replace some of the garage roof adjacent the living area with clearlite roofing and put a high level window in the garage/living room wall to let that light come through.

Good luck.

C.

From the previous reply

"You will have to check the fire rating issues in relation to the joint wall with the neighbour as this part of the roof appears to be where the roof valley is but you might be able to get one in on the north facing triangular portion of the roof."

I was looking at the roof and wondering about that. I've heard of cases where the builder has cut corners on doing that properly. So pay attention to those seemingly boring out-of-sight details. Sound insulation from the adjoining property too.

I had another thought looking at the pic. If it's gas and not all-electric, the latter being the better option but slow on the uptake with developers, check where the gas meter is. I have seen some poorly positioned ones in medium density. Make sure there is effective protection with bollards, and that it's not problematic when parking.

I didn't realise at first you were talking about an already built property. Have you had it inspected by a building inspector?