Are townhouses harder to sell? If so, why is that?

zagubov

We really don't do housing properly in this country. In the Netherlands, they build them a bit better: they often have spiral staircases to save floorspace and usually have somewhere to attach a pulley at the front of the house to winch furniture to the top floor.
There have been some attempts to reorganise house layouts more rationally but even they could be improved.

dinkylink

I've just spent a few days house sitting in a newish build 3 storey townhouse...

I thought it didn't seem particualry narrow and that there was enough space downstairs. I can also see the benfit of having 2 seperate 'sleeping' floors, you really do feel like you have your own space seperate from the kids etc. The main pain for me would be the stairs, it was a bit of a faff if I was in my bedroom on the top floor and had to go and answer the front door etc. This was made worse as it had high ceilings which meant it felt more spacious, but also had more steps! Plus, I guess because of their nature, they're more likely to be a semi or a terraced rather than a detached which is one of my criteria next time i move. So for me, I wouldn't buy one.

eddddy

Avalanche123 said:

We are in the process of buying a townhouse and thinking about selling in the future (nothing that would be heavy on our mind at the moment) I saw that these are harder to sell. Why is that? 

I'm not sure that saying "townhouses are harder to sell" is the right way of looking at it.  All properties sell at the right price.

Perhaps a better way of looking at it is "townhouses sell for less than other types of houses of a similar size"  (So if you market a townhouse at the same price as other types of house of a similar size, it won't sell.)

So maybe you should expect to pay less when you buy a townhouse, and therefore expect to get less when you sell it.

HanPop

We currently live in a 3 storey detached house and we love it. Plenty of room for us as a family of 5 and although the house might not be as ‘wide’ as some of the others on our estate it has the longest garden here. We love having the top floor bedroom and en suite. I would however be put off a 3 storey house with a kitchen not on the ground floor, although I don’t think they seem to build them like that anymore. 

foxy-stoat

Probably better off not buying a property, if your already thinking about selling it.

blue_max_3

My brother bought one a number of years ago and loves it! The kitchen and living room are on the first floor and he loves the raised views. Don't like modern houses myself, full stop, but each to their own. I'm thinking of buying a two bed flat that is bigger than most houses, so that wouldn't appeal to everyone either!

FtbDreaming

If it was old I’d have a townhouse but as they tend to be new builds then no it wouldn't be for me as I just don't like new builds.

Where i grew up our houses had high ceilings and although upstairs and downstairs, the bathroom and bedroom were on a sort of middle floor at the back end of the house. Its a shame the area is an absolute dump because the houses were perfect. Really big spacious terraced houses that would be worth a fortune in London but my uncle is gonna struggle to get £90k for his. 

Drawingaline

Have never been a huge fan, always found the layout frustrating. However we have just offered on one. Because it is huge! And a good price. We offered less than 24hrs after marketing, full asking price as it was just so much house for the money. Three beds on the top floor, lounge, dining room and huge kitchen on the middle floor and utility room, shower room, fourth bedroom and second reception room on the ground floor. It is the first house I have seen on the market comfortably in our price range where we can just move in and don't need to do anything major! 

We won't be moving on for a good 15yrs (hopefully!) So I am not bothered about resale value, we should hopefully be mortgage free by them, and will price sensibly. 

If I refused to even look at the particulars of all townhouses we would never have thought to view. However it is one out of maybe five townhouses on in our price range, and the only one that ticks our three 'must haves'. 

danlightbulb

They are hit and miss in my area - some of the designs are really good and others are really poor. They have a decent internal floor space but gardens are too small and they are often built with communal parking and no garages. Generally though they don't look good from the outside and god help you if you need to get up to the roof for maintenance.

powerful_Rogue

FtbDreaming said:

If it was old I’d have a townhouse but as they tend to be new builds then no it wouldn't be for me as I just don't like new builds.

Where i grew up our houses had high ceilings and although upstairs and downstairs, the bathroom and bedroom were on a sort of middle floor at the back end of the house. Its a shame the area is an absolute dump because the houses were perfect. Really big spacious terraced houses that would be worth a fortune in London but my uncle is gonna struggle to get £90k for his. 

They're not all new. Mine was built in 1904.