Property Dilemma – What & Where?

seacaitch

This thread's of relevance to me.

We currently live in two places: an old semi-rural gaff plus a not-so-old coastal/seaside "bungalow". The locations were chosen to be near our respective families, but they're some distance apart and at some point we'll consolidate into one location, almost certainly the coastal one (ie. she wins of course).

A few thoughts:

- Big rural gaffs with land: by selling up both homes, we'd have a chunky budget to afford a big pile somewhere a bit inland from the current bungalow, with acres of space. While out cycling, I see and occasionally covet these nice places but know from experience that looking after property of any type is a bunch of hassle and the more of it there is the worse it gets. If not careful, the stuff can end up owning you not the other way around, and you discover you've paid a load of money to become a caretaker/land agent.

- Peace & quiet: I value this highly but you don't necessarily have to be out in the sticks to achieve it, eg. cul de sacs in fairly built-up locations can turn out to be very quiet, while seemingly idyllic rural ones, particularly if you don't already know the area inside-out, can easily be "blighted" by stuff beyond your control like crowing cockerels from 3am and farm machinery or other unexpected traffic from the early hours onwards. Or maybe a stinking chicken farm opens upwind of you forcing you to seal yourself inside? Etc, etc.

- Bungies: I'm now a fan of single-level living. If you can find a good sized one, having all the rooms on the one floor can make a house seem extremely spacious, sort of like having a huge detached flat. If I ever built my own home (NB I won't) I'd try to find a plot big enough to accomodate a largely/wholly single-level house. The practicality of occupying a single level home later in life, or whatever stage of life mobility issues might occur, is just a nice bonus (insurance).


Bearing the above in mind, I reckon we'll end up doing a major refurb on the quiet cul-de-sac-located bungie, adding some further space for visitors etc, and stay there rather than move elsewhere to a notionally more desirable big pile. Ensure the place is super comfortable but also low maintenance and low hassle so that our increasingly valuable time is conserved and we're free to do other things, allocating the money "saved" to extra leisure and travel.

Everyone will have differing views, so it's largely a case of figuring out what most matters to you. Often, though, you have to try things out in order to figure out what your priorities really are, so it's not necessarily a straightforward task.

bearshare

DairyQueen wrote: »

......one group was being fed to the other.

..... I can reach the M25 in 1 hour 15 mins

I do enjoy a tasty student....

M25 is 1hr 22mins from here (A338 has been upgraded) and is the right side for Heathrow!

bearshare

seacaitch wrote: »

This thread's of relevance to me.


- Big rural gaffs with land: by selling up both homes, we'd have a chunky budget to afford a big pile somewhere a bit inland from the current bungalow, with acres of space. While out cycling, I see and occasionally covet these nice places but know from experience that looking after property of any type is a bunch of hassle and the more of it there is the worse it gets. If not careful, the stuff can end up owning you not the other way around, and you discover you've paid a load of money to become a caretaker/land agent.

.

It is natural, after a lifetime of moving to bigger places each time, to look bigger for the retirement move. We (or rather I) started to, but as wife says 'what would we actually DO with all that space?'. We compromised a bought one not much bigger than the previous one, but with apace to extend if required. So far we don't see the need. Bigger houses and especially gardens need a lot of looking after, and we would rather be travelling.

DairyQueen

AlanP wrote: »

One person responded with "moved to Suffolk" :beer:

The quality of life in general compared to busier more connected locations makes it worthwhile though.

Yep, that's where we have our tiny, rural gaff.

Whenever I visit 'the other place' (OH's urban, week-day base), I am reminded of how much I value the quality of life here in the sticks despite the draw-backs.

DairyQueen

Has anyone else noticed the dearth of new-build, decent-sized, single-storey properties? Retirees must be the most under-served sector of the new-build market.

Decent-sized flats in my area can be counted on the fingers of one-hand and are always conversions. New-build bungies are developers' afterthoughts and the size of a hamster cage.

There are five housing estates being developed around our local market town. These will provide around 600 homes but not a single bungalow. The handful of flats are an average of 500 sq feet each. I have a chunky cat and I couldn't swing him in that.

In comparison, and according to a recent survey, 60% of 4-bed houses in our area are occupied by max. 2 people. I wonder how many empty-nesters are staying put through lack of any decent alternative?

