How many steps did you take on the property ladder (or where are you now)?

Alphamare

We are buying our first home. We are unlikely to take another step unless we could afford a small holding.

pawsies

Consider whether the extension will cost more than solicitor fees (probably will). Thus I would look to move if you don't mind moving

Worry_Wart

I've bought a 3 bed terraced that cannot be extended as the loft is already in use (and is one of the 3 bedrooms), with a total surface area of 90m2.

It's a lovely house and fine for a couple. We don't want children, so could feasibly stay there for a long time. The only drawback is there isn't a dining room and so will miss that a lot. If the right house came up with a bigger kitchen/dining area and a bigger garden I'd consider it, but on the grand scheme of things I'm happy with my lot.

As it's over three floors, in thirty years or so I'll probably want to invest in a good stena stairlift or a bungalow, though.

gazfocus

I bought a small(ish) 3 bed semi a couple of years ago and thought the house would last us 5+ years...we're now moving (due to financial circumstances) to a 4 bed detached house with scope to extend that will be our forever home.

SailorSam

My first house was a terrace and which i was happy with except i had yellow lines outside and had to park in the next road. So after a ticket and getting my car stolen i wanted to move to somewhere with parking. So for the next 25yrs i had what i referred to as a 'Wimpey Rubbish. Them moved here about 6yrs ago. Probably stay here until they put me in a wooden box.

Halle71

I had three one beds in London over a 10 year period - getting nicer as I moved, but I lived alone so couldn't make the move to a 2 bed until 2007. Then I bought an amazing 2 bed in Brixton at the peak of the market, but promptly met my OH, got pregnant within 18 months and started looking for a house.

As I had been made redundent and the mortgage was in my name and my OH wasn's on a great salary we couldn't increase the mortgage so we knew the house wouldn't be our forever house. However, we found a lovely Edwardian 3 bed terrace a couple of miles away in a scruffy area that is now up and coming and the value has almost doubled. We added a loft, changed windows and generally tarted it up. It is perfect for us with a four year old and fourteen month old.

We also bought a BTL in our area last year.

Next move? Either commuter belt, more spacious, bigger garden etc or a move to somewhere in London with better secondary schools (and cleaner streets).

Final house (other than the care home). My OH is Kiwi so somewhere with a beach view on the other side of the world.

lmille38

movilogo wrote: »

I am also looking to move to a larger house but looks like I'm priced out of the market. :mad:

I just don't want to move to a house which is just slightly larger (which I can afford) than current one but want which is a considerably larger (i.e. proper family home so that no longer need to move) but I can't afford the later one.

My own house is rising in value but my next house is rising value in much faster way. For this reason, I want house price to calm down even though I am a home owner myself.

So looks like I am stuck in my current house for foreseeable future.

This is exactly us just now but seen as we have only been in our 3 bed semi 2 years we have a little bit of time

nikki2804

We rented for 4.5 years before taking our first step onto the property ladder last November. We were lucky that the house was a part exchange but with a long entry date so we got it at a steal. 4 bed detached so can't ever see us moving but the house across the road sole for 43k more last week, tempting :rotfl:. Don't think I could take the stress again.

nakiwala123

We are on the first step but hopefully a very looonnng first step.

We bought this 3 bed semi in a good area and hopefully with 2 kids in our future plans we should be just comfortable. We hope to stay here for the next at least 10yrs but hopefully more.

It has a lovely private garden that is low maintenance, a 3 car drive, good primary school nearby and on probably the best bus route in this town for my commute and future secondary schools. I would say we have been very lucky to get this house. We paid £12k over our initial budget (to stop it from going to an open day) pushing ourselves to the limits of what the bank could lend (i even invaded the £2 coin collection) but hopefully we managed to save ourselves from 1 to 2 interim moves and the costs involved. All we have to do now is concentrate on paying off the bigger mortgage, look after the place and enjoy it.

I did not enjoy the moving process and it felt like we were paying many people a lot of money for not doing much that I wish to not to do it again anytime soon.

This house has been extended downstairs so it has plenty of living space but upstairs it is the usual layout of 2 doubles, a single bed and bathroom. I would love to have a downstairs toilet though. We have the whole loft space with very little in it in terms of stored stuff but we wish not to extend there as i believe the money we shall spend will definitely push us over the £250k threshold which will be difficult to achieve on this particular road (the largest house recently sold for £238k; ours is the 2nd biggest which we paid £232k in june 2013).

Bennifred

We bought our first house (3 bed detached corner plot on a new estate) thirty years ago. Planned on staying 3-4 years then moving out to a village. Then interest rates soared and I got pregnant and wanted to stay at home with the baby so we stayed put. Six years on again we were expecting baby number 3 and it was better value to extend than move up a size with all the associated costs. So we had a two story side extension built - extra bedroom, ensuite and living room. Then when the children hit their teens we decided the position of the house was perfect for them to walk to school, into town, to friends, etc so we decided to stay put and had another small extension built on the back to give a bit more living space. So here we are in our fifties in our "first" house. Probably be here a while yet, as the offspring have all come back after university, living away, etc.
OH and I joke that we'll have to move out when we want our own space........