Property and lifestyle dilemma. What should we do?

[PropertyNewby]

Facing a property dilemma and we just cannot see a solution.

Everyone around us seem to be able to either buy their dream property or see clearly what path to follow whereas we feel a bit lost.

DP and I are going to be in the position to purchase our first property over the next year or so thanks to a small inheritance that will help us with deposit. We live in a lovely part of town near great schools and DS goes to a lovely nursery. Easy commute to work and everything we need at our doorstep. Issue is, this area is very £££ and with our budget we can only afford to buy an apartment (thanks to flat prices stagnating). If we moved further out, we could easily get a house but that would mean changing DS’s nursery and also having to apply for schools potentially outside of applications deadline, as well as having a longer (and slightly more £ commute). I am also very used to city living and having all the amenities I need at my doorstep and a type of lifestyle where a car is needed all the time scares me a bit.

Should I just bite the bullet and get the house even though it would mean we’d have to change our lifestyle massively or should we stay in the area we currently live in and get a flat?

We are mid 40s and only have 1 DS.

Flat.

And I say this as someone who moved out of London but it was the right choice for us. I'm not sure I'd feel so positive about it if we were both still 5 days a week in London. Post pandemic WFH has been a game changer.

Lots of chances to garden in London and if the RHS is writing about it it's gone totally mainstream 😃

https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-urban-show/urban-gardening/guerrilla-gardening

I lived in a zone 1 apartment in London when my kids were primary aged and we did have a small garden. As I like gardening it was quite nice to have it but the kids didn't play in there at all. We did have a great park across the street though and we spent most of our outside time there. What is so great with London parks is that they are always busy and because we lived near the kids school they almost always found people they knew in the park so there was always someone to play with.

We then moved up north and lived a much more suburban life. We had a garden there too but again, kids barely ever played in there and the downside of living in an area with mainly houses and very few flats was that the parks were very empty and boring. I don't think we ever bumped into anyone they knew and in the end they grew out of playing in the park.

I took a different path when most of my social circle were moving to the burbs and moved further in - not such a naice area but really good transport links so I knew I could be home for the nanny without cutting my hours really short and actually see my DC in the week.

TO put some locations (not mine btw) to the case as I think it helps. If you are enjoying living between the Commons as there a good schools and the chichi cafes and shops of the Northcote Road plus tubes into the City with frequent trains from Clapham Junction then maybe you're better off staying put and buying a flat rather than moving out to Walton on Thames/Kingston/Raynes Park where you're stuck with far fewer trains that take a lot longer and will run the risk of not being home for your DC as soon as there's a problem on the line. THat was my thinking anyway.

@londonmummy1966 thank you, makes sense. Some of the people I know that are considering moving in less well connected areas often have 1 parent WFH all week or very flexible jobs. DP goes in every day and I go to the office 3 days a week too and without family help it's hard to rely only on trains for pick up and drop off.

We have just seen a conversion flat that is perfect for our needs in terms of location, schools, size and style but doesn’t have a garden. Now that the days are getting nicer I find myself longing for one and I fear I could regret giving up outside space. There aren’t many garden flats in this area currently within our budget

Does it have to be a garden flat? Would a balcony and proximity to a park suffice?

@Anameisaname there aren’t many properties with balconies where I live. It’s mainly direct access to outdoor space I’d like (to chill with a glass of wine/tea, do some gardening etc) so parks aren’t the same

Well for sure that's nice. Although balconies and roof terraces can do the same.
Last couple of years I viewed with a friend loads of 2 bed flats in Highbury area which had balconies or some with communal roof terraces. So you could easy sit out with a glass of wine and have some pot plants etc

My building includes a clause in the lease for all flat owners (or their tenants) to get permission of the freeholder to have pets. There is zero fee charged for this. Most people haven't made the request and we tolerate it as long as their pets don't impact other residents (I'm Chair of the Board of Directors for the freehold company so myself and the other Directors are well aware who has asked for permission and who hasn't). However, there have been a couple of pet owners whose dogs have repeatedly caused a nuisance by frequent loud barking and/or the owners not cleaning up after their pets. We had a number of complaints so the pet owners were warned that if they didn't resolve the issue, we would enforce the terms of their lease (i.e. that their pets would no longer be permitted). Problem quickly solved.

So it can actually be quite a useful item to have in a lease as it means people do actually have to make an effort to be considerate of their neighbours.

@HundredMilesAnHour hopefully house cats won’t be an issue wherever we go x

@Anameisaname I have been monitoring the local market for a long time and I know flats with balconies around here are not many and the few that exist are not very nice (like small, ex council shabby places)