Sorry, posting here for traffic.
Obviously this is hypothetical at the moment as no one can buy/sell but I was looking for some advice re houses. We currently live in a 4 bed end terrace in a Northern town. It’s a nice house with period features and good size bedrooms with features. The upstairs is large and downstairs has a smallish Victorian sitting room with a nice bay window/traditional fireplace and a good size dining kitchen. The staircase is central with a narrow hallway as we have an access passage to the back on our land, shared with next door (they come through our front garden to get to it). We have a decent size garden for a house of this kind with large patio, small lawn, space for a shed etc. There is also a small front garden.
I bought the house as a fixer upper 9 years ago for £100k before I met my husband and have spent around 40k on it with new bathrooms, new kitchen, new windows, restoring fireplace etc. It’s still not fully finished as the large attic room needs velux windows and redecorating and there are a quite a few other jobs that need sorting but I love the house.
We are now a family of 3 with a 14 month old. We would like another child in the next couple of years. While there is loads of space upstairs, we are fast outgrowing the downstairs, it was perfect for 2 but not so great for more. We could put an extension on the back to have a larger kitchen/dining living space but depending on how much this would cost, or if we would get planning permission, it would probably take the cost of renovations above the ceiling price of the street which is around £160-£170k for houses of this kind. It would also make the garden much smaller. Parking is a nightmare as it’s all on street and it’s not somewhere children could play out due to the busy roads. We also have some damp issues downstairs and around the chimney in the bedroom which will cost a fair amount to sort. The energy bills are very high too.
My husband is about to inherit some money and is keen to buy a new build locally to us. There are only a few houses left on a local new development, it’s nice, wide roads, decent parking and close to a huge park and brand new leisure centre. The house is just above £300k. I have never wanted a new build as I love period properties which is why I bought this one but it is a nice house with a south west facing garden. There is a green space adjacent and the people seem really friendly. There is a garage and parking for 2 cars. The builder also does part exchange at full market value.
Emotionally I am attached to this house but practically I can see the benefits of the new one. I’d love my DD to learn to ride a bike in the street and feel she can play out safely etc.
We have been looking at houses for a while. The detached period ones I like in the area tend to go between £300 and £450k depending on condition with the cheaper needing lots of work done.I’m not too keen on this as I know how much of a money pit they can be and right now we may not have the funds to throw at it. There are also not many around and detached ones are few and far between. I don’t want to buy a house built in the 60s/70s as I’m not too keen to be honest. We do want to stay in the area for now due to elderly/ill family.
I suppose this is a what would you do or do you have any experience going from old to new? Would you wait? We may miss out on these particular new ones as the inheritance is not through yet and depends on a house sale.