First time buyer- flat or house?

rdg123

I am a first time buyer and being able to afford a house seems miles away. Do you have any thoughts on which route is better?...

1. Buying a flat now with low mortgage payments to get onto the property ladder, then eventually moving into a house
2. Or continue saving for a deposit on a house which could take 3-4 years

Where I live a flat is between 150-200k and house prices start at 350k-400k.

Thanks for your help.

mysterymurdoch

What can you afford? What's your life situation? Single/couple, moving in alone? Out at night a lot? Need to be local to town or ok to be further away on a commuter route? Do you like gardening? Do you like the thought of having several direct wall neighbours or can you only handle one or none? What age are you? Physically ok to use stairs? Where do you live now? Who with? What area? Is this London outskirts, at those prices?

Cakeguts

Do you want to look after all the repairs to the building yourself or do you want to pay a service charge and have it done for you? Do you like gardening? Do you want to spend all your spare time looking after a garden and doing house maintenance. If not and you want to spend time socialising then a flat is better for that.

How much cleaning and decorating do you want to do? A one bed flat is much easier to keep clean than a 2 bed house. It isn't just to do with how much a house or flat costs it is to do with what do you want to live in?

ACG

Personally I would prefer to buy a house that needed work doing on it over a flat. But I quite enjoy renovating properties.

BrassicWoman

I've lived in flats and houses and prefer the lower effort a flat requires. Others love their on lawn.

Don't decide based on money - what sort of place do you want to live? If you don't know, try renting in both and compare.

Pupnik

Penitent wrote: »

Are you able to save at a faster rate than properties are increasing in value? If not, you may find that in 3-4 years time you can still only afford the flat, but you'll be paying a lot more for it.

^ This definitely. If prices seem to be on the increase in your area buying a flat and paying off the equity, that can then be transferred over to a house, is better than paying rent that you will never see again. I am now looking to move from flat to house and would have paid £20,000 in rent during the 4 years I've lived here, but instead I was paying off the mortgage and can use the equity to move on up the ladder.

AirJoe

Others have said it. Do you think your savings can keep up with house prices and also offset your rental costs over the next 4 years. Maybe look at a maisonette or even a garden flat if you can stretch to it?

conqueror01

If you know you aren't moving geographically soon... its a no brainer to get on the ladder asap

cashbackproblems

Penitent wrote: »

Are you able to save at a faster rate than properties are increasing in value? If not, you may find that in 3-4 years time you can still only afford the flat, but you'll be paying a lot more for it.

I agree with this and its the choice I made, even when paying a mortgage you are building up the equity with no ability to spend it plus any house price rises you benefit from, compared to 0.1% in the bank.


Yes a flat with high charges is not ideal, but if its in a popular area like mine it will sell in days. Plus I quite like low maintaince apartments.