Three storey town houses, yay or nay?

Chrissiep

As the title above suggests, anyone have any positives or negatives about buying a 3 story town house?

foxy-stoat

I don't like them - I hope that helps your decision.

[Deleted User]

It really depends how they're laid out and your preferences and lifestyle.

I owned one. The top room was a large bedroom and used as a guitar room/second lounge/study as the kids on the same second level with us. That worked fine - I wouldn't have wanted it as a child's bedroom though.

So you need to figure out your own requirements.

bouicca21

I like them, but it does depend on size and layout.



A friend who had one when she had small children said it was exhausting as the kitchen was on the ground floor and the children would play upstairs in the living room, so she was always rushing up and down the stairs. That wouldn't be a problem for another friend whose kitchen and living room are both on the first floor.

k3lvc

Depends on the layout - we had

Ground Floor
Garage
Hall/WC
Kitchen/Dining Room (seperate rooms but if we'd have stayed we'd have knocked into one

First Floor
Big L shaped living room
Bedroom 1
En suite

Second Floor
Bedroom 2
Bedroom 3
Bathroom

Great layout pre-kids but struggled a bit when kids were young - couldn't leave them in 1st when going to kitchen etc

With the right layout I'd have another

ETA ours was end of terrace with stairs opposing

hazyjo

I LOVE townhouses I once owned a four storey house.


BUT they are harder to sell.


If it's a newish estate, are there management/service charges?


As above, it often depends on the layout too. What rooms are on what floors? I'd write one off with say just a garage and utility at ground level. Also wouldn't buy one with a first floor kitchen. Would also want living space adjoined to the kitchen, not just a dining room. My last one did have the lounge on the first floor, but there was a kitchen-diner and other room on the ground.


Was a nightmare if someone rung the bell and you were on the top floor.


Really don't see the big deal with just three floors. It's the same as having a loft conversion and loads have those these days.


I would at least want a loo on each floor (although I didn't actually have one on the first floor, but did have 3 in the house).

RelievedSheff

We discounted the three storey plots on the development we bought on even though they were bigger houses. It just seemed like we were forever up and down stairs and that was only on viewings!

Skiddaw1

I like them though I can appreciate the potential difficulties if you have small children, elderly relatives or mobility issues. Wouldn't be a problem for us.

Caitykinss

My parents have a three storey townhouse that I lived in as a teenager, which worked well. My sister and I had full run of the middle floor with our own bathroom and my parents had the top floor with the en-suite.

I know own one myself and as there are only two of us, we find we don't really use the middle floor much, but does mean we have a really big master bedroom which we love. Whether it will work with small children when we start a family is another matter.

Also annoying if you leave something on the top floor and have to walk up two flights of stairs to fetch it.

I'll note, both my parents and my own are conventional layouts with living room and kitchen diner on ground floor and bedrooms upstairs - no garage. I'm not as keen on the ones with living rooms upstairs.

knightstyle

We have been living in one for the past six years. Ours has a separate garage so we have a good size kitchen diner and WC on the ground floor then bedroom with en-suite and living room which looks onto the river Trent and nature reserve, top floor is three more bedrooms and a bathroom.
Main disadvantages are the lack of parking, 1 place per 4 bed house does not work, and the house next door is let time after time to noisy unruly families.

zagubov

Ours had three beds and a bathroom on the top floor and two rooms on the first. Ground floor had a kitchen diner lounge. There was an ensuite on the two upper floors.

We found the middle floor was a waste of space, and we kept forgetting stuff and dreaded the endless climb.

The walls were so thin if the neighbour blinked you'd hear it. Not great.