Buy Next Door .. or not?

smileypigface

Having a mad (?) idea - grateful for opinions ...

Background: owned house (mortgaged) - needed some work, doing it up gradually. b/f moved in - I got posting overseas with job (8 months) in 2006 - b/f bought (mortgaged) house in same area - lived in mine while I was away and totally renovated his house. I returned, we moved into his house and finished doing mine up. My work now relocated me 120 miles away - work relocation scheme sold my house and I'm in the middle of buying a new one at new work location - plan is for me to live in my place monday to friday and travel back to his at weekends -buying 4 bed place so intend to rent out my other 3 bedrooms to people at my work (location of job means lots of people are in monday to friday rented rooms).

b/f's house is a semi and the one joined on is on market - price has dropped and talking to owner today his buyer is not progressing. Current buyer is planning to buy to rent out - b/f went round there today and says house is total wreck inside (was rented to students as quite near Uni) - would be ideal to renovate the same as we did ours. Consdering selling b/f's at some point and getting something bigger - what if we bought next door and made one big house?

mad idea? not sure! welcome any views.

Lotus-eater

I live in a house that used to be two........... it can work, depends on the house. Will it look stupid afterwards, how much money to convert into one? Will the rooms work, cheaper or dearer than buying a bigger house you would like?

Incisor

smileypigface wrote: »

Having a mad (?) idea - grateful for opinions ...

... b/f's house is a semi and the one joined on is on market - price has dropped and talking to owner today his buyer is not progressing. Current buyer is planning to buy to rent out - b/f went round there today and says house is total wreck inside (was rented to students as quite near Uni) - would be ideal to renovate the same as we did ours. Consdering selling b/f's at some point and getting something bigger - what if we bought next door and made one big house?

mad idea? not sure! welcome any views.

And then what would you do with it? If it is in studentland as a residence, then anyone with the funds to buy 2 of them for a residence would probably prefer a higher value property out of studentland. If the plan is to rent it out to students, then double the accommodation is double the rent, as it is effectively per room.

You really need to sort that question before you can make any judgement, then visualise the value after the joining of the 2 properties.

silvercar

Joining together is only likely to make financial sense if there are other detached larger homes on the road. If the road is full of semi's having the only detached is not going to make the 2+2=5 equation work.

PasturesNew

Joining two together usually makes the whole worth less than the two parts.

Also, check your lodger plan in your new house. HMO rules.

You living in + 3 lodgers: http://www.lacors.gov.uk/lacors/ContentDetails.aspx?id=15426

"If the property is occupied by the resident landlord, his family and 3 lodgers, the property will be an HMO but will not be subject to mandatory licensing.

Where the landlord has 4 or more lodgers, the property will be subject to mandatory HMO licensing because the total number of persons in the property will be 5 or more"

Lotus-eater

silvercar wrote: »

Joining together is only likely to make financial sense if there are other detached larger homes on the road. If the road is full of semi's having the only detached is not going to make the 2+2=5 equation work.

Thats true as well, not having the best house in the worst area etc.

Snooze

silvercar wrote: »

Joining together is only likely to make financial sense if there are other detached larger homes on the road. If the road is full of semi's having the only detached is not going to make the 2+2=5 equation work.

Yes.

The other thing to consider is the amount of work involved to convert it into one house. You said it was semi so I'm guessing that the adjoining property is an exact mirror of yours, therefore you will have 2 kitchens, 2 bathrooms, 2 sets of stairs, 2 central heating systems (probably) and 2 sets of ring mains to sort out. That is a hell of a lot of work and £££££ and I very much doubt it would be worth it in terms of adding benefit.

Also, by combining the 2 houses you'd effectively only be adding 50% of the value to the price : 2 semis knocked into 1 doesn't become the price of each house individually added together.

If it were me I'd keep them separate and rent them separate.

Rob

Snooze

A further point to consider is are the properties on the same level? If the properties are on a hill you might find that one side is higher/lower than the other. I fell into that trap myself many years ago when I bought 2 odd shaped terraced houses to knock into one. The floor level on one side was 6" higher than the other but it was impossible to tell from the outside!

Rob

clutton_2

many lenders do not allow you to own "the house next door" as well - check with your prospective lender first of all

poppyolivia

clutton wrote: »

many lenders do not allow you to own "the house next door" as well - check with your prospective lender first of all

Sorry whys that?

clutton_2

i have no idea - but it is the case with some lenders ... just check out their T&Cs