AIBU to ask why so many £1m houses....

Ive just bought a house on london/Surrey borders, the interior is about 25/30 years old and the lady had it for 40 years, i think she just didnt want to update as it is in working condition. We will renovate slowly as dont want to spend all our cash at once (especially now Burnham is coming!). I'd rather do this than have a smaller house done to someone else's tastes

In my case I bought a £450k property 25 years ago and spent the first 5 years updating it and have had four children grown up in it. Now I have a property that is apparently worth just over £1m but that isn’t a reflection of my income and so live with the changes I made 20 odd years ago that I can’t afford to replace. If I ever sell then things will be clean, tidy but dated or in need of replacing. Perhaps that’s the case with the houses you’re looking at OP?

maybe if they are period houses they are original fittings

100 💯 this
The majority of 1 million pound houses In my country (there are few) mainly belonged to older people and they have either passed on or funding the home to pay for their care home
Many of these houses are very old fashioned and were last decorated in the 80s if that recently

I was responding to someone in reference to another poster who said they thought people should plan better financially so they can buy knew kitchens for a stranger who might want to live in their house.

We got our kitchen done around 12 years ago or so, people on here would probably say its 'old' and needs updating. I wouldnt update it, it looks like the kitchen I want, I would only replace it with the same one. What would be the point

Some of the kick boards probably need replacing but who can be bothered with that.

It was never decorated when we did it, we were 'getting round to that'. Hopefully we can do it next year.

Why are some wealthy people scruffily dressed? Because some of them don't care about clothes. Same with kitchens and bathrooms - some people just don't care much about aesthetics, and some aren't into status / wealth display. Not all rich people care if others think / know they're rich. (Or think they have the right kind of middle-class taste).

Some people have a big house but not much actual cash. (Sometimes that's why they're selling - can't keep the place up any more). Some people are old and dealing with tradies seems like too much hassle.

Sometimes people just genuinely don't think there's anything wrong with the kitchen / bathroom they put a lot of effort and money into, a long time ago. My grandparents bridled at the suggestion that there was anything wrong with their yellow bathroom (WC in separate tiny room) and listed what every element of it had cost, in 1962. Silly me, to not appreciate what a very good bath that was - all these years, and not a stain on it! They were shocked anyone would consider trashing a PERFECTLY GOOD bathroom. The sinful profligacy of young people today, etc.

Sometimes they've died, and the beneficiaries just want to get it sold and the proceeds split asap.

I think there is a truth in this. Consumerism seems to fade, the longer people see fashions come and go, the less they get caught up in the parade of must-have newness.

Lots of people buy a house and sort out what has to be done, then nothing more for the time they live there.
Same furniture etc 30 years later

old people

So what you really mean is £1m isn’t enough to buy you the sort of house you want, in the location you want, in the condition you want? Yes?

That makes perfect sense. You will have to compromise on budget, size, location or condition if you can’t currently afford what you want.

Or take the risk of saving up for longer?

My house is worth well over a million and we definitely cannot afford to put in a new bathroom and kitchen. Both are very dated. Flooring is also a bit tatty. Why would you assume people can afford to do that?

Location is everything. When you are young and buy your first house you want the kitchen that you want, that has your personality. Then you live in that house for thirty years and do little fixes to it when it goes wrong. You don’t long for a new kitchen, you love the one you brought your babies home to. It’s friendly, it’s not consumerism, it’s Home.

What I’ve seen people do around here is take a rental property for six months move in there while the works being done.

Yeah, this. Why the fuck should some elderly disabled person spend all their money and disrupt their lives getting fancy new kitchens and bathrooms for the person who might want to buy their house?!

They'll say it's not to their taste anyway and rip it out 9/10 times anyway.

People have no imagination they’d rather spend another 400,000 getting the immaculate put together house then do the work themselves

I'm (hopefully if my really annoying buyers actually hurry up) buying a house which is £1.25m. A terrace but fully extended so quite large. In a premium school catchment area. Rented out for 10 years so literally everything needs a refresh plus new windows and I think a new flat roof. Budgeting about £100k for the initial work. Yeh it's insane but what can we do. Our own house (out of catchment but in a nearby part of London and a bit smaller) lists for £900k. Not even a particularly fancy part of London. That's just what stuff costs these days.

Why would you think that? I don’t understand.

If the going rate for an immaculate four bed detached is £1.2 million then you are likely to see four bed detached in need of full refurbishment for £1m.

Often these kind of houses are owned by older or elderly people who see no need to have trendy new kitchens and bathrooms. Replacing something that still works for aesthetic purposes is a fairly new thing.