To accept we will never move home due to the prices

We used to want to move.
Now we are staying put. Will make this the best house we can. Extending up and downstairs will mean no returns on investment for several years but we have made our peace with that. We aim to pay it off mortgage ASAP and then save for works as we have no plans to take out loans or to extend mortgage. Cannot justify stamp duty for property on next level up. That alone will convert our loft!

I feel for you. Our daughter has just sold her house, in Manchester, and wants to move to a better part near a tram stop. She is prepared to add £250,000 to her mortgage and she will end up with a similar small 3 bed semi to what she has now. It's bonkers. All the houses that are available are ex rental, so cheap laminate floors, grey carpets, grey walls, cheap kitchens and bathrooms, so will need co.pletely refurbishing. Still, she would only spend the money enjoying herself.

Yes. We've had to accept our smallish flat in London is the best we can do. Anything bigger would be hundreds of thousands more.

I bought a 2-bed property in 2020 although I’m currently renting it out as I live/work overseas.

I have no desire or intention to upgrade to a bigger property and take on a bigger mortgage. I’ve always been minimalistic and I don’t think I could even fill a bigger property.

I think you are reasonable and unreasonable

You are reasonable, in that there is nothing wrong with accepting and learning to be content with your lot. People have long managed, thrived, enjoyed accommodation which others might say is small or cramped or a 'starter' house, a starter house for many is the usual 2 up 2 down terrace that lots and lots of families grow up in.

You are unreasonable in that Im sure that if you moved area you could move so you're not right to say you could never move.

I think in this climate the best bet is to cut expenditure, save as much as possible and reduce debt. Spend on what you value most.

Yes, we have never been able to move up the ladder from our 3 bed 1 bath mid terraced house since we moved here in 2004, despite quite significantly increased income. Now we're quite old and looking at down sizing.

Which part of the country? I do think sadly any where within easily commutable distance to London is only going to become even more exponentially out of reach for most average families on an average salary. Since the start of the year, I've noticed house prices for second time buyer type properties gradually plateau and now slightly dip in Yorkshire whilst the average FTB sold house price has remained similar. Generally speaking, you seem to get much more bang for your buck in Wales and Scotland.

I think a decent number of the super rich multiple home owners are starting to cut their losses and sell up, so they can move abroad, given the state of the current economy and how they predict another 4 years of Labour Government will pan out . Obviously there's lots of other factors like family support and how tied you are to a certain area for work etc.

But the op said herself that she could afford it but would have to sacrifice expensive holidays.

I wonder if anyone bemoaning the lack of “the ladder” would vote for socialist policies that would correct the housing market by force, like a limit on how many homes you could own or a cap on price rises? I would, but I imagine many wouldn’t because they want to take advantage of the market when it works for them, but complain about it when it doesn’t (like now). That’s the thing about capitalism, things go bust as well as boom, so if you want to reap the rewards when it’s working you have to accept the downsides.

No the point of the housing ladder isn’t just moving to cheaper and cheaper areas with the same amount of capital, to get a bigger home.

My parents lived on the same estate over ten years and bought three progressively larger houses. I have some family friends in my area now in their 70s - started with a flat, got a small house, upgraded to a huge house.

That was ‘the ladder’, you were accruing equity and capital as prices increased, and inflating yourself out of the debt. That isn’t happening now.

You're not the only one OP. I would like to downsize, as my house is too big for me now that my DD is an adult and the extra space isn't needed. It has gone up in value but not enough where I could sell and buy something outright or have a small mortgage. House prices have gone up so much that even a smaller house is either equal to or more than the value of my current home. I can't afford to move, and since already live in one of the least expensive parts of the country (not in the UK) I really don't have any options. Its a bit depressing really.

It is if you move to cheaper areas! I bought my first home in London nearly 30 years ago. I couldn’t afford to move up the ladder in London 5 years later so I moved to a cheaper area. What is it you find so hard to understand that this housing ladder phenomenon did exist 30 years ago too?

It is simple. If you want more space but you can’t afford it in the area you currently live in you move to a cheaper area. It’s always been like this.

OP what is the current equity in your house now and what is the buying power you have in a future mortgage on your current wages?

My DC doing a much better professional degree than I did will likely never afford to buy in London. Guess what? DC does not have the expectation they will be able to. We’ve made sure they know about what areas they will comfortably afford and shock horror still live a meaningful and purposeful life regardless of the postcode!

Well no, it hasn’t always been this way.

Always on housing threads you see people talk about ‘the housing ladder’ - start small, build equity, earn more etc up to a ‘dream house’. This was a fairly normal path for a few decades.

Thats what the OP is observing isn’t possibly now - because the value gap is so huge - you won’t be able to gain enough equity and then earn enough to get to the next ‘rung on the ladder’.

If you want more space but can’t afford to move up the ladder in an area you move to a cheaper area. It’s not rocket science!

Nobody is denying that the housing market is a different ball game now but this is the reality of today’s market.

