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.

That’s part of the reason we bought a big house. We want DS to know he’s always got somewhere to come back to. All of DH’s siblings moved abroad but always had their parents house to bring their families at Christmas and on holidays.
We wanted to make sure that was always an option for DS.

I never had that.

Late DH and I moved into a 5 bedroom house. Now he's died I'm here alone. We had one spare room, an office each, the room we slept in plus the smallest used for storage instead of the loft. Is that OK with you?

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

If you mean families are "struggling" to afford suitable homes, then this couple choosing to buy a smaller home wouldn't change that, would it? Because those families can either afford to buy a 5 bed house or they can't. Surely one of the considerations when you're deciding how many children you're going to have needs to be whether you can afford to house them.

If you mean there's a shortage of 5 bed homes in your area then I appreciate that's tricky for big families, but presumably those families were also free to make an offer on this house just like the couple did. Are you seriously suggesting that people with no children shouldn't be allowed to buy a property with spare bedrooms? Or that sellers should be forced to accept an offer from families with children rather than single people or couples? Because that would be mad.

What is worse than this are houses being used for weekend and other holiday lets and long term second homes.

I can understand the objection to second homes, and to Airbnbs etc. I didn't realise anyone would object to people having spare bedrooms. I guess the jury is still out on whether people having kitchen extensions and gardens is selfish.

I'm all for building more affordable houses and council housing. I don't think the lack of 4-5 bed houses is the issue.

Your update that they are late 20's makes you sound even more ridiculous OP.
Lets face it. You're just jealous.

A retired couple moved into our close to the 5 bed "footballers wives" detached home at the end with a large garden. I turns out they were snobby, pretentious pricks. They didn't get on with the rest of us in the close and left after 1 year.

Me and my husband live in a 7 bedroom house, our 2 kids have left home and we're still here!

They may have triplets in 9 months. Will you approve then?

Polo lounges are very gauche. It's why I only have a Billiards Room.

@Mrspatmoresapprentice It doesn’t really destroy an argument about young people and affordability. It’s clear the difference between earnings and mortgage needed for an equivalent house of 40 years ago is now a bigger multiple. Wages have not kept pace with house prices and that’s a fact.

However - some young people earn well! A few years ago, my DD (26 at the time) bought a flat in London. 50 miles north of where we live, that cost the equivalent of a 5 bed house. Two earners (a couple) on good London salaries can easily afford 5 beds out of London. However they need to be good earners!

One baby is neither use nor ornament. They'll need to have triplets next to meet the OPs quota for being allowed to live there otherwise they will just be selfish space hoggers.

My partner and I live in a 4 bed with no kids. Our bedroom, an office each, a spare room. Given it had been sitting on the market for a long time, ended up selling at auction and needed a lot doing / spending to make it decent, I don’t think we deprived any local families of the opportunity to own it……
And as others have said, if they are late twenties then this may well be their family house. People don’t move as much as they used to, due to buying later and prohibitive stamp duty costs.

This is such a weird post. You are making it sound like a big family would have been given this house otherwise. There are many, many houses that can be bought of all sizes if you can afford it. There’s not a shortage of houses to buy. We have a 5 bedroom house for 4 of us, one bedroom is my dressing room and one bedroom is used as an office. I don’t feel bad that a larger family didn’t buy it, why would I.

Everyone will sneer at you for asking this question. We live in a society where resources are not shared according to need. We don’t have enough houses in this country. Of course it’s wrong that tens of thousands of homeless families are crammed into hotel rooms while this couple has a 5 bed house to rattle around in. As other people say you don’t know their circumstances.

This is really weird. Assuming they've bought it and it's not social housing it wouldn't even occur to me to notice. Me and DH bought a 4 bedroom detached when in our early 30s and just us but we've now had 2 kids so it's pretty much full (fourth bedroom is an office). We bought the bigger house because we knew we wanted kids and once we did our financial circumstances would probably change. I'm assuming they're doing the same.

Lovely- it’s great to see a young couple doing well for themselves and rightfully enjoying their success. You sound sad and bitter OP

Homelessness and lack of social housing is a massive issue, I agree. But, what is your solution? People who can afford a 5 bed simply….gift it to those who can’t? Because they have greater “need”?
That isn’t going to happen. We do need an enormous program of social housing building in the UK because temporary accommodation is utterly dire, particularly if you have children.

Are you suggesting people should be giving their big houses to homeless families? The fact this couple can afford a 5 bed room house isn’t the reason there are homeless people.

oh the horror!

Presumably you give away your money to those in need. And have donated away everything that isn't an essential.

same here except mine has only 4 bedrooms not 5. The area suits me and I have got a room to overwinter my tortoise in if needed plus a craft room. String me up now.

I think you might have house envy. A young couple moving into a house suitable for their family to grow makes much more sense then moving when they need more room. Some people work from home and need an office. Some people are planning on having relatives stay, hiring an aupair etc. When you have children having a few different living areas means you can insist children do their electronics in more public spaces then in their bedrooms. We have our son doing playstation in a games room and when he was young it was a god send as I would keep an ear out for inappropriate situations like he had strangers asking to play with him and talk him through how to handle these scenarios.

You seem to be arguing for dictating wether people can buy a house of a particular size ,which seems unreasonable given that you cant know their personal reasons for buying a particular house (and there could be many reasons affecting their personal decision to do so)
Personally i think it unreasonable for you to decide they should buy a house that you believe is too spacious for them .
I imagine you support the Labour parties new idea that if this young couple decide to go travelling for 6 months their 5 bedroom house could be stolen and given to a large family?

Presumably you distribute everything you have that you don't strictly need then? Can you tell me where you have decided the line is? Are people allowed one spare room? Are they allowed a second pair of shoes? A spare umbrella? An extra coffee mug in case the first one breaks?