To buy this flat?

[allthegoodusersaretaken]

As a bit of background, my partner and I are living with his mum currently, I’ve recently found out I’m expecting our first child. Obviously we’d prefer to have our own space before baby is born, and in all honesty our room at MIL’s house would never fit a cot in nevermind anything else. DP and I would prefer not to rent as we are fortunate enough to be able to afford a deposit. The problem we have is, neither of us are high earners so we won’t be able to get a huge mortgage. Having had a look at what’s available, the only properties we can afford are flats, houses needing renovations, and houses with tenants in situ. Tenants in situ is an absolute no go for obvious reasons. One flat in particular we viewed last week and it’s lovely, ready to move in on completion, quiet area, large shared garden with 1 other flat, I have a friend with 2 DC who lives on the street so I know from her that it’s a lovely place to live. I mentioned making an offer to my mum and she said we should never buy a flat as we’ll end up selling at a loss and we’d essentially still be renting. As a first time buyer DP and I are really lost tbh - we loved the flat and really want to make an offer, also don’t really want to take in renovations while pregnant, but thinking maybe my mum has a point? If it were you, would you go for it or wait for a house to come up (obviously with no guarantee that anything will)?
YABU - your mums right, don’t buy the flat
YANBU - put an offer in

What's the leasehold? Can you move on straight away?

Only problem with flats is if you have to pay service charges which can end up ridiculous.

The leasehold is 125 years, current owners renewed it last year ready to sell - we’re not looking at this as a forever home so not overly worried as from what I can tell anything over 80 years is fine for selling? (although I could be wrong here). Ground rent and service charge is £298 pa which seems reasonable, it’s also ex council if that changes anything? My parents bought their house in the 90s and MIL rents so neither of them really understand the current housing market hence why I’ve turned to MN!

Why do they think you’ll make a loss?

The only problem with ex council is if their planning any major works ,new roof etc because the councils do not have much cash and are passing ridiculous expenses onto leaseholders

Make an offer.

Yeah op, I hate to be negative, as this sounds nice but id be careful

Lots of people who buy leaseholds from the council end up paying crazy service charges

Plus, there's a lot of drama with leaseholds at the minute, they're quite problematic

Would you not look at the doer uppers?

A freehold or share of freehold seem to be what everyone is looking for these days x

How far off a house are you? Its not so much the making a loss as the high cost of moving that would trouble me.

If the only houses you can afford need total renovation (and you don't have the budget for this) then a flat makes sense.

But if you can get a house that needs cosmetic updating that can be done over time, I'd go house every time.

People's versions of 'needs work' can miles apart. Living with a very dated kitchen versus needs a new roof are not the same.

Is the flat in a block of flats or as part of a converted house.

could / would you consider buying a shared ownership house ?

Well, you can’t stay at your MIL‘s, but I would avoid an ex council flat because of the possible huge repairs bills that will be shared across the estate. Don’t be scared of a house that needs renovation we’ve done a few and quite often once you’ve got the crap out that is putting other people off from offering you just need a new kitchen a new bathroom and repainting. All doable in the time that you’ve got good luck.

I'd go for a house needing work over a finished flat any day of the week.

Some flats very near to me are being asked for 6k per flat due to a wall falling over behind the building. Guess what, they are not selling very well as this is a long ongoing saga. Not saying all flats are the same, but I've seen some horror stories with flats over the years.

If you're serious about moving, get out and speak to local estate agents, give them your budget, etc and ask to be considered for anything new coming to the market. speak to friends and family you never know who may or may not know of a house coming up for sale.

Sounds perfectly fine to me. I’d go for it! xx

I have this question as I can only afford (and mainly interested in) flats. I don’t think it’s true they only make a loss.

Doer uppers don’t always need doing up straight away. We bought a doer upper and got a lot of questions about what we were going to do to it when we first bought it. The answer was nothing as we’d put all our money into the purchase and it had been being lived in right up to that point by a couple in their eighties. We just lived with the faded wallpaper and tatty carpet for about eight years before we were ready to completely gut it and build an extension. You don’t have to have everything perfectly decorated to live in a house. If take space and a home that will last your for longer over one that doesn’t “need” any work.

If you can afford a house that is structurally sound and just needs some updating I would go for that every time over a flat (unless in a major city)! When you have a toddler you will be so pleased of a private garden. No dragging a paddling pool out to a communal garden and Nora the nosy neighbour complaining that you left it out for 10mins. Plus it’s so nice to not be on tenterhooks every time your child drops a toy and the downstairs neighbour bangs on the ceiling or complains about noise. Also no risk of noisy upstairs neighbours yourself keeping the baby away or smoking neighbours and the risk it seeps into your flat.

Saves you legal fees and stamp duty to move once, rather than twice once you’ve outgrown the flat too!

After selling a flat (in London) I would advise my kids to buy a small house over a flat if they are ever the options!

We bought an ex-council flat (London though) in 2009 and sold it for £100k more than we bought it for in 2014 - £235k to £335k. That felt pretty good given the first few years were when the property market was so shit.

Your mum is wrong, it's totally normal to buy a flat as a first purchase, especially in more expensive areas. We made about £50k on an ex-council flat in London. Our service charge was always reasonable, we never had to pay for major works. It all sounds fine and like you know what you're doing.

Do not do shared ownership, it's the biggest scam going. Far better to buy a flat with full ownership.

As this thread was started in March, I imagine the OP has made her decision and even had her baby by now!

Your mum is referring to the fact that it's leasehold.

I bought a leasehold flat in 1994 for £40k.

When we came to selling it, we had to renew the lease which cost us £7k. We rented the flat out when our children were young and sold it about 10 years ago for £180k.

So no loss, there!

Just remember to find out about maintenance costs and the lease needs to be over about 100 years, I think.

Argh!