Is this what you’d consider to be a ‘middle class’ style house?

Think you might need to calm down a bit and realise that your experience in another country really has fuck all to do with this scenario.

I think it’s a nice house though not to my taste.

My house was built in 1898. It’s a semi detached red sandstone cottage situated in a private road, which is a cul de sac and has an entrance to a rambling wood. We get loads of dog walkers. All of the houses are sandstone properties. Some are massive. Others are like mine. Not gigantic but bigger than most new builds.

We have high ceilings, ceiling roses, picture rails, open fire places, the original coal house and laundry in the back garden, book cases, lovely pictures on the walls, loads of vinyl including my parent’s, other stuff that belonged to my parents and grandparents. I could go on but I won’t.

I love my house. According to some on here, I am middle class. I’m not. I’m working class.

How can you assign a class to a house?

What's more lazy though? Failing to move a hoover, or using AI to write your posts?

Perhaps if you didn't regard books as clutter you'd be able to write all by yourself.

Spare me the "it's disrespectful" lecture. My grandma died last year at 98, and she spent the end of her life in hospice so I know exactly what end-of-life care looks like. But unlike these people, my family didn't put her house on the market looking like this. There is a massive, gaping difference between honoring a memory and being too lazy to put a vacuum cleaner away or clear out a shower chair before listing a property. If you can’t be bothered to spend a few hours cleaning a house that you’re about to collect a massive paycheck for, that’s not "grief"—that’s just blatant negligence.

You’re trying to use someone’s death as a shield for lazy estate management, and it’s transparent. The people who are responsible for the listing are the ones currently breathing, yet they couldn't be bothered to show enough respect to the property or the potential buyer to clear the clutter. They are looking to extract maximum value from that house yet they won't put in the bare minimum effort to present it with even a shred of dignity. If you’re going to list a property, you do it properly; dragging the deceased into your defense of sloppy, lazy work is the only truly disrespectful thing happening in this conversation.

also what used to be considered middle class professions and income ….. in realty now the lifestyle you can achieve on theses current income is less exciting than people think. Is there even many middle class people left. This house is probably what you can afford working what previously were solid middle class jobs."Viva la revolución”

Yep and written by AI, with swear words added

Op if you can afford it go for it why would you let others put you off. You should not feel guilty for being able to afford such a lovely house. I have friend’s and family who have similar I don’t see any class I just see they have done well for themselves and good on them.

This has to be the most low class post on a pretty declasse thread....

The garden seems to small for the house which is trying to hide being a new build. If it was a middle class home I would expect it to have a rambling garden and top class furnishings rather the ones it currently has which look like they come from b&q or similar.

What house you live in doesn't really determine what class you are. It's more about what you can afford.

In this area, if I had to label it, I would say it is middle to upper middle class house. It's in a nice area. For comparison, I have a professional job and am from working class parents. I live in a 4 bed £450K house which is a bit less fancy in a slightly cheaper area. I can just about afford it as a single person in my 50s as I got on the property ladder in my 20's so have equity, and I inherited some money from my parents.

I am probably middle class although I think it covers a wide range. My goal is to downsize and pay off my mortgage in the next 10 years. I don't think my class will change if I move to a cheaper 3 bed.

Had I stayed married and my husband earned the same as me we would be able to afford that house, although as ours is plenty big enough and still in a nice area, we would probably stay put, spend money on this one, over pay on the mortgage and pensions, travel more and have more pets. I would pay someone to clean and decorate.

As another poster said, the people who know you won't think any different regardless of your house choice and those you don't know, don't matter.

I’m really confused. Do you want to be seen as “middle class” or as “run of the mill”? Neither are very informative terms. If your house budget is around £700k then realistically you are middle class, What people think of your house will depend on the specific estate and your own taste in decoration. It’s a new build, so clearly more “run of the mill” than some unique listed building, but that’s fine. Are you really going to buy a different house because people on mumsnet don’t like hot tubs or new builds?

Affluent middle class. Asking price of 650k with a 20% deposit, that's a mortgage of 520k, 2.5k a month at least, meaning you need a combined wage of about 65k per year. (Very rough calculations).
Middle class covers a huge spectrum.

I guess it depends if you have equity/inheritance.

Why does it matter? Where I live you couldn't get anything close to that for £625k. You're lucky to be able to afford such a spacious house and if you don't like the decor you can change it.

Seen a lot better for [ middle class ]
A bit run off the mill tbh

I don’t understand why people are going on about the decor, the decor is totally irellevant.

It’s a fairly big, detached house, with, like a PP said, around a £3k a month mortgage. Of course it’s middle class for God’s sake. If it was a poky 2 up, 2 down terraced or tower block flat, I would say they’re working class houses (unless said terrace is in Z1 of London)

@pinckand, in response to the second "pathetic" listing you've posted here with the hoover in shot. They have a chair in the shower and the house is chain free. That is quite clearly the home of somebody older who has either gone into a care home, or who has died. Shame on you for critiquing it over a hoover.

You called me stupid and a bonehead first for apparently not knowing that their home was devoid of any middle class markers because they'd decluttered them all 🤣

In the UK books aren't removed before marketing a house. Is that a thing in the USA then? Is it to not intimidate prospective buyers who can't read or something? Fascinating.

I guess so but it depends where it is. A house like that would be about £1.2m where I live

Buy a house if it's what you like. Never given a thought what class it is in....

Do you have an anger management problem in real life too?

I'm American, but have been living in London for 15 years. Ten of them not far from the Wilton Crescent house you listed (which, as an aside, is a really weird and dead neighbourhood because very few people actually live there, it's mostly a place for people to park their money). I do think there are some real differences not only between the UK and the US in how houses are marketed, but within the UK between regions and social classes. I've joked on this thread about how can you judge the social class of a house, but there are subtleties that distinguish here that are beyond the cost.

The very highly staged houses are telegraphing that they're either for the international market at the high end, and, at a lower price point, for a more working class market. When we sold our house near WC, for a good whack, but not in the 44m range, we were advised to do that, but went with a realtor/estate agent who sold largely off market, so they worked a bit differently.

And, yes, adding - to take @paint101's point, you also get very highly staged 'footballer' type houses, usually expensive and sprawling in the suburbs, with lots of bells and whistles and acres of white marble (or faux marble flooring). That would also be judged on a class basis.

@pinck why so aggressive with calling people stupid, bonehead, ‘what the fuck are you on about’ etc. You are the one that doesn’t ’know the market you are judging’. You are American and used to multi-million dollar homes. I doubt you know anything about the English class system, or what the value of that house, in that part of the country, with that decor, means. ‘Decluttering’ a house of books is not a thing in the UK, unless perhaps marketed to a ‘footballers’ wives’ demographic of wanting vast empty rooms. It’s so odd that you compare books to a dog bed or laundry.

Anyone who puts themselves within a certain class is just sad.
What are all those monitors for? (Work, obviously) I'm intrigued

That’s worth £1.5m+ in my area. So no.

I’d call that an ‘executive’ home. The kind of people I’d expect to live in them would be the manager of the local golf club, a head of department at the council, an assistant head teacher, someone in HR at the NHS - so middle to senior manager sort of level. I quite like the house - you get a lot of space for your money and looks easy to maintain. The decor is easy to change if it’s not to your taste.