To go from a £500/m mortgage to a £2800/m mortgage?

Jesus OP, please DON'T.

You can do so much more with the money. Invest, make your money work for you and buy your "dream" home with the profits. You can do a lot of investing and growth with 2k a month.

Trust me, when the roof needs replacing on that "dream", and the quotes are 30k, and after that you find out that it needs replastering because the roof work cracked the old plaster, and that's a 10k bill, your dream will turn into a nightmare.

In your situation I would keep the current house until paid off, then rent it out and buy something else. Always the option then to return to current status if anything unforeseen happens.

Personally if I didn’t have kids to look after and have enough space for I’d absolutely keep the smaller house (almost) mortgage free and do lots of travelling. But I love travelling!

Pay off mortgage 1, rent it the property, buy property 2, use rent to reduce mortgage payments. Seems very straightforward to me.

It sounds very lettable, down by the canal, professional couple you should clear £500 a month profit. That can go towards your new mortgage.

I only know the immense freedom it's given DH and me that we've maintained low fixed monthly outgoings right into our 40s, and how comparatively harder and more restrictive friends' lives look when they're servicing high fixed monthly outgoings. But hey, we're all different.

If your calculations all include keeping your current property, you’re in a great position as you can always sell it if needed. And if you do sell you current place, with that much equity in your new home you don’t need to worry about worst case scenarios where you can’t pay the mortgage as in the worst case you could always sell and use the equity to buy something smaller.

I think you should put aside nostalgia and think practically: What rental income will your current home bring in? Can you offset that against the new mortgage? Is it financially a better option than selling?

I’d personally be in favour of selling the current property though. Even though it’s an emotional wrench at the time, my own experience is that you don’t actually miss your previous place as much as you think you will, and I prefer to close that chapter of my life rather than dealing with tenants and how they don’t treat the place exactly as I would have. You will have memories and photos but it’s time to move on.

I’d go for it. You’ve been looking for a while and you’ve described it as near perfect. I think you’ll kick yourself if you don’t go for it.

If anything goes wrong, you can downsize or go back to the property you’re currently in if you can keep it. Can you rent it out?

I really value having a nice home though and I’d have sacrificed holidays for it, if it would ever have come to that.

It’s probably because they have no children they can afford a big house, why would a couple with a high income not live in a large house in a lovely location, what’s the point of having money otherwise if not to improve your living standards? such a bizarre attitude that people without children even if they have a high income, should live in a 2 up 2 down their whole lives.

I wouldn't make too many sacrifices for the house. The important things in life are experiences. I don't find saving on food to pay off mortgages a great idea... all it takes is one unexpected event and things can go really wrong.

As a couple with no kids, why wouldn’t you take a little risk and live somewhere you love? your home is where you are every day so live where you feel happiest.

I’d do it - living where you want to live is money well spent and if you need to, you can downsize. I guess the small property would be an investment but I think I’d sell that so I have a larger down payment and mortgage would reduce. If your situation changed, you could sell the expensive property and still afford something smaller… or sell in 20 years and retire early.

As a couple without kids, why would you saddle yourselves with this much baggage when you dont need to? Keep your cheap house!
Have the last 4 years taught you nothing?!

@badatdecisions how much is the stamp duty, is it higher in England?

God no. I'd rather spend that money on living. There must be something between the two.

Buy a house boat and put it on the mooring. Use for hobbies and holidays.

@TemuSpecialBuy no their net profit is that much but they are leaving a lot in the business. They're only taking out a fraction of this as income so net pay is around 4 to 5 grand a month. But do agree that they can easily afford the new mortgage

I don't think I would and in fact doing the opposite just now, moving from what was supposed to be forever home to something a little smaller and much much cheaper. But that is my priorities which are to have less stress and work and more money to enjoy life. It does sound like your current house isn't right though and I think you would miss it much less than you think - I am a bit sad at leaving our house with all the baby memories but I still have those memories and now it is actually going ahead I am so excited

For those who missed it....

Their NET take home pay is 15-20k per month.

The mortgage will actually only be £1800 it would only be 2800 if they dont sell the current house....

Their new "massive" mortgage would be approx 10% of their take home.

conservatively their disposable income would be £10k per month with the new mortgage (in reality prob higher)

How can a house be too small for two adults that makes no sense at all.

I’d probably stay put. But I’m interested to know what your business is! Sounds like you’ve built up a fantastic business to be so profitable, well done!

I understand not wanting to leave the house where your beloved pets lived with you 💔 what’s the house like you are thinking of buying?

If you can afford it and still afford a reasonable lifestyle go for it. If things get too difficult you can always sell or rent out your first property.

If you pay £500/month and you have around 3 years to pay off, then you owe around £18 000. If you are making £15-20k profit each month from your business and using about £5k, you could pay your motgage off within 2 months easily. If you have £10k spare per month, that's £120k per year savings. Just how big and expensive is this house you are thinking about buying that you will need a £2800 /month mortgage?

No one but yourselves can answer this as only you 2 know how much you value what you have verses what you want out of life going forward.
Only you know how risky or secure your business/industry is, and what your risk appetite is combined.

I personally think your current set up sounds lovely (nearly paid for, plus moorings !). I hate risk, I hate debt, I avoid all anxiety wherever possible, and I love to travel, so I wouldn’t buy the big house.