Removed for privacy

MovingForwards

I've got galley bedrooms, wider than yours, so have been able to configure furniture ok, the bed has one place in the room. At some point I will be getting fitted wardrobes, floor to ceiling, to free up room visually and provide more floor space. Then I can get the second bedroom set up.
When I viewed the property it had big chunky furniture everywhere, having normal sized furniture, stacking IKEA furniture, scaling down personal possessions etc has made the main bedroom look a lot better than when I viewed it. 
My lounge is bigger than yours and again configured to suit my requirements.

The whole house you are looking at is too narrow, it would be a very intimate gathering of friends / family in your lounge.
Not being able to get off the bed eitherside would be a big no for me. 
A spiral staircase would also be a no, even though I buy flat pack furniture.
The bathroom off the kitchen wouldn't bother me as that's what my mom's home is like and all I knew growing up.

Have you marked out the width of the rooms in your (or family) existing garden, or in another room? That's what I did in work one day, marked out both bedrooms and created markings for my furniture, that way I saw I could make it work.
The idea of cramming 3 adults into my home isn't something I would do, great for a couple though.

zagubov

I know your concerns with living in London and coping with the shortage of land and building space.

Despite the fact that in the UK there are loads of small houses, we don't seem to have adequate design to make them optimised for their occupants.

Spiral staircases are more common in the Netherlands where land is scarce. They tend to have pulleys/hoists at the front of their houses so beds can be hoisted upstairs via front windows.

getmore4less

katerobbins2 said:

getmore4less said:

Look at that room now with the double bed in it,

None of those plans have gone ahead. We were told by our surveyor that any changes to the roof line would definitely be turned down.

I'm not sure how difficult it is to add windows, but I would love to add long windows into the second bedroom to make it feel more spacious. There's a slimmer property on Rightmove with this style for their bedroom and it works quite well: property-for-sale/property-71849100.html

Aside from that, do you think there's potential to extend into the garden? And would love your opinion on whether you think the property/location justifies the price... Hopefully there's potential to add decent value... Thanks for the help so far! 

That place if you ignore the top floor is the same floor space you have so an idea of what can be done with small space

Coming at this from a different angle, at that price point is seems 2 bed apartments are what people are buying.

Looking within a mile £425ish is the ceiling for a 1 bed place.

If we say after you have done something you are in for £500k what does £475k+ get you.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-77779654.html
£475k This is a touch wider with the bathroom in the middle of the ground floor in a 10' bit.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-73260907.html
£525k  tiny second bedroom

most other stuff £500k+ looks to be bigger or not constrained by the width
plenty of flats/apartments not looked at those.

Unless there is a way to reconfigure the stairs to create a through landing how about this idea.
Create a small downstairs shower/toilet room in the middle like that £475k one
(plumbing may be an issue for that)
reconfigure the existing kitchen into the bathroom and open up to the garden.

Upstairs use that long thin room as a dressing/en-suite for the middle room, still a problem getting a double bed in somewhere.

Not sure what it would cost to go out full width just over the existing kitchen but that would make the space at the back upstairs usable as a double room,  potential then to put a shower room that could be shared. 

I think getting this over £500k will need some clever alterations, not sure an upstairs shower room, trying to pretend that back room is a double and a new kitchen using the existing bathroom will do it.

numbercruncher8

Personally I don't see the point in this if you are going in a few years. 

The upside here appears rather limited and the downsides appear bigger. Spending £75k on this would require a end sale price in excess of £500k to break even. Given the prognosis for short-term house prices I can't see much appreciation in this. 

This doesn't seem an easy property to shift. It came on at £499,995 and the owner has cut it to £415,000, probably grateful that someone bought. The room sizes and downstairs bathroom would rule some people out. If there was to be a downturn then IMO other houses would appear to be better value. 

Depends on your motivations for buying, are you in need of the profits to make another step up? If you could move to one of the neighbouring districts you could buy something else with better upside.

katerobbins2

getmore4less said:

I think getting this over £500k will need some clever alterations, not sure an upstairs shower room, trying to pretend that back room is a double and a new kitchen using the existing bathroom will do it.

These are great ideas, thank you so much!!! So overall, do you think it's worth it? The bank valuation will be back shortly and I'm quite excited to see what they say, because the house has had one owner in the last 45+ years... If they give it a lower valuation, I might try to knock a bit off. I'm hopeful that there would be demand for couples to buy a freehold house over a leasehold flat. 

RelievedSheff

katerobbins2 said:

getmore4less said:

I think getting this over £500k will need some clever alterations, not sure an upstairs shower room, trying to pretend that back room is a double and a new kitchen using the existing bathroom will do it.

These are great ideas, thank you so much!!! So overall, do you think it's worth it? The bank valuation will be back shortly and I'm quite excited to see what they say, because the house has had one owner in the last 45+ years... If they give it a lower valuation, I might try to knock a bit off. I'm hopeful that there would be demand for couples to buy a freehold house over a leasehold flat. 

There probably will be that demand for the right house.

This one has probably been messed about with too much already.It certainly isn't a house that I would be throwing a lot of money at, mortgage costs aside, if you only plan to stay there for a few years. You are unlikely to get that money back in return.

katerobbins2

numbercruncher8 said:

Depends on your motivations for buying, are you in need of the profits to make another step up? If you could move to one of the neighbouring districts you could buy something else with better upside.

It really depends on whether there's a downturn. As I mentioned, I was initially interested because I was told there was potential to extend upwards. I haven't adjusted the price since having that survey done, so there could be a discussion there...

I am born and raised in the immediate area, with retired parents in our family home just around the corner. I was really looking for something I could flip, in the same way as I've done with 2 bed flats in the area - but this seems a lot more complex than knocking down walls and redecorating. I'd really like to make use of my builder family again!