To move home and take on a much bigger mortgage?

[NameChanger2031]

myself, DH, DS1 (age 9), DS2 (age 7).
MlL and FIL live abroad but visit regularly, as well as lots of other relatives from other parts of UK. We need a guest bedroom.

We live in a 3 bed (plus a tiny office) - DC share. No dining room so only 2 rooms downstairs.
We would like a 4 bed so each DC can have their own room, we would also like some extra living space downstairs.

to move to somewhere we like still within our target secondary school catchment we would need to double our mortgage payments, and it would only just be affordable. So we will be able to manage okay but paying a high mortgage until we retire, won’t really be able to save.
right now, we have plenty of disposable income, and things are not tight at all. If one of us lost our job, we could (just about) manage on a single income.
AIBU to think about giving up a lot of financial safety buffer so kids get their own bedroom?

This is very helpful and something we can do if we stay put, thank you!

Could one of your children not move into the tiny office.

I had a miniscule box room growing up and loved it. It was small but it was my own.

The not being able to save part would make it a no from me. What would happen when the boiler breaks/car dies/you need a new roof? Unless you have a very healthy amount in emergency funds that you wouldn't touch when you move then I'd stay put.

I know the pain, we're a family of 4 squashed into a 3 bed flat and to get a 3 bed house in our area would be more than tripling our current mortgage which we just couldn't afford. Neither me or DH are ever likely to get a much higher income unless we retrain which we can't afford to do.

They stay for months, e.g. they will come for the whole summer.

Give kids their own rooms now and only share when guests visit.

I would get rid of the guest room ang give the children a room each.

Congratulations!

I'd go for it. Things will be tight initially but it will become easier. Whenever I've moved I've always gone for the best that I could afford and it's worked out in the longer term. Nothing worth having is ever easy IMHO

the guests are family (our parents) and we need to prioritise them too as well as DC.

But if prioritising your parents mean doubling your mortgage payments to when you get to retire, that's crazy.

Just read further. Do you need the office? Cabin bed in there?

Prioritise your kids first.

You have 3 bedrooms, so your kids don't HAVE to share.

Get a comfy sofabed for the living room so guests can stay over.

Then 'barely affordable' and 'not really able to save' seem extremely unwise, to be honest.

Can you look at a different secondary school?

We did it. I love the space so much it was worth the sacrifice. The children have their own room, with enough space to have friends sleepover. A creative area, space for a drum kit! To begin with things were fairly tight financially, but we have both increased our wages and now we are able to have holidays and save.
It is important to factor in the extra costs - higher council tax, heating bills, even the extra maintenance, and furniture you’ll need when you move.

For a DC? It’s just a really tiny room and it would be hugely unfair to shoehorn one of the kids into that room while the other enjoys a generous double. It’s 6’8” x 6’6”

Why on earth would you pay for guests to stay somewhere? They'll pay their own way surely

Is the biggest bedroom splittable?

Exactly! Keeping a dedicated guest room is not worth the expense. If you are worried elderly relatives won't be comfy on a sofa bed then you can give them your room for the duration.

You need to prioritise your children! They come first when looking at practical arrnagements within a house

It doesnt make any sense of children of those ages, once they get a bit older to share a bedroom when theres a bedroom just sitting there for much of the year

Do you share finances with wider family OP, like in a Asian family set up, if so and they and you feel they need space in your home, given you also say they do a lot of child care, can they share the cost of a new home?

You say you need to prioritise a bedroom for them but if you fall behind on your mortgage payments having moved, and end up homeless you wont have a bedroom for any of you, you'd be in temporary accommodation in one room

“Would only just be affordable”? No way would I move to a more expensive place in your circumstances and not in this gloomy economic time we’re in.

We mortgaged ourselves up to the eyeballs to get a bigger house. Once the initial thrill of having a bigger house wore off when the reality of paying that mortgage for 25 years hit, we moved within a few years. No savings and having to be really careful is not fun, for a year or so ok doable but not for year after year. Given the rising prices of everything COL keeps increasing. It seems that housing extended family is putting a lot of pressure on you but why is it up to you to house them for months on end? And if they don't then good there are plenty of Airbnbs. I would 100% stay put.

It would not be wise to double your mortgage. I'm not usually a doomsayer but the UK is facing a very challenging and uncertain economic future.

Bolster your savings.

You don’t NEED a guest room. You WANT one. Bare that in mind. And you want one due to feeling the need to make people outside of your nuclear family happy. Which isn’t a good reason to take on a lifetime of high debt.

I get it. I wanted a bigger house too. We also doubled our mortgage and our repayments 2.5yrs ago, but the difference is we could afford it and still save. Our household income has increased £40k since then due to career progression and we still have career progression to come. The high mortgage itself is stressful enough, let alone not actually having the income to adequately support it.

Give your sons a bedroom each, get a sofa bed, or tell them they have to het an Airbnb.

Thank you! This is our worry…the novelty will wear off after a few years.

though we will continue to be happy to house extended family, and will need to make it work in our current home if we don’t move.

This is one of our main worries, the future of the U.K. economy!

Then do what PP's are saying to do and give your kids a room each, then get a sofa bed or ask family to get an AirBNB