House or flat?

mattyprice4004

I've had awful experiences in a flat, I preferred my tiny terrace with the drug dealing neighbours!

Personally, house.

bouicca21

I have a spacious ground floor flat with direct access to a garden in a very nice area. Suits me. I don't have to worry about finding tradesmen to fix gutters or loose or missing tiles. The property is way better than a house for the same money. It's quiet and the neighbours are lovely.

Choose the property you like best, in the neighbourhood you like.

missbiggles1

bouicca21 wrote: »

I have a spacious ground floor flat with direct access to a garden in a very nice area. Suits me. I don't have to worry about finding tradesmen to fix gutters or loose or missing tiles. The property is way better than a house for the same money. It's quiet and the neighbours are lovely.

Choose the property you like best, in the neighbourhood you like.

One of our flats was half of a Victorian villa, own large garden, 4 bedrooms, living room 24' by 18' (the house's original drawing room), off street parking. We owned the freehold jointly with the other flat and maintenance was split 2 ways.

For the same price we could've bought a 2 + 1/2 bed terrace with small garden and no off street parking and paid all the maintenance ourselves.

For us it was no contest.

somethingcorporate

Leasehold = generally expensive nightmare.

Having owned both houses and flats freehold houses every time.

GwylimT

Flats all the way for us. The original flat we bought in this building was a two bed, we have now upgraded to a four bed. In both there is a large private garden the length of the flat (so L shaped) with a drive, so in total space for thre cars including our space in the car park. Our own private entrance.

There are staff on site 24/7 we have a gym and pool, there is a very good playground on site, as the whole site is enclosed even if they wanted to our children couldn't escape.

The solar panels on the roof mean no service charge, any profit is used for a community event, eg BBQ/lawn party. It is normally a small amount as not only does it pay for maintenance it also pays for personal trainers at the gym and site staff.

It is in a very nice area, a two bed house in this area would be almost twice the price of our flat, without a front garden, tiny back garden and very small rooms.

sniggings

missbiggles1 wrote: »

There's a lot of snobbery in the UK about flats, which is one of the reasons for the housing shortage.

rubbish...housing problem is down to the cost of housing.

flats if build properly are great, shame a lot/most are poorly build, hence why people prefer houses, which is the same in most other countries too, snobbery has nothing to do with it.

missbiggles1

sniggings wrote: »

rubbish...housing problem is down to the cost of housing.

flats if build properly are great, shame a lot/most are poorly build, hence why people prefer houses, which is the same in most other countries too, snobbery has nothing to do with it.

Cost of housing is mainly down to cost and shortages of land - flats (with or without gardens) use far less land.

You obviously have spent little time in much of continental Europe where apartment living is far more common than in the UK and people don't see living in flats as purely temporary.

sniggings

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Cost of housing is mainly down to cost and shortages of land - flats (with or without gardens) use far less land. agree and that helps your argument how?


You obviously have spent little time in much of continental Europe where apartment living is far more common than in the UK and people don't see living in flats as purely temporary.

Of course other countries make the use of flats more, I didn't say they didn't, I just think for you to say that "snobbery" has a meaningful affect on the housing problem in this country is silly.

dgtazzman

Depends on the house, if it's terraced, I wouldn't really consider it any better/worse than a flat, semi would be a little better, but a detached house will always have my preference over a flat.

I'm Dutch and lived on the continent for many years growing up, including a few flats. In Holland, flats are actually more desirable than houses, though I have never figured out why (well, OK, heating bills etc. are lower). I find you are far more reliant on your neighbor's behavior in flats and you have to hope the sound proofing in between flats is up to scratch. There's also the issue of (mostly) a management company, lease/service charges, etc., so you are dependent on another party for some issues. If you own a house, you can sort things yourself (though over time, probably at a higher cost in many cases).

My father still lives in a flat in Holland and he's had so many issues over the years, it's only put me off more. Downstairs neighbors complaining they could hear him when he used the stairs (his flat is over 2 floors), meaning he ended taking the laminate off the stairs and putting sound proofing underlay and carpet on there. He's also had leaking windows and roof (he's on top floor), both due to incorrect building of the block. He had to take court action to get these defects rectified, took 3 years, by which time his floor and some of his internal walls were ruined.

Nope, my dream is a detached house in a nice quiet area and I'll be moving into my dream at the start of December, hooza Had to relocate to Carmarthenshire to fit it into my budget, but I'm not complaining, it's pretty here...

I wouldn't completely write off living in a flat, but it would have to be a damn nice flat to convince me.

Thrugelmir

Started many years with a flat. No regrets. Don't over borrow to buy your first property. Then saving to move is far easier.