To want to sell my house and move into a shiny new flat.

[greystripedteepee]

I'm fed up of house crap- bricks needing replacing, the garage being used to hoard things, garden looking crap, not using a lot of rooms etc. Saw an amazing penthouse flat and I'm wondering if ironically I would have a better quality of life living in a flat. I know lots of people want the detached house and garden but isn't it just a lot of stress. With the flat we would be city location rather than village just outside the city. Feels like step backwards to go from house to flat but it is so appealing! Not sure what my DH and DD would say. Probably would be great in ten years when she is a teenager.

We live in a city centre flat in London (zone 1). Our service charges are reasonable (there's no concierge or communal gardens, but there's a lift and the communal areas/stairs are cleaned weekly). The freeholders are strict about leaving items in communal areas and the bins, so that never becomes an issue. It's a 3rd floor flat, not the penthouse which costs a bit more, and we don't have any outside space. Our living room is big though, with floor to ceiling windows. It has fairly high specs and the sound/heat insulation is excellent, though we're on the edge of a main road/busy nightlife area so we get a lot of noise coming through the front windows. We don't need a car as we have a tube & national rail within 5 mins walk, plus around 20 bus routes within 5-10 mins walk.

City centre living is really convenient and that was our main criteria when buying - we wouldn't have considered living out in zone 3/4 or further, even though we could have got a decent size house for the same money. We have a commute of under 30 min, we have all amenities within walking distance, and we can get to restaurants, galleries, theatres really easily (and we make use of them on a weekly basis). We have some garden squares within walking distance and a large park a short bus ride away, but we only miss having outside space on a few days of the year!

Personally I'd like to remain in the city centre location but one day I'd like to move to a bigger house here. It'll take a few more years of saving though! The storage we have in our flat is fairly decent compared to most flats, but I'm not great at decluttering so I'd love an attic/cellar/garage. I think we get a decent deal on service charges but psychologically I'd rather have a freehold house than a flat - it doesn't quite feel like we own it as leaseholders, and things like changing room layout would need permission. You can't really 'make it your own' with renovation plans in the same way you could with a house.

I am right there with you. We need a new deck, our yard it out of control, the driveway needs to be resurfaced, the carpets need to be replaced, it goes on and on.

I hate it, I would do anything for a garden

When I lived in my flat I always maintained not having a garden didn't bother me. Now there's nothing I like more than sitting on the decking at the back door with a coffee or a glass of wine. Love having my washing out too. I couldn't imagine not having a garden now

Yes yes yes. Move. Flat living is SO easy. No stairs! 24 hour concierge (don't have to be in for parcels, great security, they even take the tops off jars for me ! Pool! Gym! We even have a 24hr shop and coffee shop on the premises.

And the view...

Re garden, we have a garden, it's just communal! Have to have a key. Still lovely though and no gardening as it is in the service charge

greystripedteepee - I live in a shiny new apartment, having downsized from a house.

Yes, the external work is less and I'm not responsible for it, but tap washers still need changing, the washing machine still goes wrong, paint still needs refreshing, the drain gets blocked & so on.

I'm lucky, I have a sizeable decking area so still get outdoor space. I don't think I could deal with no access to the outdoors at all.

I'm at the top of my block, so don't suffer from any noise above me, but do occasionally hear noise from below.

My biggest gripe is parking. Each apartment has its own single allocated space but there are only two spaces for guests, which is hopelessly inadequate and no option for people with second cars, which means they double park and it can be a nightmare!

I also hate the variability of the service charge too. One year it is just under £2k, the next year almost double that depending on what communal work needs doing.

I'd never go back to the flat. You're at the mercy of the management company and any mental health issues they may have
... speaking from very bitter experience.
Anything you want to do to your own property won't be fully in your control.

Can you not have the best of both worlds? We live in an Edwardian house on the nice side of a smallish coastal town. We are within walking distance of independent bars, restaurants, shops, cinema, two theatres and a gig venue, an old manor house and gardens, a lovely big park with boating lake and ten minute walk to the seafront. But we have three double bedrooms, three reception rooms and a large garden. It needed a lot of work when we bought it (for 300k in the South East so not like some MN prices), but it's now light, bright, airy and spacious, with enough city type living to satisfy DH who lived in West London for 8 years and was horrified by the rural villages I initially longed for. Ooh and get a cleaner, I find we're tidier (don't want the cleaner to think we're slobs) and don't do the actual cleaning.

We lived in a flat before (I owned it) I secund what others have said about service charge changes and unexpected maintenance short fall bills that ran into thousands. Also less neighborhood feeling as most others were renters who came and went, mostly nice professionals but no feeling of community.

