Can't find the next house, am I doing something wrong ?

PuzzledDave

So, we currently are living in our first purchased home. We are in the last stages of the mortgage now and whilst our current first home is fine there are things we would like to improve: More living space, larger bathroom, bigger garden, better area.

Had a valuation from a local EA and making the calculation of : sale value + max mortgage available from online bank estimates + spare cash - guessitmate £10k for moving costs, a potiential 2nd home could be more than twice the price of our current home, maybe as much as 225% more expensive.

Thing is, whilst better area and larger garden seems easy to come by, a significant amount of more square metres just doesn't seem to be there. We don't want to move very far since children are in a good primary school, but even if we search our whole town at the limit of our funds/possible mortgage it seems houses just don't get that much larger. Is that normal ? When I look around on rightmove it just doesn't seem to you get twice as much house for twice as much money ?

Davesnave

PuzzledDave wrote: »

When I look around on rightmove it just doesn't seem to you get twice as much house for twice as much money ?

That's normal. There's a law of diminishing returns in operation. You might also be looking at a particular age/style of house. Older houses of the same genre may be larger and have better plots, but obviously this isn't true all properties. There was speculative building even in Victorian times!

Be careful with received wisdom on areas popularly defined as 'good.' We lived just outside a highly respected area for over 20 years and then rented within it. The price differential was around £80-100k for the same floor area, but having experienced both locations, we didn't think the 'posh' one was worth extra. For example, it was noisier, and comparing Police UK figures, it was more prone to crime. We didn't find the community spirit particularly good either, but that's something impossible to quantify.

I_have_spoken

Yep, only commercial property has anything like a direct link to sq.m and price.

You can add £10,000s to the price to go from semi to detached with no extra floor-space as you are buying peace and quiet.

Also, if you are keeping with the same # of bedrooms, it's only when you add a bedroom you may also get a 2nd reception or a kitchen/utility extension coming into the mix.

PasturesNew

The trouble is you start to want everything. When you bought your house you probably couldn't afford another bedroom as it was £30-50k more. Now you're looking to move you're looking for that extra bedroom AND a host of other requirements, so you're pricing yourself out of the market because you feel your 2nd home should be able to give you everything you want - and it won't.

You have to be ruthless is what's essential and what's nice to have. I've ended up buying a house that didn't have some things that were on my essential list simply because it didn't exist in my price range AND in the preferred location. I could have had all my wishlist in my budget, by choosing a different area.... but I chose location over extras.

It's all about choices, compromise and making do, no matter what your budget.

pinkshoes

We have just sold a 3 bed semi and bought a 4 bed detached. The price difference is nearly DOUBLE!! e.g. £220k to over £400k!!

It's just the way houses are priced here, but also supply and demand. THere are lots of 3 bed semis, but not many 4 bed detached large family homes.