buying tiny place with small mortgage

mattyprice4004

Raising a small child in a 1 bed flat sounds like a nightmare.
No room for them to play, have their own space etc - they'd be much better off with their own bedroom, space to play games in the front room etc.

The whole idea sounds like actual hell - I lived in a 2 bed with my ex and our daughter and I wouldn't want to cram any more than we did!
People around the world live in smaller spaces, but the UK isn't a 3rd world country where we have to live in tiny shanty shacks.

Myself and current partner are comfortably in a 4 bed house that I put £57k as a deposit on, and the mortgage is only for 15 years. Small one has a bedroom, lots of room for hobbies / my business etc.
Think about it long and hard before going ahead.

davidmcn

Depends on the size and layout of the flat - plenty of places would allow you to reallocate the living room as a bedroom and use a dining-sized kitchen as the public room.

Durham_andrew

I think my 4 bed house it’s too small and there is just me, my partner and the two little ones. She has a little twist about cleaning the 3 bathrooms sometimes

z1a

Durham_andrew wrote: »

I think my 4 bed house it’s too small and there is just me, my partner and the two little ones. She has a little twist about cleaning the 3 bathrooms sometimes

Cool story.

LilElvis

Durham_andrew wrote: »

I think my 4 bed house it’s too small and there is just me, my partner and the two little ones. She has a little twist about cleaning the 3 bathrooms sometimes

We've only got one child in a four bed, three bathrooms plus downstairs toilet and we're planning on building an extension! We can't stand her crap in the living room anymore and the fact that she thinks the TV is exclusively hers. She's only eight, so it's only going to get worse :rotfl:

DanielleJH

You should watch the documentary on Minimalism on Netflix, or read the numerous books available on the subject OP. It changes your way of thinking about it all. We're currently looking at buying our first home and aren't looking to go too big (family of 5) as I think people tend to fill whatever space they have. If we don't have the space, we can't buy all the !!!!.

I would still definitely only have a minimum of 2 beds in your situation though!!

DCFC79

danlewi2 wrote: »

another wind up thread surely!

Not on the same level as the threads from Sam, if you dont frequent the employment board you wont know what Im refering too.

ReadingTim

Mortgage repayments can be a large chunk of your monthly expenditure, but they're not the only bills you have to pay every month, so you're not really as free as you think you are.

Council tax, gas, electricity, water, phone, internet, buildings & contents insurance don't stop when the mortgage does, and can all add up. Flats can easily come with service charges too. Then there's food, heating, clothing, entertainment, etc.

The concept is great, and it sure is a buzz telling people 'oh, I don't have a mortgage/ I've paid my mortgage off' (which I did 4 years ago, aged 38) but after a while, the reality was that it was simply one less bill to pay. And all I've done with the spare cash is save it for a deposit on a bigger house (which I'll buy with a bigger mortgage).

TBagpuss

OP, I think it is perfectly reasonable or you and your husband to decide what balance you want in terms of expenditure vs. space. However, as you have a child, I would suggests that you think about places with 2 bedrooms rather than one, as sharing with your child long term is likely to be awkward and cramped for everyone. You can still be looking for somewhere which doesn't involve you borrowing the biggest mortgage anyone will give you to buy the biggest place you can stretch to.

As others have said, there are lots of reasons why people chose the properties they do.

One reason I haven't seen mentioned is that sometimes a higher number of bedrooms are almost incidental. I now have a three bed roomed house. I would not have minded having a 2 bed, but some of my deal-breakers (off street parking, gardens, location, room size) simply were not available in the 2 bed properties which were on the market.

That said, I made a conscious choice not to stretch myself to the limits. I could have borrowed significantly more than I did. I like the idea of being mortgage free and so I do over pay on my mortgage, but I'm not obsessive about it - I do invest elsewhere as well, and I use some of my income to do things that I enjoy now. For me it's about balance.

TBagpuss

Oh, another point to consider which I don't think has been mentioned - if you needed to sell in the future, a 1 bed property is likely to be harder to sell than a 2 bed, even if there is little difference in the actual amount of space. Most people will try to get the (perceived) larger property if they possibly can, as having 2 bedrooms rather than one means that you can have a child, or a guest, or a lodger, if they want or need to in future.

And the price difference is generally relatively small.

Which is another reason to think about a 2 bed rather than a 1 bed if you do decide to go small!