Anyone regretted buying a house that is too big?

Sistergold

A big house can cause some regret when you have to do all the cleaning. I do have those moments in my current house. 

Kat78MFW

My parents live in a large 3 storey house. I would love them to downsize and move closer to me and their grandkids, especially now mum has dementia and is immobile.  But the large house has its benefits - my dad hardly goes out because he's caring for mum but he still manages to do about 4000-5000 steps a day.  Just the walk from the lounge to the kitchen is a reasonable bit of exercise.  I could see that if they moved to a small flat or bungalow, his fitness would drop significantly.  

lookstraightahead

I live in an area where all the houses are old and from the kerbside you wouldn't know whether a house was big or small inside. Our house is side on so doesn't look very big, but if you turn it the other way around so that the longer part has the kerb appeal it would look much larger.

floor space wise it's the same space as a house down the road that's just gone for 200k more than ours, but that one looks huge from the road. Bit off topic but sometimes it's the impression of space. We have three bedrooms but it could easily be a four bedroom new build space wise. 

silvercar

We moved to our current home (5 bedrooms) when the kids were teenagers. Then it was lovely as it gave us spare rooms for grandparents to stay over/ a study etc I thought the garden (200 ft) was too big at the time, but the kids were always having friends visit and playing football in the garden. It also gave us an in/out drive which I really appreciated.

Now that the kids have left home, we have 4 spare bedrooms and a garden which is far bigger than we need. We are too young (late 50s) to want to move to a flat and the idea of moving to a smaller house now then moving again isn’t appealing, mainly due to the costs eg stamp duty. The upside is that we are very near London, so keeping money invested in the property is probably no bad thing. 

We’ve adapted in lockdown, we now have two offices set up, so the offspring can work-from-our-home, when their flats get too claustrophobic to do so.

youth_leader

I miss my 264 sq m house two years on, I'm now in a 96 sq m bungalow.  I didn't have the funds to run my big old lovely house once my husband died, it was needs must.

Once you have settled you will find a use for each space, enjoy it! 

in_my_wellies

silvercar said:

Now that the kids have left home, we have 4 spare bedrooms and a garden which is far bigger than we need. We are too young (late 50s) to want to move to a flat and the idea of moving to a smaller house now then moving again isn’t appealing, mainly due to the costs eg stamp duty. The upside is that we are very near London, so keeping money invested in the property is probably no bad thing. 

I've often though there should be no (or reduced) stamp duty if over a certain age (pension age?) when downsizing. This could free up many large family homes. 

My elderly friend lives in a lane of Edwardian 5 or 6 bed houses. She and 7 of her neighbours are all over 80, all live alone. Seems such a shame they're not filled with families.