What to do about housing

[user1461609321]

Hi all

Family of 4, 2 boys, one heading to secondary school in September and second will be yr5

Currently own a large 2 bed maisonette with good size garden but wondering if we should push for a house or stay where we are and convert really large master bedroom into 2 rooms so we have a 3 bed maisonette and each child can have own room, do up the property a bit etc or choose a 2 bed house where rooms and house proportions and garden are likely to be smaller?

We are London based, and there doesn't appear to be many properties around our budget of 350,000

Current property in nice road, fairly central location and we feel fairly settled but I am torn between feeling like I 'should' be going for a house now as boys approach teen years, and then fearing we will end up in a small 2bed semi somewhere with less space and regret the move

So what would you do?

With teenagers I'd say you are better off with more space and dividing the room so they each have their own.

Stay where you are.

Stay where you are and make another room

Sorry to be blunt but a budget of £350k is not going to get you a house anywhere near 'fairly central' London. If you are happy where you are location-wise can you build a garden annex for the oldest child? Or as you say make the large bedroom into two.

Thank you, I feel that this may be the right course of action but can't shake the feeling that I always imagined that I would live in an actual house by now and not a flat, somehow feel I am letting myself down

@TabithaHazel

Sorry to be blunt but a budget of £350k is not going to get you a house anywhere near 'fairly central' London. If you are happy where you are location-wise can you build a garden annex for the oldest child? Or as you say make the large bedroom into two.

We are more in South London than central, there are a few small 2 bed semi's here with downstairs bathrooms

Fellow south Londoner!

Any house for £350 is going to be beyond grim in a horrible and possibly unsafe place.

Stay where you are!

They all are!

Was thinking of future terrible teenage years of stomping up stairs, possible rows etc and thinking this would all be too much in a maisonette rather than house, but to be fair, noise would equally travel in a terrace property

Is there any potential to extend? If you're ground floor perhaps an extension into the large garden? If you're top floor perhaps a lift conversion?

Obviously it depends on your set up.

If there's no room to extend then the option of dividing the room into 2 sounds sensible. There's lots of screening ideas online that might be easier than a solid wall.

I think if you move you could end up in a small house rather than a large masionette, which wouldn't really be suitable for your needs.

• Loft not lift.

@Lindy2

Is there any potential to extend? If you're ground floor perhaps an extension into the large garden? If you're top floor perhaps a lift conversion?

Obviously it depends on your set up.

If there's no room to extend then the option of dividing the room into 2 sounds sensible. There's lots of screening ideas online that might be easier than a solid wall.

I think if you move you could end up in a small house rather than a large masionette, which wouldn't really be suitable for your needs.

Hi Lindy2

We are top floor with a loft, so will look into extending this long term.

@MartinMartinMarti

Fellow south Londoner!

Any house for £350 is going to be beyond grim in a horrible and possibly unsafe place.

Stay where you are!

Yes definitely stay in your current home, if you want to remain in your current area. The whole of London, south or otherwise, you'd be hard pushed to find even a 2 bed at £350,000, let alone 3. Many areas that's the price of a 1 bed. Sadly the housing market is wildly out of control.

I don't think there's much if any noise difference between a maisonette and a terrace or semi detached tbh. I think neighbours have to accept normal family noise when living in a big city. (Obviously that doesn't excuse ASBO behaviour).

We used to live in a maisonette that's had a master bedroom converted into two smaller rooms (done long before we moved in). It worked well for us.

It's really good to hear other peoples experiences!

Stay and convert the master bedroom into two bedrooms. Soon your DC will have outgrown the play in the garden stage so I can’t see what you’d gain by moving to a house.