2 bed or 3

[Happilyneverafterrr]

Sorry posting here for traffic as tearing my hear out trying to make a decision.
DP and I are buying our first house on a shared ownership scheme. we simply cannot afford to get on the property ladder without doing it shared ownership.
We have savings.. our choices are
1- get a 2 bed, have plenty of spare money to buy furniture etc.. however will 100000% need to get a 3 bed in 5/6 years time.
2- get the 3 bed - this would use all of our savings however our families have kindly offered to help out a little bit. Monthly payments are £120 higher but we wouldn't ever have to move.

The 3 bed seems so much better because we would never have to worry about buying again however £120 extra a month would be nice and I begrudge paying for a room we won't use yet!?

I don't know what to do and am really struggling to make a decision. Neither of us are high earners atall but we are very sensible with our money and don't owe a penny.

Please fire away with your opinions :) Thankyou

Remember they can hike up your rents, stop you from extended your home/other large changes and if you are not freehold, hike up your yearly charges. There is also little chance that you will be able to afford to buy the other half of the house.

Kpo58 not the case in our shared ownership flat. Our rent is capped at 2.5% rise each year (much better than private rents, which go up randomly when your contract is renewed). Our service charge is reviewed every year and residents are consulted. Some years, following consultation, it went down. Plus we get a rebate if there is underspend, which has happened every year for us. We're in a flat so extending doesn't apply to us.

It is true that not everyone will be able to afford to buy the whole home. But it is still loads better than private renting, as you have stability and you are building equity. And you're not wasting all your money on rent.

We bought 50% and we are now in a position to buy the other 50%. We have decided not to, as with the equity we have built from living here, we can move to a different area and get a bigger place. If we'd been renting all these years instead of shared ownership, we'd be locked out of home ownership completely now.

"The 3 bed seems so much better because we would never have to worry about buying again however £120 extra a month would be nice and I begrudge paying for a room we won't use yet!?"

Air B&B? Make your spare room work for you?

(Actually, I have no idea if that's allowed in SO properties).

We bought a 2 bed shared ownership as a couple with no children. It didn't even occur to us to only get a 1 bed. We wanted to buy a place we could have a family in a few years down the line.

Easy AntiHop....I know very little about SO which is why I phrased it as I did.

That said I have been buying and selling houses for 44 years, I paid £19.500 for my first place in the south east and when I divorced 12 years ago that house was valued at £600,00 all that done on a train drivers wages + my X wife's. So I have some experience in buying in the right area, at the best price and renovating.

Everyone has already beaten me to saying get the 3 bed.

Last time I moved house, all of the legal fees, stamp duty, moving costs etc came to 7k and that was a decade ago so god knows what it would be now. Moving house is a stressful pita. Buy the one you can stay in.

Property prices will always go up shared ownership or not..

Nope!

With that said, like others I'd say the 3 bed since SO makes it harder potentially to sell. If you weren't doing SO, there might be more of an argument for the 2 bedder, but in this scenario, if you might be forced into it being your forever home, choose the most suitable.

I presume you're factoring the rent difference into your calculations, if there is any?

The way brexit is going I'd secure a 3 bed now

Yes mortgage and rent combined is £120 higher per month. Wow simon50 not bad atall hey!

If we couldn't be approved for the 3 bed due to having no children yet.. is it really not worth even considering the 2 bed then judging by everyone's comments

Another for the 3 bed if HA allows. This is speaking as a gardener - shame to put in plants (you did say there was a garden at both, OP?) only to have to give them away + you lose 6 years of maturity.

Clearly this is on top of what other PPs have said in terms of tribulations and costs of moving.

BUT if family helping you out, make sure you know on what terms and if necessary do it contractually. Eg - what would happen if they suddenly needed their money back quickly?

Buy the 3 bed, no question.

We are in a similar situation and are buying a 2 ned despite knowing we will need more space in the next 5 years or so.

Cannot afford a 3 bed in the area/surrounding areas where we live and does not make sense to buy a 2 bed but it's all that we can afford right now.

Think of the solicitor's fees, legal costs- stamp duty, moving costs etc

It all adds up to an eye-watering amount and the thought of having to go through it all again in the next 5 years or so brings me out in a cold sweat!

Happilyneverafterrr - why wouldn't it be worth going for a two bed? If you say the sq ft of the two bed is pretty much the same as the three bed, the second bedroom should be big enough to accommodate more than one child and possibility be split into two rooms later down the line.

Also, if the plot has enough land, you could always extend the which may be cheaper than selling, moving and buying a three bed (well according to that TV show with Phil Spencer).

If you are eligible and can afford it, go for the 3 bed. We bought a 2.5 bed over ten years ago with no dc. Assumed we would move when the second dc came along. Currently cannot afford to upgrade to a 3 double bed house unless in a rough area which I am not willing to do.

We wouldn't be able to extend / split the room into 2 until we owned 100% aka when pigs fly x

Happlily I know of childless couples who have bought three bedroom shared ownership houses. They told the HA they were intending to start a family very soon, but in any case I think the Homes & Communities Agency rules have recently changed to allow the purchase of a larger home.

It may depend on the HA then, as I know people who have been trying to buy SO this year and they were also told they could only buy one or two bedrooms as a couple.

Moving cost us £15K in fees when we moved from a two bed to three bed. Also the house prices rise as a percentage so if your two bed house price increases, the three bed will increase by more and it may be less affordable when you need it.

Redblu, you are probably right. The Help to Buy website says there's no (government) restrictions, so it must depend on the HA.

3 bed. We chose the three bed and good job as with personal issues and housing market crash we ended up stuck. It's not our ideal home but plenty of room and future proofed us. 2 bed we would have been in a much worse situation as we now have 3 kids

Definitely 3 bed - moving is really expensive, best not to do it any more than you have to, plus having a room for a lodger if things are tough is a really good idea.

Mr Trebus!!!! I remember him. Sorry your name reminded me of him and the TV prog (Crouch Endite)
Get the 3

Are you allowed to have a lodger on shared ownership?

Go for the 3 bed, use one room as a study and second spare bedroom

You cannot have lodgers in shared ownership it's against the contract.

We bought a 2 bedroom on shared ownership a year ago today! Everything was wonderful and we did think about maybe going for a 3 bed but decided we didn't need it!

I'm now pregnant and due in 10 days and we no longer have that spare room. We have said 100's of times we wished we had just bought the 3 bed!