Off-topic, but TrueBlue - whoah-hoah! which one on that website is yours and was it seriously £60k? 'Cos we have an Edwardian semi, which is great, but I would like to investigate pushing out the side return and getting a bigger kitchen/laundry room with dog bath/extra lav and more light. It would kill our neighbour, but she's moving soon so maybe now's the time to investigate?

I've done house and city centre flat living and much as I loved our tiny cosy flat in Paris (with parquet, floor to ceiling windows and great storage) it is hard work always having to travel to get to green space and never being able to just sit quietly in your own garden. Always stepping straight from home onto a street. Flat living in London - mmm, not so great. Bins don't work, noise insulation doesn't work, neighbours don't seem good at living in denser neighbourhoods, hallways filled with crap, no-one wants to take care of the communal areas or pay someone properly to do so well. But I'm sure there are good (and probably extremely expensive) examples of fully serviced buildings. Maybe something like the mansion blocks in South Kensington?

I love our house and garden, although yeah, you do have to love spending time and money to keep them nice. And much as I like my neighbours, I do not like their silver birch trees, dripping filthy catkins all over my borders coming into leaf right now! But I love having a garden to clear up.

I suppose what I'm saying is, you need to make the best of the situation you find yourself in. Buy as much space as you can afford while you're young, I'd say, as a general rule.

@Peartree17 oh dear my silver birch is covered in catkins. Coming to the conclusion that I'm being ungrateful and need to enjoy what I have!

Re management company fees. We bought the freehold with loads of other residents. We actually get paid because we can rent out the shop units and communal square if we like! So, much cheaper.

I moved from a large flat in a small block to a townhouse with a large garden, and I really miss the flat. I felt so much safer living in a gated community, and it was nice having everything on one level.

Now, I spend most of my time and energy moving things from one floor to another, which is exhausting! The extra space and garden are treat for the kids tho!

I can see myself moving back to a flat in a more central location once the children have left home, as long as it is high quality, has space and good soundproofing, and great facilities and location etc!

There v will always be vermin in apartment buildings. Sooner or later it happens. You will also be more affected by what your neighbours do. This can be particularly unpleasant if there are a lot of students /young people flat sharing, young families or if animals are allowed. Take a closer look at the type of flats in the building and cost. Also consider the location. If it is near a university forget it. If there are a lot of apartments with 2/3/4 bedrooms that is also not great. You want a building with mostly 1 bed or studio flats. If some of the flats are offered 55+ that is a good thing. If the building has multiple entrances/lifts that is better because less wear and tear.

Don’t move anywhere that rents to students, easy. Our leases have clauses for security reasons, no short term rents, everyone has to be vetted, and students basically can’t afford it so don’t apply anyway (the rent is huge compared to the mortgage repayments) and students don’t buy.

There are always vermin everywhere.

I haven't seen any mice in my modern flat but there were plenty in my desirable Victorian house.

Country house has mice and dead squirrels.

And the spiders OMG. A flat above ground floor level has fewer creepy crawlies. We get a few spiders and bees in here, but my old house was full of them.

YANBU. I live in a flat in the town centre with 2 DC. It's huge, about half the price of the same size house, and will enable me to be free of a mortgage much sooner than a house would. If more people, especially those living alone or in couples embraced flat living there would be less of a housing crisis.

Also if one of your neighbours has a leek' .... throw the leek in with some other veggies and make a soup!

OP, the catkins have been a revelation to me. There are - hundreds of thousands of them? They can be swept from paths, and raked from lawns, but they have to be picked by hand from borders and in the crowns of plants (ferns and hostas are particularly hospitable to them). I try to look on this task as a sort of Zen, meditative activity. The reward is a clear view of the spring plants unfurling, but dear god, the effort! I suspect most people aren't aware of this aspect of silver birch trees when they plant them.

DH rented an uppeer floor flat for couple of years in Dolphin Sq (Westminster, by the river) in a vast purpose-built pre-war apartment complex. It had great gardens, spa, restaurant and healthclub in the middle. Rubbish and recycling were collected from outside each flat alternate days. Rent included heating and water supply (so that saved on utilities). I loved nipping up there for holidays and the odd weekend. I was very reluctant to have him hand back the keys. I might have cursed the helicopter noise, but I used to like hearing Big Ben chime and watching the London Eye go round.

Thanks for the link to the property OP. I would find it odd having so few normal windows (would it get really hot in the summer if it wasn't insulated properly?). It is hard to tell whether you could safely have any furniture up on the roof terrace without risking it blowing away!
I love the Bristol one (there is a lot of redevelopment going on in that area).

Our back garden is set up some stairs from our house so we hardly ever bother to go out there (much rather meet people in town or in the parks).