Townhouse with Kids - what's the verdict on function and holding value?

[united4ever]

Looking at one seriously and may make an offer on this one but got a couple of doubts:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30537957.html

2 questions:

1, Do you think that this type of property would hold it's value compared to a traditional 3 bed semi? My guess is maybe not and this concerns me.....it's got more of a feel of living in a flat to me than a house and indeed a lot of the others in the area seem to be rental properties. Again, it's a modern building 15 years old I believe so not sure how well built they are compared to a 1930s semi.

2, Do you think this floor layout would work well with a young family (2 and 5 year old). Thinking of turning the downstairs 4th bedroom into a playroom. Lots of stairs but to be honest we haven't seen anywhere else in our budget that offers this much space.

We may move abroad in the future so would prefer to hold onto it as a rental property. I gather it would be quite well suited to a rental.

Any thoughts on this welcome.

grew up in a townhouse. no problems. even better in latet years when we all had a floor to ourselves

We live in a 3 storey townhouse. Similar layout in that we have...

Ground
Garage, cloakroom, utility room, and "garden" room (I suppose you could use it at a 4th bedroom, its big enough, but on ground floor with patio windows - we use it as a study)

First
Living room (with dining space area, though we don't use it as tht), kitchen with smaller dining area (which we do use)

Second
Master bedroom and ensuite, 1 smaller double room, a good size single and a family bathroom.

We really like it and have no issues with living over 3 floors. TBH most of the time we live on the top two floors. It's nice to be able to set the alarm for the ground floor when I am home alone too.

I would however quite like to have my kitchen/dining on the ground floor, leading on to the garden as I feel we would use our garden more. It is something we are currently looking into and may extend and move it.

We moved here when DD was 3y, she is now 12y. As I said, lovely family home and 3 floor living causes us no problems whatsoever.

I don't think they really function as a "proper four bed" so the fourth bed is usually an office or for guests only. Fine if that suits you.
I'd be surprised if your kids would play down there. Most kids want to be on the same level as the adults doing stuff.

I'm being thick obviously but looking at the floor plan, how do you get into bedroom 4?

I like it. The only thing I don't like is the Juliet balcony. We stayed in a flat once with one, I thought I would like it, but it absolutely terrified me once we were in there with a manic 3 year old running about. We had to keep the door locked.

yeah the floorplan is wrong - there is a door just at the bottom of stairs. There is also a shower in the master en suite where it says cupboard.

I dont mind a townhouse and would buy one, but I would want the kitchen / dining on the ground floor lookibg onto the garden.

(1) no hoiking shopping up and down stairs
(2) ditto binbags
(3) id want to be able to let the toddlers go in and out of the garden and would use a kitchen day to day morr than a study.

We looked at one very similar in that the ground floor was the garage, utility room and the 4th bedroom/study with ensuite.

Tbh this layout on the ground floor really put me off. I could just see the room being not used unless we'd knocked out the ensuite and dressing area to then make it open to the back garden.

I do like townhouses where the ground floor has a large kitchen diner open to the garden.

I don't particularly think this layout is family friendly and I wouldn't want to live where my kitchen wasn't on the ground floor.

My DSis lives in a townhouse on the ground floor she has a huge kitchen diner with big patio doors into the garden and a garage that she has converted into a store/utility room. On the middle floor there are 2 good size reception rooms and on the top 3 reasonable bedrooms.

Whe DD was smaller our ground floor room was a playroom, leading on to the garden. It does depend on your children but DD was always happy to play down there. Was good for more messy play too as went straight outside.

We had a small basket of toys in the living room as well for times when she wanted to be upstairs or it was colder - tht room tends to get colder in our house than the rest of the place - hot air rises and all that, and our thermostat is downstairs. Would be better if it was upstairs.

We are in a townhouse but different layout so that all 3 DCs are on the top floor. We seldom use the first floor sitting room though DCs use it. We will be downsizing out of this house as I can see us ending up with a whole floor which we dont use.

Top floor does tend to get very hot.

At least in your example the kitchen is on the same floor as the living room.

When my children were tiny we had - downstairs = kitchen and dining room. First floor = living room, 1 bedroom. Top floor = two more bedrooms.

