Would you buy a house you’ll outgrow in 5 years?

[dof]

It would get us onto the ladder but definitely only room for one DC, planning on trying later this year. 2 decent sized bedrooms and one very small box room/office. The area would be alright for now but schools aren’t the best so we’d probably look at moving when DC is a few years old - not that you can plan these things. Asked DM for her thoughts and she thinks we should wait and find a house in an area we’d be happy to stay in, as moving is stressful and costly

We just don’t have the luxury of the same choice with how expensive things are and we’d likely have to have a house without a garden/much smaller house if we were to buy in the ‘nice area’ we rent in!

The size of the house wouldn't bother me, bit would depend on how good/bad the schools are.

We are in a small 3 bed with good schools nearby. We also keep meaning to move somewhere bigger but it just hasn't happened, but the schools being good means that isn't a big deal.

Choose area over size basically (imho)

5 years isn't so bad, and it sounds like if you had to stay it would be big enough you wouldn't have to delay TTC. We moved to a too small house we outgrew immediately and moved 3 years later, that was a mistake in hindsight as it's expensive to move frequently and we didn't make anything from it- we were just eager to get on the ladder. All worked out in the end mind.

Buying at the moment could be risky if you need to sell again within a couple of years. You don't want to be stuck in negative equity in the wrong area.

Having limited space is annoying but manageable. Being in the wrong place isn't.

I'd sacrifice condition and then size or outside space. I think it's a lot less of a ladder than it used to be and can't see you gaining from a big price hike in the next couple of years.

Isn't it a bad time to buy a house. I reckon we are heading for a world wide recession and you may end up in negative equity.

It is, but then, when will it get better? Damned if you do, damned if you don’t I think. Currently spending large amount in rent per month, but granted not as much as any mortgage would be - but still a waste of money surely

I would buy smaller in the right area, unless you have reason to think you'll be far better off financially in 5 years. Ultimately the fees and stamp duty on the first purchase could be put towards the second.....

I think most people do. Personally, we rented for much longer and bought our ‘forever’ home. I will literally never leave here if I can help it. But yes, I think that’s quite normal.

There’s never an objectively ‘good’ time to buy a house if you aren’t yet on the property ladder. There might be better or worse times to sell/buy once you’re already a property owner but really, buying a property is the most important thing.

If I were you I’d buy somewhere I was happy to stay in the medium term. If that involves school choices, look hard at that now. Perhaps you just think the schools aren’t that great in the area you’re considering, but the primary schools are fine but secondary isn’t. Or there are some great schools and some crap schools so choose your location wisely looking at admissions criteria. You just need to do some good research. We take a lot of things that we ‘know’ for granted but when you look into it properly you might be (pleasantly) surprised.

I would look at a place you will be happy in (or can cope in) for 5-10 years. You might end up staying a lot longer than you think.

We bought our house in the wrong area and it needed a lot of work doing. We naively thought we could move after 2 years but the house wasn’t going to make enough money in that time and we hadn’t paid off enough equity. We’ve just sold it 6 years after we moved in. In that time, we’ve spent maybe £20-25k on the house (there’s still a lot more to spend though), started chipping away at the equity and house prices have risen enough to boost our equity. We’ve also had career progressions in that time.

Moving frequently is expensive. We’re looking at about £15k in fees. You can obviously rope your mates in to move you and hire a van but we did that when we bought this house. It’s hard. We aren’t doing it this time because we have a 1 year old and I don’t see how we can keep them entertained and lug a fridge freezer around (we don’t have any family nearby so I can just send them to my mums). However, I would say you don’t quite realise how you want to use a space until you have kids. Everything I loved about our house because something causing me stress because DC could injure themselves. So it’s probably better to buy a home and make do for a while, then move when you work out how the space works for you.

It’s scary buying at the moment with the doom and gloom but we’ve picked a house we can probably live in for 20 years. Which is why I would try to find somewhere that had the potential for 10 years so even if you end up with negative equity, you should be able to ride it out. Also, people have been predicting house price drops since we bought 6 years ago (Brexit, Covid, cost of living) and our house has gone up £80k in that time. Logically they have to come down at some point but nothing seems to be doing it.

I thought we would move within four years. We’ve now been here for 25…

Just put two children in one room, you will have about 10 years if they are opposite sex. Our box room fits a single bed and chest of drawers as an alternative. Baby can stay in a cot in your room for the first two years.

We did, we bought a 2 bed + box in 2017, had a baby a couple of years ago and are just about to exchange to get our forever home.
We are really glad we just got on the ladder when we could - we spent everything we had at the time but it has all built back up and has been totally doable to move again. Probably easier this time in some ways as we didn’t have a huge deposit to give away - the equity has more than covered everything.

Schools definitely trumps size. We have 3 DCs in one room, it’s been working just fine. Oldest will need space when they start high school this year, the plan is a garden office for DH so oldest DC can have the box room. We would have to move out of area for a bigger house which we don’t want to do.

As a teacher I can tell you schools can completely change within 5 years... even 2/3. There's no telling what the schools will be like in either areas by the time your child is school age.

Also what to you defines a good school? Ofsted report? Please take these with a pinch of salt.

some of the best schools I have worked in have been grade 3. You may find this surprising but it usually means that the school will be changing their policies and in drastic scenarios SLT/headteacher and I personally have found them to be more on the ball with safeguarding and safety than grade 2, occasionally grade 1 schools because they are working hard ready for next ofsted. Remember schools are inspected approx every 4 years so if you are reading a report from 2-3 years ago it really isn't an accurate representation of its current situation