Nebulous2

Slinky wrote: »

Presumably you paid an extra 3% stamp duty. Don't forget if you sell your old house within 3 years of buying the new one you can reclaim that 3%. That's what we did.

I did indeed, though the property was reasonably cheap. We’re in Scotland though, and only had 18 months to claim it back, which is almost up.

Slinky

Nebulous2 wrote: »

I did indeed, though the property was reasonably cheap. We’re in Scotland though, and only had 18 months to claim it back, which is almost up.

Well thank you for your tax contribution to the country.


Our refund was nearly £13K so was definitely an incentive to get ourselves shifted.

seacaitch

DairyQueen wrote: »

Has anyone else noticed the dearth of new-build, decent-sized, single-storey properties? Retirees must be the most under-served sector of the new-build market.

Decent-sized flats in my area can be counted on the fingers of one-hand and are always conversions. New-build bungies are developers' afterthoughts and the size of a hamster cage.

Absolutely. It's generally all about trying to cram in as many dwellings as possible, with tiny footprints but lots of vertical levels, often so-called townhouse designs where seemingly half the internal sq footage is allocated to all the stairs. Horrible design for living in IMO!

Presumably, development land availability has played a large part in shaping this behaviour by developers, but beyond that I think the larger housebuilders are generally terrible at providing the types of homes people might want to actually live in. I have the impression everyone else thinks the same and has done for years and years. OldMusicGuy seems to have got a good result by focusing on a small firm.

Little wonder that self-build appeals, but most really don't want that hassle. In most other aspects of life you can usually find stuff you like and want to buy, but not so easy with homes, where even if you're lucky enough to have a good budget no one actually makes (builds) something you want.

With bungies, it seems that the good-sized ones are generally the oldest ones, with them getting smaller and smaller over the decades alongside "bungalow" becoming a pejorative term.

Slinky

DairyQueen wrote: »

Has anyone else noticed the dearth of new-build, decent-sized, single-storey properties? Retirees must be the most under-served sector of the new-build market.

Decent-sized flats in my area can be counted on the fingers of one-hand and are always conversions. New-build bungies are developers' afterthoughts and the size of a hamster cage.

There are five housing estates being developed around our local market town. These will provide around 600 homes but not a single bungalow. The handful of flats are an average of 500 sq feet each. I have a chunky cat and I couldn't swing him in that.

In comparison, and according to a recent survey, 60% of 4-bed houses in our area are occupied by max. 2 people. I wonder how many empty-nesters are staying put through lack of any decent alternative?

Where we moved from there's a seriously huge amount of building going on, all the retirees are expected to want to move into flats if they want single storey living.



There's a former hotel that's been converted into over 55s flats - some of them 3 bedroom, don't know who they are trying to appeal to, but they aren't being very successful. There are plenty still for sale after over 3 years of marketing, but seeing they are the same price as a decent 3 bed house in the area, without the over 55 restrictions, hot cakes, they most certainly are not.

nigelbb

seacaitch wrote: »

Absolutely. It's generally all about trying to cram in as many dwellings as possible, with tiny footprints but lots of vertical levels, often so-called townhouse designs where seemingly half the internal sq footage is allocated to all the stairs. Horrible design for living in IMO!

Presumably, development land availability has played a large part in shaping this behaviour by developers, but beyond that I think the larger housebuilders are generally terrible at providing the types of homes people might want to actually live in. I have the impression everyone else thinks the same and has done for years and years. OldMusicGuy seems to have got a good result by focusing on a small firm.

Little wonder that self-build appeals, but most really don't want that hassle. In most other aspects of life you can usually find stuff you like and want to buy, but not so easy with homes, where even if you're lucky enough to have a good budget no one actually makes (builds) something you want.

With bungies, it seems that the good-sized ones are generally the oldest ones, with them getting smaller and smaller over the decades alongside "bungalow" becoming a pejorative term.

It's interesting to contrast the situation in France with an abundance of building land that many houses are single storey although villa does sound cooler & more exotic than bungalow.

It's very common to have a house built to your own specifications (chosen from a design book) on a plot of land bought separately so many individual houses are built & there is a thriving industry of architects, builders, masons etc