Was a massive pain in the arse, tbh. If you wanted a drink from the living room, had to go downstairs. If you had left something in the bedroom before going out - two flights. Oldest had his bedroom on a different floor from us from about 2 years old. Stairgates everywhere. At least there was a toilet on each level.

Only useful thing was in labour, I spent hours walking up and down the stairs!

We moved.

If you are thinking of it as an investment I wouldn't touch it at all. This is the last similar house that sold on the street. www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=18782487&sale=49158482&country=england

There is an over saturation of new builds like that. There is the big development that backs on to Waitrose, a bit closer to Sale and the one by the back of the train station. None are exactly stable in price.

If you were telling me you loved the house and it was your forever home, I'd say go for it. But as an investment, I wouldn't bother.

Thanks Negroni, seems you know the area and this evident price drop is a concern. We've been looking at 3 bed semis off Park Road in Timperley and they are getting snapped up within a few days of coming to market and when we look at their price history they have only gone one way...up. Maybe that is a smarter move. Think if we stay in the UK this next move would be it until we retire and the kids have grown up so talking 20 plus years but my wife is not from the UK so thinking if the right opportunity arises we may emigrate and rent out our home. So either way we will own it for the long term. This seems like the sort of place that would rent out ok and we would happily live there we think.

I don't know, I always get cold feet when seriously considering house purchases:-(

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/Altrincham.html?maxPrice=300000&minBedrooms=3&maxBedrooms=4&displayPropertyType=houses&oldDisplayPropertyType=houses&includeSSTC=true&_includeSSTC=on&index=30

Personally, I dont like townhouses because I think the living space / bedroom space is not balanced. You have 4 bedrooms but only a small amount of living space. As others have said, with children, they'll want to be with you rather than a playroom / garden on the ground floor so unless the kitchen was on the ground floor, I don't think it works with small children.

As the pp says, there are quite a few modern developments about so there is quite alot of competition and I would anticipate that the Welman Way estate (link above) is more likely to hold its value than Devonshire Rd (Broadheath). Welman Way is very close to good schools and seen as a more desirable area than Broadheath.

Hi. I lived in a similar town house not far from here (not in Timperley- but also S Manchester). Layout was pretty much the same. I rented it. I had a toddler (lived there while she was 18 months until she was 3) and then also had a baby. I hated the house with a passion.

1. Such a pain having bedrooms on top floor, you get to the front door, realise you've forgotten something then have to trek up two flights of stairs.
2. Living area on first floor is a pain. Going out to the garden is a whole event. You can't just let the kids go in the garden while you're cooking he tea.
3. I had a barbeque once. Massive hassle having to go upstairs every five mins to fetch drinks...ketchup... Salt.
4. No toilet on living room floor. Pain. Have to go upstairs or downstairs when you need the lol.
5. Ground floor just a lot of wasted space. I used my garage as a dumping room (to be fair it was brilliant for that) and the downstairs "bedroom" we used as an office.

When I took it on as a rented property it was because the owner hadn't been able to sell it and it had been on the market for ages.

I would never live in a townhouse again.

A modern townhouse wouldn't suit me, or my family (3 DC). A traditional victorian town house would be a different matter.

I think long term (as in the next 50 years) I think a 3 bed semi with a decent size garden, in the right location will hold more value.

I wouldn't like not having the main living accommodation on the ground floor - it feels very cut off from the outside to me.

I can only imagine that all those stairs would be a total pain with a toddler. (Probably not so bad with older children though)

I think town houses can first appear bigger than they are due to being spread over three floors. The actual living space is pretty average, especially in newish homes.

Usually two bedrooms are on the top floor and bottom floor. I would not want my young dc sleeping two floors away from me. I would be worried about them being close to the front door in case of intruders and being too far from it in case of a fire/other emergency.

The downstairs hallway is usually poky and dark due to the lack of windows. I like natural lighting in every area of a house.

I think they suit families with teenagers.

I don't think these houses are effective for families without a kitchen diner on the ground floor.

Also heat travels up which means they can get draughty.

I wonder if you would be allowed to put on a balcony and external stairs down from the kitchen. That would improve it a lot.

So the only access to the back garden is through bedroom 4? How is that going to work? So if that becomes a play room/family room you've got a 3 bedroom house with only 1 decent sized bedroom.

Not for me, I don't like it at all.

I have also found that with new build town houses, two of the bedrooms are single rooms only suitable for a small child/as a library or office.