Renting a house with gf.

My gf and I have been looking to rent for a while but no luck. It’s a difficult time for renting as loads of people apply for one house and it’s first come first served.
My mum knows a landlady and she said she’ll ask her if any properties are available. She has one just come up, not ready, needs work and she’ll ‘call in sometime’ and fill her in….the lady has said we can have first refusal. This all sounds great, HOWEVER the location is somewhere I simply do not want to live. It is round the corner from my mum, and also VERY close to people I work with also. I just don’t like the village the house is in and the location. The landlady also hasn’t mentioned how much the rent would be either.

Now…I’m feeling pretty sick with worry at the moment because I know if I tell my gf she will want to go for it and get the house as we’ve been looking for ages with no luck and this is a golden opportunity and we will get first refusal on it. BUT like I said I don’t want to live there. Do I tell her about the house? Forget about it and not mention it? Or get the facts first on the house (i.e. price) then mention it of that sways me?

Any advice would be greatly received

If you opt not to mention it to your girlfriend, (a) you're effectively lying to her, and (b) you run the risk of her finding out when your Mum casually mentions it one day in the future. Neither would be good for your relationship.

I feel it would be better to say something like this: "There's a property potentially becoming available soon for which we would have first refusal. It's in an area I really don't want to live, and I've no idea what the rent would be - so it might not be an option anyway."

When you know the price, it might rule it out anyway. Or it might be so cheap that you're persuaded that it's a good option. If, on the other hand, the price is somewhere in the middle but you still don't want to live there, then you have to explain your thinking to your girlfriend. Is she really going to insist you move to somewhere you don't want to live?

Thanks for your advice. I plan to mention it to her after thinking about it. Your wording makes sense. Do you think it’s unreasonable to leave it until next week until I tell her? We are visiting my mum on the weekend and I don’t want it to create an atmosphere if I tell her my feelings about it and she doesn’t understand.

Is there a chance that your mum might mention something (even by accident) about the property when you both visit? That's the risk of delaying, I'd say.

She has said she won’t mention anything about it

Find out what the rent is first.
Then if you can afford to rent the property, have a frank discussion with your gf.
But don't lie or try to hide the truth from her.
Good luck!