To buy sensible house, not dream house?

[Breadcakes]

Looking to buy our first home and can't get my head around what's realistic/normal mortgage-wise. All the houses that would be ideal for us seem to be around £600-650k.

We have a £150k deposit. We could borrow a max of £480k and just about afford the monthly repayments. But that seems a ludicrously big mortgage?

Our options locally seem to be:

1. Buy a small 2 bedroom house for around £450k that's not much bigger than the flat we're living in now, but has outdoor space which I'm desperate for, and an easily affordable mortgage. Keep saving for a few years and hope to afford bigger/forever/dream home eventually.

2. Buy a bigger, 3 bedroom £600k+ home with more living space that fits our needs. A long-term home, potentially a family home. Max our borrowing and get what we need now. Drawback is higher monthly payments and less money to save.

A problem as old as time, but any advice welcome!

If you think your salaries will go up in the next few years and you can just afford it now I would buy the biggest you can afford. Moving is money down the drain, we stretched for what we have, but haven't had to move and it's now very comfortable. If, however, you think your salaries are near their limit and the chances of kids appearing in the next few years are low, then I'd be more inclined not to stretch yourself.

I wouldn't buy the cheaper one with a view to moving again. You'll never be happy in it. I'd only go for the two bed if it was to guarantee still affording a certain lifestyle. You've got to see the positives in were you live, not hopefully being able to move. Could you afford children and the second house?

We made a decent chunk of money selling our first house and relocated to the country where we could have used that chunk as a depsit and got a far bigger house. But it would have meant a big commitment, mortgage-wise. In the end we went sensible, and I did feel a bit wistful initially, but as the years have gone by I'm so glad we went for that option. It's meant more flexibility in so many ways, and now with the cost of everything being what it is, I'm doubly relieved.

Thanks, yeah I'm worried about more steep price hikes mainly. We have a few hobbies eg. gym, tennis club, cycling, that we'd each like to be able to afford to continue with.

I can't see me or DP's salaries increasing significantly at all in the future. We both have public sector careers and may get small yearly raises in line with inflation. We're undecided about kids at the moment, but would like to keep that door open.

Could you extend the house if you decided to have children? We built an extra bedroom and our neighbours did a loft conversion on their similar house.

I went for the "affordable" option rather than dream home. Thank god I did, because 5 years later the interest rates skyrocketed, I had to change jobs due to redundancy, and then DP announced one day out of the blue that he was leaving me for another woman.

Luckily I was able to buy him out and keep the house, and I was very thankful I hadn't let my ex partner talk me into buying at the top of our budget.

I'd go affordable and be able to maintain social interests. Potentially looking at houses with an opportunity to expand if children do become something you want. I would hate to have a house and never be able to set foot out of it as I couldn't afford to!

I went for the sensible and I somewhat regret it. A few years later we can easily afford the repayments. And while it's nice to have extra money, we don't really need it and aren't really using it for anything important. Prices have gone up so the dream house seems like it was a bargain back then. We would have a lot more wealth as a family if we owned the other place.

If you are a young couple go for the bigger house

Don’t overstretch yourself for a mortgage! Buy a house you can comfortably afford.

Whatever you do, don't overextend yourself. Get the biggest house buy only if you can still afford it if interstate rates go up, someone is out of work for a few months etc. It's not worth the stress

I’d buy the biggest and best house you can get now. Moving is so costly and such a bloody faff, I’d hate to move knowing by I’d need to move again soon. I’ve got a huge mortgage, that went up loads. But I’ve also got a gorgeous house , big enough for everyone, near to school and work etc. so it’s totally worth it.

Can you buy a cheaper house with the potential to extend it into something bigger? We bought a cheap two bedroom end terrace with a garden and got a two storey extension which has given us three double bedrooms and a generous kitchen/diner which is something we could absolutely not have afforded in our area without having done it ourselves.

We had a similar deposit and got a 465k mortgage for our dream house, 6 bedrooms, a long tree lined drive hiding it from the road and massive gardens. We've only just bought and I'm still in awe that it's ours. We had previously bought a small house for 145k and lived there for 7 years but it became far too small once we had children, I don't regret starting with the smaller house because it gave us loads of financial freedom to travel and socialise when we were younger and even if we decided to go big and max out our budget we never could have afforded anything like our current house back then.

Holy moly though, 600k+ for a 3 bed would be hard to swallow. I guess you're in a very expensive area.

I will go for the bigger one. It cost a lot to move house. Don't see it as your forever home. You might move up again.

We went for the dream house, it was a stretch, but so worth it, we lived there for 18years, and downsized a couple of years ago. Moving is very costly and stressful, avoid moving if you can. we don’t have any regrets.

A cheaper house with scope to extend outwards and or into the loft is probably what I would go for.

I'd buy the bigger one. We did and don't regret it, 15 years later.

Mid way through a successful high-flying job I hit depression and moved back to my hometown to be nearer friends and family. I took an £13k pay cut and I chose happiness over status and wealth.

I bought a 2 bed terraced. My parents were horrified I was living in such a lowly house and offered me a cash gift/bribe to buy a house on a well respected estate in town instead. I turned it down, and explained I could actually have afforded a 4 bed detached on their even more prestigious new build estate.

I'm very happy in wonky old terraced. Its cute, its cosy, my heating bills are still only about £70 a month, and I've managed to significantly over pay my mortgage. I now have more in savings than I'd need to pay it off. I've cut my hours to 4 days at week and I'm looking at maybe cut to 3 days. I still earn less than national average.

IMO why on earth would you spend money that you can choose to do other lovely things with, to buy a house that you don't actually need?? Just because it's society's idea of "ideal". Nope. Ideal to me is being able to enjoy the whole of my life, not just the retirement bit. Live is for living, don't waste it working and paying bills if you don't need to.

Dont buy with a view to moving "soon" if you dont have to. Moving costs, time etc is costly. HOWEVER being overextended is a nightmare - if you wanted children, could you afford the mortgage in the bigger house? Which hobbies would you have to drop? Could you tighten your spending up without too much misery? What about unexpected bills, illness, etc?

💯
Small house, big life.
I made a similar choice, despite having the sort of job that you'd associate with a far fancier house. No regrets.

A mortgage that size is perfectly normal for people buying houses in that sort of price range and above. If you're not overly stretching yourself, and are happy doing whatever you need to do to pay the bills for the foreseeable, then go for the bigger house. Moving is expensive and circumstances change - it's easily possible that something happens that gets in the way of you doing that move further down the line and then you will be stuck where you are.

I definitely wouldn’t over stretch yourselves. Are you hoping to have children in the future ? If so, you need to factor in maternity leaves, childcare costs, extra person in the house costs, etc.

Is there no in-between houses - a three bed maybe ?

If buying the bigger house means an end to your hobbies. Etc, do not do it.

We bought our house based on one income but it was 23 years ago. We're still in the same house (mortgage paid off) with no plans to move until retirement.

I'd go for a cheaper house that you could extend. That way you'll be able to enjoy your life and have some more security if something happens to one of your jobs. Also if you do decide to have children, could you afford the bigger house on one wage while on maternity leave?

I'd go for the bigger home. Sod paying more in stamp duty when you move a second time!

Is an extension available for the cheaper house?