house or flat????

5monkey

Im planning to buy a house next year for up to £160000. I keep looking what is on the market and to be honest not much for this price.... Recently I started thinking about buying a flat, only because its cheaper and hopefully doesnt need any work done.

If I decide to buy a flat do you know what do they charge for comparing to having a house?

Thank you for you help

pinkshoes

For flats you'll have to pay ground rent (about £50 a year??) and a service charge (about £700 a year??) although these prices can vary massively depending on the flat.

Also note that conversion flats can often be very noisy, as can shoddily built new ones, so check the sound proofing.

In my area, houses are in such high demand they're almost double the price of a flat!

PasturesNew

House, house, house, house, house.

If none are available, then move out by 1-2 miles and find a house.

Definitely a house.

Houses rock.

House. I made my mind up.

acs202

We bought a flat for the same reason but there are so many extra costs that you just wouldn't believe:

In the South per annum

Ground rent - £200
Maintenance - £800

Then when you come to sell you get stung by the solicitors for the extra work they have to do for leasehold properties. So there is usually a premium of around £100 + VAT.

All in all I would recommend a house. Plus depending on the area flats can be a real !!!!!! to sell!

5monkey

I really want to have a house with a garden. We are keep saving for a deposit and I really hope we will be able to find something nice next year...

I thought a flat can be a cheaper option but it doesnt look like it....

Thank you

zzzLazyDaisy

My first purchase after divorce was a flat, simply because I couldn't afford anything else at the time.

I lived there 18 months, during that time the maintenance fee went up from £35 per month to £56 per month. On top of that we were all asked to make a 'one-off' contribution of £200 towards having the gates on the communal car park replaced (I didn't pay, as I moved out while the dispute was still ongoing).

The communal areas were never properly cleaned and the repairs would only be done after months of phone calls and nagging. The grass areas were never properly mown, but just roughly strimmed. We paid for the bins to be professionally cleaned after each bin day - this was never done.

When I moved I had to pay the management company £50 for copies of the receipts for ground rent, buildings insurance etc that they had not provided during my ownership, but which were needed in order to sell. And of course the solicitor charged when I bought and again when I sold, because flats are leasehold.

I also had problems with one family in the block of six who were noisy, and whose teenage kids used the stairs and common parts as a place to congregate with their mates, smoking and drinking (no this was not a bad area, just one difficult family).

Would I do it again? Yes, because I needed somewhere to live urgently and the mortgage on the flat was cheaper than renting, and I couldn't afford anything else at the time. Would I do it again out of choice? Not a cat in hell's chance!

If you can possibly afford a house, go for it, even if you have to save for a bit longer.

acs202

Keep on saving! We are trying to sell our flat to move to a house. Its crazy what our flat is listed for in comparison to what houses people can buy for the same money.

Good luck and hope you manage to find somewhere!

5monkey

I can not wait to have my own house!!!!

chickmug

It depends on the part of the country but IMO a house every time but I can understand those who have to start in a flat.

Jowo_2

House everytime.

Lived in flats where the often the common areas were dirty and ill-maintained and where the other owners failed to contribute. Also experienced noisy neighbours and a higher likelihood of anti-social tenants as buy to let landlords are more likely to have flats to let out and its no fun being surrounded by a transient community.

Floors so thin that I could actually hear the tenant above urinate and have brief noisy sex with his partner.

Curse of shared bins - poor rubbish disposal led to bulk rubbish (entire contents of flats dumped in the bin compounds rather than paying a modest fee and arranging bulk rubbish uplift). Experienced rats and bags dumped on the floor rather than placed in a bin that get ripped open by the animals - regularly had to wade through dirty nappies, condoms and used sanitary towels.

Also had chavs who used the common areas to hold noisy and smelly barbeques where they smoked drugs and left out their empties. They also used to exercise their dogs by sticking them through their window into the courtyard and letting them !!!!! there. They also wrenched off the loft hatch lock to install chav TV and damaged the stone exterior by poorly securing the cables.

Corridors tended to fill up with shoes, bicycles, & stinking bin bags that occupants can't be bothered to take out.

House, house, house, house.

LilacPixie

I have a flat. Nice area, big rooms factoring charges are roughly £12 a month. That being said I bought when I was a single girl, Now I have 2 kids and a husband we need a house and garden.

Both have positives and negitives