Would you buy a house if you thought you’d need to move in about 5 years?

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We don’t want to max out our borrowing so we will buy something in a nice area but small, probably a two bedroom house. This will mean we won’t be able to stay there forever if we grow our family.

Sister and brother in law saved and purchased a 5 bed when the market was a bit better a couple of years ago. They are higher earners than us but I must admit they were in the envious position of knowing they never had to move before they even had kids

It’s quite normal to start off small and buy your forever home later in life, right?

absolutely buy now. As someone who was buying in 2009 but the world went crazy. We’ve now spent over £285,000 in rent (more than the house we tried to buy).
you will always need a home and whatever happens in 5 years happens. If prices go up, so does yours, if they dramatically drop and the arse falls out the market, you still have a home.
You can future proof it by getting one with potential. But on the whole you’d be mad not to.

Oh and our last house move was done with 6 weeks notice. We had no clue the landlord was selling up until that Friday afternoon post dropped. So we had to find somewhere suitable, buy boxes, scrabble for a deposit, organise a van etc.

We were going to buy a 2-bed (FTBs looking now) but the market has changed so much we can actually afford a 3-bed now. We figure spending a little more now beats buying and selling fairly soon if we can possibly avoid it.

We sold what people think of as forever homes and downsized to enable us to pay off the mortgage and now retire early. It was a large 5 bed, it was ridiculous for just the two of us when adult dc left home and bought and other dc in last year of uni now with no plans to move back. Too much cleaning of empty rooms and maintenance.
A 2 bed starter home is fine if that's what you can make do with. I personally would try to max out your borrowing and go straight for a 3 bed. You are only a first time buyer once. I would also buy in the area that you really want to live in straight away otherwise you could be priced out when you want to upsize. Two nearby areas can end up having huge price differences.

Very normal but as others have said - moving/selling is expensive and also very stressful.

I also really grudged spending any money to do our first house up much as knew we'd be moving soon so worth considering when you view properties - can you live with it as is for a few years without doing much work to it?

This! We have been in a huge six bed three floor Victorian semi for six years; in that time two of our children have left home for uni and aren’t moving back this summer after graduating, meaning that DH and I along with youngest child rattle around in a house with a lot of unused rooms! It’s freezing, the heat goes straight out the roof/single glazed sashes and there are always, always jobs to do or pay someone else to do it’s insane and I’ve had enough! But feel like a quitter after only six years! Previous owners were here for seventeen…have seen a lovely four bed detached with double glazing round the corner and am very tempted to just do it.

Yes stamp duty costs and you need to pay for maintenance but the value will likely grow, compared to throwing rent away and insecurity of a landlord selling up I think it’s definitely worth it. I’d try to but something extendable if you can. But not vital. Also avoid leaks flats and the costs they bring.

Bought a small house in a great area and thought we would be there a couple of years and move to our forever house .Then the property crash came . Then the kids arrived so we were there for 16 years . But we had no problems selling it and made a profit . I did love the house but it was just too small for our needs and had a very small garden . It is true what people say but in the best area you can .

Depends on the house, the area etc. We bought a house we knew we’d only be spending a few years in in 2015 for £340 k and sold it in 2021 for £480 k. It was an ex-rental, so we redecorated and put in new downstairs flooring, and a new main bathroom, but did nothing else — it was a very sought after area and the market was buoyant so we didn’t need to do a lot.

I suppose my only advice would be to think about how easy it will be to sell, and, if you’re redecorating, to decorate (neutrally) for that person.

We did but the plan was to stay for 2-3 years then we ended up staying for 10 for one reason or another.

Don’t buy somewhere too small that would be a pain to live in if it ends up being a longer term thing.

We were in this situation when our two DS were babies, and we needed more space, at the time prices were rising and it took four months to find the ideal new home for us, we really had to push our budget. In the end we bought a detached 5 bed that needed to be bought upto date. So pleased we stretched ourselves, it was a lovely family home for 18 years, if we have bought a 3bed we would have moved again, then you have more Estate Agent Fees, solicitors fees, survey, removal cost etc and general inconvenience of moving. This was money we spent on our home, new kitchen, bathrooms, redecorating, flooring etc all done gradually, it was clean and liveable but old fashioned when we moved there. No regrets at all, we have now downsized due to my disability, and have a detached 3bed bungalow. Good luck with your move OP.

We moved when I was pregnant and it was rushed. In retrospect, we could have stayed in our 1 bed flat until baby no.2. Babies really don’t take up much space.

We have owned 3 houses so far. I don’t feel like you can predict what you will want in 10 years. The kind of area we like has changed so much in the past 5 years.