215 sq M house or 145 sq. M house

[SilverDoublet]

My question is this, is a bigger house better, for a family of 6? We're looking at 215sqm vs 145sqm, what we have now. Is it worth moving for that extra space? All I can think of is all the maintenance, and having to downsize when we're old...

I grew up in family of 4 in 60m2 flat. So did my mum.
Consider yourself lucky and stop moaning

I think everyone who has responded to your comment is defending the OPs post aren’t they?

We have a 250m² house and it is a lot of up keep.

We have 2 cleaners for 2 hours a week. If that's something that you can stretch to it is very worth it.

Repairs and maintenance cost more. Redecoration cost more. Everything costs more.

The other things is heating bills are bad, especially if its an older, poorly insulated property. Last January we spent £700 for energy and that was to keep it 18/19C.

So. If you are comfortable then go for it. But if money is stretched I'd think quite hard about whether you would be better in a slightly smaller home.

I would love more space too but there is a lot to consider, will more space mean:

A huge (r) mortgage meaning less money for holidays and nice things
Living out the country far away from bus stops and needing to drive everywhere
Huge garden that needs to be maintained
Huge house with loads more cleaning

You would have to weigh it all up.

It’s not insensitive for other people to have different problems to you.

She’s talking about at 145 sqm house or a 215 sqm house - not exactly looking to buy a mansion. My house is smaller than both, I feel no great offence knowing someone else has a bigger house than me.

You aren’t only allowed to post if you’re on the breadline and desperately struggling. Someone else might be living as a family of 6 in a studio flat - how dare you post showing off about your 85 sqm house for a family of 4?!?!!

Dont go on the property/DIY forum or you’ll have a heart attack.

As family of 6 op, I would go fo the bigger if it's affordable. Considering kids nowadays often stay longer at home, you may end up with household of quite a few adults and extra space is imho always better.

But yes, it does take more cleaning and downsizing later in life. I would pick a larger house in area where smaller properties are also available so once downsizing you can stay within your area. Lots of elder people stay in large houses because nothing smaller is available around and moving area at (very) old age can have negative effect on people's physical and mh. People lose connections, servoces they are used to etc.
Kind of future proofing options if that makes sense.

I’ve just checked the size of mine off the back of this thread. 106m square.

We still have 3 double bedrooms, one single, utility room, sitting room, family bathroom, downstairs loo, biggish open plan kitchen/dining room leading into to a smaller second sitting room.

5 of us, me and dh, 23 year old ds (who has the downstairs bedroom converted from a garage, so has his own space with sofa in), 11 year old and 5 year old with their own rooms - albeit, the 5 year olds room is a box room, but the second sitting room is more of a playroom set up at the moment, so it doesn’t matter.

We never feel cramped in this house and all have enough space, we have some pretty great parties in this house too. It’s a great size for us.

We wouldn’t need double this size. We did look at moving a while ago, and most bigger houses, it was all more space as in en suites to 3 of the bedrooms, while nice to have, not essential and a double fourth bedroom. I like our house as we have two sitting rooms.

We also looked at moving to a better area, but the house would have been a lot smaller (Victorian terraces with 3 beds, the younger two would have had to share), but we decided to stay put here, cheap mortgage.

That said, if you want a bigger house, then go for it.
Life is short. I wouldn’t be thinking value future downsizing, tomorrow isn’t guaranteed anyway, you have no idea what will happen.

@Nofireplace That is an excellent point and one I had never considered.

TBH I’d love to have 85m2.

This can’t be for real?!

Are you saying people cannot post questions on a public forum in case someone in a worse off situation is upset by it?
This is not a group of people in a room chatting with one person asking about buying a £1m house when another has just explained how they use the food bank to get by. Yes, that would be insensitive but OP’s post is not at all.

Thanks. I read about it years ago when there was some very, ehm, lively, discussion about "should old people have big houses".
Quite a lots of studies spanning decades.

I always say that new build areas should have everything from 1 beds and bungalows to large houses in the estate so people can downsize when needed and stay in area. Imho it should be absolutely basic requirement when applying for planning applications. We now know better yet still don't build to support later life.

How dare you come in here saying your perfectly average UK sized house isn't enough when some people are homeless. You're so insensitive and unaware, you realise some people would just like a stable house to call their own right?!

Depends on your family needs and the layout of the house.

I would be happy with less rooms, but I’d definitely like the rooms to be bigger (I have stupidly small bedrooms that if you have a double bed in them can barely walk around it)

Also, don’t assume that you’ll need a smaller house once the kids grow up - ours visit regularly with partners now for weekends and the house feels too small.

You would fit in both so it depends on the design. Some bigger houses are smaller than smaller ones. 215m2 is a big house but not too big for family of 6. And there is no more need to downsize from there compared to 145m2 unless you want to. And again, depends on the design.

Okay then - here's an opinion from someone who doesn't live in a "huge house".

OP's post isn't tone deaf in the slightest. If she was slating people who live in tiny houses? Sure. But I live in a 3 bedroom (one of the bedrooms being a box room, which currently has a leaky ceiling!) house with a small, zero-grass garden (a yard?). We rent, because we can't afford to buy. We have a bigger living room than in our last house, but our kitchen is tiny too.

OP's post wasn't tone deaf at all. I get that you're in a hard situation, but slating someone who is also in a hard situation - in THEIR eyes - doesn't help anyone, does it?

Ridiculous. On this basis, no ops about cars as some people can't afford one or can't drive. No ops about holidays, air fryers, private schools, fashion. No baby name threads as some women can't have children etc etc.

Whatever you do, don’t venture onto Style and Beauty 😂

Thank you for this.
I have reported the OP and have cited the reasons as you've said.

Wincie here is now obviously just trolling us here😁

I'm sorry to upset you. We lived in a 60sqm flat previously as a family of 4. We gave up that excellent location to move to a house of 145sqm further from public transport and from everything and in a flood plain, with a small north facing garden. We then became a family of 6. If you want a bigger house you may be able to do something similar, you just may have to give up some things you take for granted now.

Get whichever house house is in the better area