How long did you stay in your property before upsizing?

[Deleted User]

First home was a 2 Bed terrace in 2006, moved in 2011 to a 3 bed semi. So 5 years in the first place, and we've been in the current place 4 years.

No current plans to move up, but it'd be nice to do a big loft conversion. To move up to 4 beds would cost another £150k (minimum), not to mention the £20k in stamp duty.

Bubblecat

1st house bought on my own - 2 bed semi - 6 yrs (then rented out for 3 years before selling). Bought for £86k, sold for £119k.

2nd house bought with my partner - 3 bed detached - 4 years. Bought for £180k sold for £231k. Thought this would be our forever home and had gained planning permission to extend it. Before committing ourselves to the building works we decided to see what was in the market that would give us everything we wanted and ended up falling in love with....

3rd house - 4 bed detached - bought for £359k. Been here 2 months and we plan to stay put til at least retirement, maybe forever.

The first two houses I never got 'the feeling' when I walked in them for the first time but just felt they would be good investments (needed tlc/had potential). 3rd house I most definitely got the feeling - I knew we had to buy it as soon as I walked in through the front door!

lollyb84

Bought first house for 220k in 2009, at the bottom of the market. It was a 3 bed end terrace, and we always knew we didn't intend to stay forever, but we pushed ourselves to buy a 3 bed just in case!
Sold in 2014 at 320k, after a number of improvements (new bathroom, new kitchen, put a driveway on), and bought a 4 bed detached at 500k. This is big enough for us bedroom wise, and currently works for us downstairs, but we can forsee a time where it may not. We think we'll be here for 10 years or more, but always keep an eye on Rightmove and the like to keep an eye on the market. We may never move, but the current thinking is that we probably will at some stage.

pathtofreedom

Bought 3 bed detached for £160k in 2007, sold last week for £141k

I'm buying a 2 bed detached bungalow for £205k, Would have liked a different area, and another bedroom, but can't afford it, but this will hopefully be my forever house.

smallholdingsister

2 bed semi 38k 1yr
2 bed terraced 43k 2yrs
3 bed semi 124 k 2yrs
2 bed semi 185k 3yrs
4 bed detached 320k 10yrs

TBagpuss

2 bed terrace - 3 years (moved due to job - no change in value between purchase and sale)
2 bed terrace - 13 years (cost was about 3.5 times what the previous house cost, as I crossed the North-South divide! Stayed longer than originally planned waht with the recession it's knock on effect)
3 bed semi - 2 years this week!

While I would like to be able to have a detached property one day, and a bigger garden than I have at present, I'm happy here - it felt more like home after 6 months than the last place ever did. I anticipate being here for years.

tim9966

I'm now thinking of moving out of my first home an end terrace with 2 bedrooms after nearly 10 years of being here.


I never planned to stay here so long, and started off renting it before buying it in December 2006.

lincroft1710

Never moved to "upsize" usually job move or convenience.

MartiMcfly

First place was a 2 bed flat, (mid 20s) (cheap ex council flat) girlfriend moved in who became my wife, then rented it and got another 2 bed (Victorian conversion flat) (late 20s), sold both of them and got a 'luxury' new build, 2 bed, (early 30's ) rented that out then got a large 4 bed semi (late 30s).

Absolutely hated living there, way too big for our family, huge garden was taking up all my spare time, the cost of maintenance was huge, My wife and I grew up in flats and figure its good enough for our kids. Sold the monster this year (early 40's) and 'downsized' to a large 3 bed flat, low maintenance and still a large chunk of money in the bank for rainy days/investing.

Beware of going 'up-sizing' with a bigger house only comes bigger bills, in the end for us it wasn't worth it, plus being in my 40's, I'm more than aware that stairs and a big garden are way too much in old age, rather be in a posh flat with a lift and a balcony I can live in for decades, plus its very close to the train station, (5 mins walk) our semi was a good half hour slog away, as were shops, etc, so not dependent on the car as much,

ellie27

First house we bought together, both of us aged 30. Lived there for 8 years and had our 2 children there. A 3 bed-semi, paid £178k.

Our second, and it should be our forever, house, we just moved into 9 months ago. Kids aged 4 and 6 now. A 5 bed bungalow, £305k.