Would you rather have a fancier house or more holidays?

[londonldn]

Just pondering.

Looking at moving house at the moment due to hateful neighbours.

If I stay put in our (mid terrace, small but perfectly comfortable) house, we could afford to spend £5k plus for holidays each year. If we move we can have a lovely home, but won't be able to afford to holiday much (probably every second year).

What would you choose, given the choice?

More holidays, no question. Our house is perfectly adequate, it's a comfortable place to sleep and has a roof. Not too bothered about it, it's fine.

But I live for holidays and would love to have more, they're the highlight of my life. Most of our disposable income goes on travelling. We've got a normal house, old normal car, don't spend much on luxuries, but we love to travel.

House definitely

I’d choose holidays over fancier house, but if I had nasty neighbours I’d move.

A move to another house with different neighbours definitely.

We are in our homes for many more weeks of the year and there are always cheaper holidays out there with imagination if you don't buy a house at roughly the same level as where you are now.

House because it’s used every single day.

House, definitely. Absolutely no contest. I can take or leave holidays.

more holidays without a shadow of a doubt.

Nasty neighbours= move house

D.i.y etc= holidays

Not been on holiday for 14 years AND have a rubbish house...I'm not much help
If we had the money I'd pick a nicer home over holidays every single time.

We chose to have a manageable mortgage and more disposable income as it's important to us to have a life full of experiences life is short.

Don't get me wrong our house is a great 3 bed semi perfect for 2 of us in a great area that we both love.

But we have a mortgage
manageable on one salary if needed that will be paid hopefully within 15 years. That to me is worth so much more than a bigger garden, extra bedroom, or slightly bigger rooms.

were selling our 3 bed semi now. Were not looking at going up the housing ladder, a 3 bed semi is perfectly fine (relocation for work). We would rather live as we are, comfortably being able to do nice things than a bigger fancy house and being a prisoner in it!

Definitely house

also what if you move and your new neighbours are equally shit?

Answering some questions:-

Neighbours frequently have parties which last for 12 hours. Their parties are in their garden, they blare music from their fancy garden office thing which is pushed right up against my fence, and they are all out there during sunny afternoons and well into the night, screeching and swearing and singing. They are SO noisy. And it's not just a seasonal thing, they've been doing it since February when they moved in.

I can't really do a sideways move and get an equivalent house round here, weird as that sounds. I could spend an extra £30k and get an equivalent house with a garage and which was a semi rather than terraced, but I don't want a garage and I don't mind being terraced so that seems like a waste of £30k plus probably another £8k moving costs.

Our house at the moment is perfectly adequate. It's me and DS, it's got three bedrooms, a lovely kitchen and we don't really need more space. Although bigger rooms and perhaps space for a larger dining table would be nice, it's never bothered me enough to consider moving.

The next "step up" in house will be about another £80k, so roughly £400pcm on the mortgage. Hence the choice between stay put and deal with neighbours and have lovely holidays or move somewhere (where there could indeed be awful neighbours too!) and skip the holidays.

Your restricting yourself to 5 grand holidays. Move and have cheaper holidays

I prioritise holidays but would have a re think if I had awful neighbours.

House without a doubt.

Are the neighbours intimidating, or could you report them to the council for the noise? Or are you concerned about this affecting a future house sale?

Bad neighbours could be a risk with any new house too.

are the neighbours renting or likely to not stay long? it would be annoying to move and then see they have moved on anyway.

I love holidays but was desperate for a detached house (its 2 beds) after a string of noisy neighbours next door so we prioritised that. But this was noise in the house rather than outside. It wouldn't have solved a garden party issue.

Loathe to report to council because (a) they do very little about noise anyway and are very slow and (b) I don't want it to affect a future sale.

I was in this exact sulituation this year and we moved. Love the new house but a bit gutted we can't go abroad. I'm glad I chose the house though.

If the house is perfectly adequate I'd say holidays. I'd move to get away from neighbours though.

Depends on how bad the neighbours are ?

In that situation, I'd move. I'd hate to give up my holidays under any other circumstances, but horrible, noisy neighbours would make me miserable. I'd try to have my cake and eat it though - swap to an equivalent priced house AND keep my holidays!

House without a doubt. Love my holidays and I’d be sad to have to cut down but frankly coming home to a place you feel happy in should always be the priority. We’ve just finished renovating and while it’s not the same as your situation there is something incredible about knowing I’m coming home to a beautiful home rather than building dust and half plastered walls - it’s seriously upped my moods on a daily basis. I imagine nightmare neighbours would have the same effect!