How do you move to a bigger house?

[Doubleesspresso]

We have a three bed semi that I like. However, there are 6 of us and I’m feeling the size of our house getting small.garden is also tiny.
My Dh snd I both work but in public sector roles where salaries are fixed.
Therefore, we are unlikely to have a huge change in income, other than saving, how do people manage to move to a bigger house as I just can’t see how we can, other than move to a cheaper area? However this means changing schools etc

Agree with @Welshmum2010

Buy somewhere scruffy, do it up, move or extend, buy another dump, do it up, move etc.

Flat 1 (2 bed) - no heating, 1950s kitchen, aerosoled gold ceilings , took 4 years.

House1 (2 bed) - contained the possessions of previous, deceased occupant. No heating, no kitchen, damp from crumbling mortar, no insulation etc. took 9 years.

House 2 (3 bed) - rain running through mid bedroom and down dining room walls, earth floor in the cupboard under the stairs . Took 9 years

House 3 (4 bed) - after 10 years, warm, dry, new windows, doors, kitchen, boiler, wiring. Reroofing booked for next spring.

Not easy with DCs in tow though. I only did the last one with DS around.

I don't think doing up a property is essential. If that reassures others with little appetite/talent for renovations.

I owned our previous house for a similar number of years (3) to the previous owners. They renovated and the property increased.£30k in value.
We definitely didn't renovate (had tiny sticky children ) and the property increased £80k in value. That plus mortgage overpayments sorted our deposit for bigger house.

Next property and we will renovate at some point but it has increased over £100k on value (based on nearby sales) in the last couple of years.

Sure maybe we could rise even further up the ladder if we renovated but it shows that thinking about things like location can be just as important.

(we have gone from 3 bed to 5 bed. I have no plans to move again, but will do a loft conversion and extension but with the aim of us enjoying the property more for the long term rather than of climbing the ladder).

Are there cheaper areas in your town/city, OP? You might be able to do it that way.

A friend has recently moved from a small 2-bed to a spacious 4-bed with 3 living rooms by moving to the outskirts of her city from a popular area close to the city centre. Where I live, people do it by moving to what were council estates, but where most houses are now privately owned and have been extended. They're still much cheaper though!

The other thing that would help would be for one of you to get a second job, and save like mad. And looking at your spending to see how much you may be able to cut and save up some capital might help.

Overpaying our old mortgage helped us too. The balance of our mortgage dropped from 100k to 60k in the last 4 years, the crazy prices saw our 3 bed semi house sell for 260k (I was expecting 220 max) giving us 200k equity to go into our spacious 320k 4 bed detached with a 120k mortgage.

We've had two significant moves, both to completely opposite sides of the country where property is significantly cheaper ... we were/are happy to move but I know a lot of people don't like moving and we only have one child (another conscious decision) which made it a lot easier to change schools etc.

We now have a large house, mortgage free - no way could we even afford to buy back our first home in the South East

We extended our mortgage by fifteen years to pay for bigger house. The upside was we got a much nicer house. The downside was we were still paying our mortgage off a lot later than some people we knew, so had less disposable income.

For us it was a combination of things - we were lucky to have bought in an extremely desirable area for young families before we had children so we had a very saleable property which we had extended, and prices had risen a little. We both had some career progression which meant that a bigger mortgage was possible. But I had also had a fairly significant inheritance which had paid off a big bulk of our mortgage. That’s the thing that made the real difference and allowed us to stay in area. But we could have moved half a mile and not spent as much (and still been in a pretty desirable area).

Oh and in addition to inheritance we have always overpaid every mortgage we have had as often as we are able. That seems to make a real difference. We’ve doubled the purchase price of our home roughly with each move.

Luck and hard work tbh. We’ve now got more equity than the amount we actually paid for the house less than 5 years ago through improving it, overpaying and selling in a crazy market.

We did up houses and gave up on all character to get a nice large house (terrace but generously sized). Friends have done it by taking out a 30-year mortgage.

It's mostly luck. We lost money on our first house as we bought just before the market crashed and it had only just about recovered when we sold. However we did benefit slightly from the stamp duty threshold at the time artificially depressing the price of our second house. I think we will stay here now as to buy a bigger house we would have to move area and remortgage right at the top of what we can afford, and we don't really take financial risks like that. For many people they work out, but also for many they don't. Staying put in a smaller property also means being mortgage free by 50, which will be about the time the kids will need help at uni, driving lessons and house deposits so the extra would be helpful.

Is it better to overpay or save up if your primary aim is to move to a more expensive property?

I am overpaying £1000 every month (mortgage is another 1k). I want to move to a bigger flat in the same area/slightly more expensive area with better schools (in north London).

@onlychildhamster

Is it better to overpay or save up if your primary aim is to move to a more expensive property?

I am overpaying £1000 every month (mortgage is another 1k). I want to move to a bigger flat in the same area/slightly more expensive area with better schools (in north London).

It depends on your interest rate. In most cases it is much better to save in am ISA. A tracker will usually yield around 8% whereas most mortgages charge under 2%.

I personally never overpay on my mortgage. I save on my ISA instead. If interest rates ever go up or I want to move to a bigger place I can always withdraw and pay a lump sum when remortgaging.

@Agadorsparticus

Overpaying our old mortgage helped us too. The balance of our mortgage dropped from 100k to 60k in the last 4 years, the crazy prices saw our 3 bed semi house sell for 260k (I was expecting 220 max) giving us 200k equity to go into our spacious 320k 4 bed detached with a 120k mortgage.

I live in London and can only fantasise about living in a four-bedroom detached house with a reasonable mortgage.

I need to win the lottery. But first, I need to buy lottery tickets.

I’ve never overpaid a mortgage, any extra money DH and I had went into pensions.

@Cruiser11 I hadn't thought of that. DH and I both have very good pension schemes through work hence over paying the mortgage makes sense for us.

KeyboardWorriers we retired at 52 and 55 and used about a quarter of the 25% tax feee lump sum to clear the mortgage. I think we are all lucky to have different choices, things are a lot less rigid now.

@Cruiser11 yes you're right. And I agree that if our pensions were less good then your approach would make a lot of sense.