Dilemma big house with small garden vs small house with big garden

magn8p

Hello experts,

I am in the process of purchasing a house in Cambridge.

I have already made an offer for a semi-detached house which has been accepted - however, it is not of the traditional build - It is a 1950s Wimpey no fines concrete built. A former council house which was in 90s sold to council tenants. And as you have probably guessed, it comes with a very good sized front and back gardens.

Wife and I have had our fair share of reservations about the age and build of the house, but we thought we couldn't find a conventional recent build property in a similar price bracket, so we made an offer which we thought was slightly more than the market value and it has been accepted.

However, we have recently come across another house which is traditional (brick) build. The original size of the house is small but the current owner extended it and added an extra bedroom and an integrated garage. However, this diminished the size of the rear and side gardens. The asking price is 15% more, but we think there is a room for negotiation.

Now, we are in a dilemma - non traditional house with big and well maintained garden or traditional build house with an extra bedroom but small garden.

I understand that it may be down to our personal choice but which of these 2 houses would you go for? Which one would be easier to sell or rent? I have summarised the differences below:

House 1 vs House 2
Concrete vs. Brick built
81 sq.mtr floor area vs. 116 sq.mtr floor area
3 Bed vs. 4 Bed
1 Bathroom vs. 1 Bathroom, 1 en-suite, 1 WC.
1 garage vs. 1 integrated garage, 1 enblock garage
Big garden (60 sq.mts) vs. Small garden (20 sq.mts rear + 10 sq.mts side)

Thanks in advance.

Mags.

chelseablue

I can only say what house I would buy out of the 2.


I would buy the brick house every time.


In fact Id never buy a concrete house but that's just my opinion.


Also, Id love en-suite so that is a plus point for me.
Im not really into gardening so small and manageable would suit me (although I did just buy a house with an 85 ft back garden, I must be mad!)

ST1991

So (and forgive me if i'm wrong) does the smaller house actually have larger rooms? It sounds like the larger one has 3 additional rooms.

Do you need the extra bedroom?
Does the 'smaller house' have room to put in a small ensuite if that is swaying you?
Which one has more storage?

I would rather have a slightly smaller house with a larger garden IMHO - although not sure about it being non-traditional build as i know nothing about them and that would put me off...

Although is it still a 'good sized' garden in the larger house? (i.e if you hadn't seen the bigger garden, would you have been happy with the size of the smaller garden?)

We recently bought a fair-sized 2 bed house with a fair to small sized garden. As the final bits and bobs went through solicitors they actually told us half of the neighbors garden was ours too (so ours would have been double the size, beyond the fence...) and although it was a kick in the teeth as the changed the deeds before it was ours, we offered on the garden as we saw it so couldn't complain!

SuzieSue

I would definitely buy the larger house. It has everything that the first house doesn't have. If you have a family having more than one toilet is important.

I would never buy a non-standard build house unless there was no other option.

If the second house had a bigger garden it would be out of your price range so you have to compromise on the garden.

carefullycautious

Brick built every time. Concrete houses are colder and prone to damp problems. Condensation is also a big problem, a few relatives lived in them and they were always getting respiratory problems especially in winter time.


However, it is your decision and if the garden is more important than the house go for it.


I would also check to see if these houses are selling quickly when up for sale.

fairy_lights

The bigger house sounds good on paper but is it in good decorative order, are the rooms all good sizes etc?
Do you particularly enjoy gardening and want lots of outside space?
If you post links to the houses so we can have a nose you might get better responses...

Marvel1

For me, just reading the title, big house small garden, not really a garden person.

magn8p

@chelseablue - Thanks for sharing your opinion.

@ST1991 - The bedroom sizes are almost the same - both have 1 big master bed with 2 small bedrooms upstairs all able to accommodate double beds. House2 (big house with small garden) has an extra bedroom downstairs with an ensuite. It may be possible to construct an ensuite in House1 but only by giving up space in the master bed and this would cost up to £7k.

3 Beds suffice for our current requirements - but we could potentially rent out the extra bed and save some money on the mortgage.

So, what do you think? Thanks for sharing your thoughts and enjoy your extra bit of garden ;-)

fairy_lights

magn8p wrote: »

House2 (big house with small garden) has an extra bedroom downstairs with an ensuite.

Sounds like a big of a granny annex. A downstairs bedroom with ensuite would put me off to be honest, I'd rather have my master bedroom upstairs and have either more downstairs living space or a bigger garden. Would you be happy with that layout?

lee111s

20m is still a decent sized garden.

Ithaca

Depending on where you are in Cambridge there are lots of open green spaces, so a smaller garden and bigger house would be better. You can always escape to Grantchester Meadows or Christ's Pieces or Wandlebury if you're in need of wide open spaces.