AIBU to think a couple moving into in a five bedroom house is selfish?

[activedough]

AIBU here??

I’ve noticed that a couple have recently moved into a 5 bed detached property in my area. They don’t have any children…

I honestly don’t understand it. Why on earth would two people need five bedrooms?! Surely a house that size should be going to a family who actually needs the space?

It just seems incredibly selfish to me when there are families struggling to find suitable homes.

If i could afford to buy a house with more rooms than I needed I would

What was the name of the guy with a pair binoculars looking out his window on the 90s sketch show who was a nosey neighbour? Someone here must remember the sketch and the man's name?

For several years just my husband and I lived in a five bedroom house… then our IVF eventually worked and now we live here with our two children. As long as they can afford it and aren’t anti-social neighbours it’s nobody else’s business.

But you cannot seem to grasp that you have apparently decided your “needs” are superior, both morally and in necessity, to anyone else. You are wrong.

All the things suggested already, home offices, hobby rooms, dressing rooms but also it might have been the only way to get decent sized downstairs space and garden. If they can afford to buy it and pay the council tax then I don’t have a problem.

You do. You do ‘have anything beyond your needs’.

By your own definition you are selfish and wasteful.

And you are definitely wasteful by planning to move out into a three bedroom house when your child moves out and then move again when the next one moves out. That’s very wasteful-but not selfish so that’s good.

More communist drivel.

Erm… maybe they plan to have a family? We bought a 5 bed as a couple. We now have 1 LO and hope to have at least 2 more

I also live alone in a 3 bedroom house, i suppose im being selfish not staying in a bedsit or lodging?

Absolutely. Lots of couples don't start a family until they're in their 30s. Two people who work from home might want two separate offices.

We are in a 4 bed, 3 bath ... Just the two of us. If we could have afforded the 5 bed (only 3 properties with 2 people in each house) we would have! Did you want to buy the 5 bed?

So it was not selfish when we had 4 kids in it, two fostered, and PT elderly relatives. But now all four are at uni as of last month and the in-laws are too frail to travel so are receiving permanent care in their own home, we’re supposed to simply hand over our property to one of the families you deem more deserving? Who are they?

And how are they going to find the money to buy the home we spent 21 years building - working for 35 years and never receiving a penny in state funding/benefits (the fostering was a private, unpaid arrangement to support two local boys when parents split up)? Not sure how many such families would also have the need for a 7 bed home, or the money to buy it, or the income to raise the mortgage or cover monthly utility costs. But yeah, we’re being selfish.

Funny how single people in 3-4 bed social housing, whose dependents have also left home aren’t required to up-sticks. No. It’s just those of us who have worked, saved, who’ve also managed life’s ups and downs and the needs of our SEN kids and our elderly alone.

Good for them, they must be doing really well for themselves. I like to hear of young people doing well. I couldn’t afford a house that size and I am in my 50s.

Maybe they are planning to have a family and/or have relatives who might come and stay and/or need a home office each?

It's Friday night 🙄

im single, if I had five bedrooms I know exactly what I’d do with them:

one bedroom, obviously. The biggest room.

second would be a walk in changing room, with huge custom wardrobes across all walls and wall to wall mirrors.

id have a reading room, where I had huge bookshelves and a cosy reading nook

id make one into a home office

and have one as a lovely guest room

My parents have a 9 bedroom house. All big double bedrooms. There's only them living in it now.
They host epic parties though

Rather people have one decent home than multiple BTLs/second homes //air b n bs

Maybe OP should set a camera up in their bedroom, so if they are planning kids she can check they’re shagging properly

Such a strange thing to get worked up about but even weirder when the couple in question are in their late 20s and quite likely to be planning to have children in the future.

We bought a large family home before we had children. We wanted to capitalise on having two full time incomes to pay down the mortgage for a few years before maternity pay/part time working/nursery fees were factors. Plus the fact that house prices seem to increase faster than inflation/salaries etc, it makes sense to buy your "forever home" as early as possible. Privileged, yes; but also a financially sensible decision.

Even if this couple don't want kids, they're entitled to spend their money how they want and buy the home they want; it's no one else's business.

Do I agree that society would be much better if house buying/selling was cheaper and easier and there was less money to be made from homes, such that people just lived in the size of home that met their needs at that point in time? Yes I do. But that isn't how our society is set up, and therefore it's ridiculous to expect individuals to penalise themselves for the theoretical benefit of others.

The OP just passed out from the shock! 😆

I have 3 really close friends all of us have 4 or 5 bedroom detached houses. All bought them in our late 20s. 3/4 didn’t have any kids when they bought the house.

I thought it was incredible that we all managed to work so hard to buy such large properties without any financial help from our parents and didn’t have to move when we started families.
But apparently selfish??

Wait till they find out how many spare bedrooms King Charles has ...

I get what you're saying when there are families needing the extra rooms and I think the market is tight at the minute. Equally if those families can afford it, they would also be given the same chance to go for it.
I could quite easily fill 10 rooms if I had the money 😂

My partners just bought a 5 bed house, 2 lounges. It's a massive reaction of is living in a tiny tiny house for years. Why? Because of the garden. It's nearly an acre, with ponds and a cabin. Prob with smaller houses is they don't often come with a decent garden.

There's 2 of us.

Sounds amazing - and as though you need a couple of dogs!