Has anyone gone for the smaller, more affordable house and not regretted it?

[Housechoice]

As above really! It’s the debate I find myself having with DH. We’ve 2 very young DC (no plans for more) and are weighing up the pro’s and con’s of a reasonable house for say £350,000 with some compromises versus a bigger ‘ideal’ house for say £450,000 which ticks every box. Location wise both would be similar area so no compromises there.

The Mortgage saving would be big by not taking out an extra £100,000, so less financial stress/worry.

I’m looking for any insights on those who found themselves making a similar decision and whether there’s any regrets either way?

How much extra is the bigger house going to cost in mortgage repayments? Would council tax be higher too? What about other bills. I would make an example
budget on the bigger house and see what you’re left with. I appreciate you will likely get pay rises in the future, but it’s best to not rely on them. Could you manage if one of you lost your job?

Moving house is a massive PITA, and costs £££ once taxes, moving costs and work needed on a new place is taken into account. Personally I'm glad we bought a slightly bigger house than we absolutely needed, otherwise we'd likely have had to move again when we had a second child.

The answer for you depends on how big the difference is between the houses. Will you be content with the smaller house indefinitely, or will you end up moving eventually anyway? If so, I'd go for the bigger place as long as it isn't too much of a stretch and your incomes are secure.

We went for the small house and whilst I am very glad with the lack of financial worry it’s not an area I love living in.
I guess it’s a trade-off really.

Ive lived in huge fancy pants houses, and tiny little houses and everything in between. Hands down I think small is better. Less to clean, more quirky and charming, and closer to all the people I love. The worst house we ever had was a big fuck off mcmansion, with a million rooms, 2 pools, 2 gardens - and we never saw our kids - we were all in our separate rooms all the time. We lasted 6 months in that house, and learnt our lesson. Less is more in my book.

And thats without the financial benefits. But I love to travel, and have adventures, so I love to have a gorgeous, small but modest/quirky home that I adore coming home to - so I like comfort. But I want to really be able to live to.

My kids are adults now and flown the coop but we all learnt this lesson when they were young.

Yes we did. Both had secure jobs but we borrowed much less than we could in order to feel secure should something happen. Then interest rates rose a lot and we both got made redundant in the same year and only one of us has managed to get a new job at the same level. Sometimes I am a bit sad that the house is a bit too small but mostly I am really relieved that we didn’t borrow more and are secure.

We bought a house towards the top end of our affordability nearly two years ago. (South East city, high cost of living.) At the time, I wanted the garage and bigger garden.
Two years on, the house, untouched for 40 years, still has holey carpets, an overgrown garden and a 1980s bathroom and kitchen. We got stuck in the planning system. My kids have enjoyed the garden but are probably approaching the age where they'd go to the park with their mates now. And it's further to walk to the secondary school. I still like the house, but I work, and am tired, and the project is a wearing thought. I kind of wish we'd stayed where we were. Looking to the future, I would stay well within your affordability for now.

Is it a good time to buy in the area you are considering? If so, all other things being equal - schools, garden, station, price per sf - I’d be tempted by the bigger option. You will save a chunk of stamp duty as you won’t be doing a second move, for starters.

Perhaps wait till the UK Budget (28/10) before deciding…

I went bigger and regret it hugely. Am now counting down to my youngest DC leaving for uni as I plan to downsize as soon as she goes. I’m early 50s and keen to reduce outgoings so I can retire at 60 which isn’t possible with my current size mortgage.

@Housechoice where is your head at?

This is a really interesting thread, lots of people who back their decision of going for the smaller/bigger house and then others who regret it.

I think this is more about people's attitude to risk more than anything else

I’ve only just had the chance to catch up and still haven’t read all replies yet but it has been very helpful.

Where is my head at? Very much torn 😂I need to give it some more thought this weekend.

This nails it really, stretching when you’re younger without responsibilities is possibly the easiest time to do it. When you’re older and with responsibilities of children and the costs associated with that, it makes it much harder. If I purchased in my early to mid 20’s with the equity that we could have then built to buy the bigger house then it would be such an easy decision to make. However we purchased in our 30’s had children and in our 40’s now.
. No help either when purchasing or inheritance now or in the future likely. The thought of working as hard as I am in my 50’s is not something I would like to do. Therefore with the equity that we have, not looking at upsizing but rather getting rid of the mortgage altogether including squashing consumer debt. This is so that we have options in our 50’s whether or not to slow down. I would rather have the options including investing at this time. I also noticed that every 10 years, it may be likely that things are needing to be replaced and house maintenance. As a result, I would like to do so without worrying.

We didn't stretch ourselves as much as we could have when we first bought and to an extent I wish we had but we always assumed we would have more money down the line and be able to move.

Our house is not tiny but it's a bit small and only has one reception room which also houses the dining table.

We have had the discussion about stretching currently and moving but it's too risky. I don't want to cut back on the things we spend our money on at the minute just to pay for a bigger house and even if I did, there will be nothing left to cut back on if things went south with interest rates.

Although if we had paid a bit more back in 2014 there is always the potential we would be paying a similar amount to what we are now if we had had the opportunity to overpay.

The kids are soon going to be teenagers and the extra space would be really helpful especially if they are staying at home well into their 20s. We might be able to take the plunge in 5 years or so but then that raises the question of are we stuck here forever now. Do we want to move in 5 years and then again later on in life because we don't need to stay in the area.

We stayed smaller whilst our colleagues and peers did a final leap, and we never regretted it. We had extra money as we got older for pensions, holidays, home improvements, when the economy freaks out, we don't have to worry as others do. We consider it one of our best decisions.

We did this.
had our name down for the expensive house but opted for the cheaper house in the end. Don’t regret it - have had lots more disposable income, some fab holidays, less worry and able to overpay the mortgage when possible.

We looked at house 25 years ago but decided it was too much of a stretch or actually, we were too timid to buy it.We should have bought it and renovated it. Our careers were fine, our pensions were fine, but we second guessed ourselves with 'what if'....and fortunately the 'what if' never happened.
We moved five years ago and renovated this one instead, but had we moved 25 years ago we wouldn't have needed to move again. We do love this house but we still think about the one that got away!!

We went for the smaller option a few years ago as weren't sure about the next few years. Only stayed there for a few years before stretching but it was definitely the right thing to do as it meant we had more options at a time when we needed them.

We overstretched 11 years ago now when our kids were 3 and 8 years old. It was a struggle for the first 7 years but now the kids are 13 and 18 I’m so glad we did as our salaries have increased and we’re only 8 years off paying off our mortgage due to making significant overpayments when we could

We’re in a much smaller house than we could afford. We’ve prioritised holidays and investing. Both 50 now, mortgage free and looking to stop the corporate jobs in a few years to travel. Many of our similar aged friends still have huge mortgages so I haven’t regretted it although I do sometimes get house envy when I visit their houses. Our house is fine and I’m sure the “kids” will move out one day (maybe!)

We did. It’s seen us through redundancies, maternity leaves, pay freezes, interest rate rises… and rises… and the cost of living going up and up and up. We’ve never had to worry about if the next 0.5% interest rate rise will make the house unaffordable. Mortgage paid off in 19 years, surplus cash being soaked up by teens and pension funds. The financial freedom is wonderful.