Reasonable expectations are reasonable but not useful if you don’t have the cash to move.

Maybe the expectations for more space is also a modern development. My DH shared an actual bed with his brothers and I shared a room with a sibling. This drove us to want our own DC to have their own bedrooms and bathrooms. We moved to a cheaper area to achieve this.

I completely agree with this. I grew up in a 2-up 2-down with no wallpaper as my parents were too poor to have it decorated. The idea of upsizing or climbing a ladder was just not in my frame of reference at all - they still live in the same house 40+ years later and although they’re still poor they’re mortgage free and secure in that sense.

I didn’t think I’d ever own property because, as I said, poor. So when I’d finally saved enough to buy a pokey one bed flat I felt like a millionaire. I also don’t believe ideologically that homes should be a profit making asset so the idea of flipping and upsizing doesn’t sit right with me. Now I have a partner, we probably will at some point pool our resources to treat ourselves to a whole two bed flat but for the foreseeable, I’m very happy having a tiny mortgage and loads of disposable money to travel 8-12 weeks of the year. I’d personally hate to be spending everything I earn on a bigger property but having nothing left over for all the things that make life worth living.

what’s with the Ha! ? Do you think you’re catching me out on something? I’m just sharing what my friend and her husband chose to do.

They did do it to retire early. Keeping their smaller house meant that they could still afford nice things to while achieving their retirement goals.

Seeing them now, I’m chuffed to bits that it’s all worked out for them x

it really isn’t uncommon for people to have to make choices and trade offs in their lives and prioritise what is important to them

I think people are doing this more these days eg having fewer or no dc.

We bought our house which we thought was probably a starter home although it is a 3 bed detached and now it looks like it may well be the very long term/forever house.

We don't actually need more space, kids have a decent sized room each, our bedroom will fit a king sized bed in if we design the space around it to fit.

We have an ensuite, bathroom and downstairs toilet, kitchen has a dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. The only things we lack is a 4th bed for the odd first and somewhere to store washing and the ability to host loads of people, we could probably stretch to an extra 4 although it would be tight.

It's assumed that we want a bigger house and yes I would like one but it comes at a sacrifice. Right now we have a small mortgage which we can add to to make home improvements and really make it ours. A bigger house would cost more than we would need to make ours better and the chances are we would still need to pay money to upgrade something, not to mention the moving costs.

I have a friend who has 5 children in a 3 bed and my sister has 3 children in a 3 bed, they can't afford to move either and they are happy with what they have. I don't want to worry about interest rates rising, I like having family days out now and again, treating the kids to ice creams, parties, having a holiday and all of that would stop because we would be scrimping to pay for a bigger house that we don't actually need, it would just be a "nice to have"

I think if you genuinely need the space it's probably important to make sacrifices but if it's just a case of a bigger house would be nicer then unless you can be fully comfortable then don't bother.

We are in this position now. We bought our house 6 years ago as a starter home to get us into the area we wanted for the school we wanted for our ds. Since then our mortgage had nearly doubled and the price of moving is ridiculous. We have decided to stay where we are and look into an extension for the back to add some extra space. We would rather over pay the mortgage and have more holidays and experiences than increase our mortgage again.

Stay. We were in this position and opted to move.

Despite loving all the things this house has brought us, I wish we had stayed in the small house - I would be mortgage free at 47 instead of 65, and we would have money to holiday and enjoy life whilst having a secure roof over our head.

I have accepted this.

2 bed flat in London. Most 3 bed flats are 250k more for 1 extra bedroom. Could move to a bigger 2 bed but stamp duty alone is 20k.

Stopping at one child anyway. Staying put will mean more money to allocate to baby whatever we choose in the future depending on his needs.

Also I am in catchment for a desirable secondary and I am hard pressed to find another property in a similar location for a sensible price..Our faith secondary option is lottery based and there is also private (dependent on earnings in 10 years time). So feels more prident to stay

Ha you changed the narrative quite a bit there. You went from "openly admitting they did it to retire early" to "holidays for the kids and hobbies"

The first is selfish, the second is a perfectly reasonable and sensible thing to do

The only way to do it is to buy a low priced house in need of a lot of work, renovate and add value and therefore increase your equity that you have to go towards another house.

Rinse and repeat

I guess there are a number of things at play

it really does help if you can be happy and satisfied with what you have.

Patience also helps - saving as much as you can for 10 years can make a huge difference to what you can then afford but it is going without those *avacados for a decade or more not a year

*avacados is lighthearted - you would have to go without a lot of things that people 50years never had to save a lot, but it can be done

it really isn’t uncommon for people to have to make choices and trade offs in their lives and prioritise what is important to them

but I guess if you were brought up with much more as a child , the step backwards can be hard to handle. I think there may a generation/ large part of a generation who grew up with foreign holidays and ever bigger houses and lots of expensive days out and are really struggling as a result

and house prices and rents are bonkers

but the first point still stands - being happy with what you have rather than thinking about what you don’t have is where you want to be