Would it be crazy to rent a bigger house for 10yrs then downsize back to my house

[Indecisivelurcher]

I really like my house. It's just a 3 bed mid terrace ex council house. Off road parking. Small garden. No garage. But we've knocked through, done up the kitchen and bathroom. It's got a bit of personality as it's 1949 not a new build. It's in a good location to walk to shops, pubs, restaurants and go for varied dog walks. If we were to stay here, we could easily clear the mortgage, retire early, and be pretty comfortable. But, we are starting to think we may need to move one day. The third bedroom is very small. To fit a full size single bed we'll need to get one built over stair boxing. I can imagine when youngest dc is a teen, it'll be a squeeze. I also now increasingly work from home. My desk is in the living room, which is OK as I finish at 3pm and pick kids up. But this won't work long term, when the kids can come home from school themselves and I can up my hours, I will need to be out of the way. We have no garage, so already bikes and things are becoming an issue. BUT later in life when the kids leave home, this house would once again be great.

What I'm wondering about is, renting our house out and renting somewhere bigger for 10 or 20yrs. Then coming back to our house in the future. Would that be mad?

Bigger houses here are often new build estates which I don't like that much, and cost c£500k which would be a huge stretch. My house might be worth £230k.

Can you extend upwards into the attic.?

I'm thinking of something similar. It would be nice to have some space. The only thing is apparently capital gains might need to be paid if you ever sell?

The other issue if what if your tenants don't pay their rent? Could you cover rent and mortgage?

And no fault evictions are being banned so it might not be that easy to get back into the house in future. I’d look at extending or even building a garden room over moving.

Could you install a simple home office in the garden? Or add a simple side or back extension for the extra bedroom, single storey, as that might be cheaper. Or go into the attic as a PP suggested.

How much would you get if you rented your home out? Enough to cover the mortgage? Would it help with the rent? If not, can you afford the rent on a bigger place? It seems like a lot of money down the drain that might be better invested in improving and enlarging the property.

Shed office? Extend up? How old are the children?

We moved abroad and rented out our UK home. It’s not like being a professional landlord because it’s been your home we found it very stressful. Financially it was great but the stress was not good and it put us off being landlords neither of us have the correct skill set or temperament to be landlords.

as @BringItOnxxx said
Do you own your home outright or would you be relying on the rent to cover your current house will using wages for the mortgage on the bigger house.

Also It can be quite hard to downsize as you tend to accumulate to fill your space

We couldn't make our current house any bigger, we've already done that. Loft access wouldn't work. There isn't room for a garden room/office. I do have an actual office I could drive to - I'm just not used to doing it nowadays!

We would be relying on rent covering the mortgage here, and the spending out on rent on a bigger property. So yes there are risks.

It's just that I can see this house would be great again in the future!

Obviously the other option is we could push through, plenty of kids are raised in smaller places.

Give us a floor plan. Can you nick sqm from another room?

Go into the office more 😂

If you are going to rely on that rent money then no, it's a bad idea. You are going to need to spend money on the upkeep on it, you will no doubt get tenants that do not look after it and you may even get tenants who default on their rent. Can you afford it if you get a big maintenance bill or some other expense? A good idea in theory, the realistic side of it may not be as ideal.

You need Kirsty and Phil LIOLI

We've recently got a lock up storage space, OP. £100 per month and are now going to store and rotate a tonne of stuff.

Could you do that?

You may not love your house any more after 10 years of tenants in it

You may want something different in 10 years anyway

Lots of risk financially. Your mortgage terms may not allow it for a start which means a new and possibly more expensive mortgage

Lots of hassle being a landlord - ever increasing regulations, rent defaults, repairs, finding new tenants

I’ve never known anyone to rent out for 10 yrs
so you may have to move

So if the renter doesn't pay you would risk losing both houses?
This would be a bit too risky for me

I’ve been renting out a house for two years... between non paying tenants, refurbs for damage between tenants, general upkeep, all the mandatory licensing and insurance fees, letting agent fees and income tax... I’m left with somewhere between a third and half the rent in my pocket.

For us, that’s fine as there’s no mortgage on it, but we’d be stuffed if we were actually relying on it.

What age are your children now? What is the age gap? Have you looked ahead for secondaries and are they good? Do you have to consider a commute to your office or that of Dh/Dp?

I would weigh up the options of moving and possibly moving areas too depending on schools especially secondaries. Lots of people consider primaries but not always secondaries.

We moved for a secondary school but I was still able to take my children to their old primary. We moved to a "less desirable" area in the sense that the local primary was in special measures, it is now outstanding but it meant our house price was much cheaper than if we upsized in the outstanding primary area.

The risk of renting out your current property is too risky for me so you either need to get clever with what you currently have or consider moving house. If you do post a floor plan people might be able to suggest squeezing some space for you.

If you rent it out for 10 years it won't be nearly as nice when you move back. Tenants are not likely to look after it like you do

It wouldn’t work OP. I think you should just look around for a slightly bigger niche house that works for you.

Can you rent a garage or other storage for bikes and things? Perhaps there is some kind of foldaway desk solution.
Living as a tenant is quite precarious and probably difficult to get used to again.

Agree with pp. We rented our home out and it was upsetting to see the condition tenants left it in. No way could I have moved back in (I say this as someone who has lived in rented for most of their adult life!). We barely covered the mortgage after tax etc. just not worth the aggro

I wouldn't, you need to be able to cover void periods/repairs etc and what happens if you can't get the tenants out when you want to move back in?

Can you extend into the loft?

Can't you buy another house? Remortgage this one on a buy to let mortgage and take as much equity out as possible and then buy a bigger one too? You'll have to pay more stamp duty but that might be better than capital gains tax

Do you want the responsibility of being a landlord?
That's the most important part of this idea.