whats everyones obsession with houses?

[daisydee43]

hi just a rant really...

i got mort 2 years ago. live in lovely area on kent london border so great for dh trains. live in 2 bed flat which is luxurious and spacious with private car park. have very small mort also.

all my friends/family who are recently buying seem hell bent on a house even if it means living miles away or in a rough area? makes me feel like whats wrong with a flat? we have allotment so still have outside space and have washing lines etc...

btw have dd and dc2 on way

your thoughts

Don't know, we bought our flat 10 years ago and just moving now as need bigger. Don't want another flat as aware we have been very lucky that other freeholders are very good to deal with, this isn't always the case. Also wouldn't buy a leasehold flat which restricts what's available.

I think once you have dc, most people start thinking thy'd like a garden, they'd like to not be in such close proximity with neighbours, they'd like space for litle toddler trucks as well as pushchairs etc., you can't have a shed, you can't extend, it's difficult to unload the shopping say, when you've got a baby and toddler, when you've got shared entrance, maybe stairs to flat etc.etc.

Of course lots of people do it (live in flats with a family), but I think most people see the attractions of a house over a flat. However, if you don't, and are very happy where you are, then what's the problem?

Well, we were sick of having neighbours so close, and noisy ones sometimes - it was lovely to get into our first detached house.

I've never lived in a flat, but I think I'd be happy to do so if it were just me, or just me and dh.

But with kids I do feel happier having our own house. It's as much a case of us not wanting to annoy our neighbours as it is us being worried about people annoying us.

i spose were lucky to have freehold, lovely neighbours, ground floor, plenty of communal space for the buggy etc. but you could end up with nightmare neighbours in a house as not everyone can afford detached. by the way i have no prob just making a case

We live in a flat at the minute and have lived in a mixture of flats and houses. There are great things about living in a flat, especially with a baby. Everything is on one level, so it's easy to move stuff around, you don't have to worry about stair gates etc.. You can also get great locations, which is what we have at the minute. There are downsides too though, the main one is noise, even if you have good sound insulation there is still more noise than in a house. And outside space is the other big one. We are probably going to move, for a mix of outside space and more space generally.

I grew up in a flat, so don't really get the obsession as much as most people. We live in a flat now, but with teenagers so they're not making much noise. The neighbours are fine, and the sound insulation is better than in our old terraced house. To tell the truth, I'd probably prefer a house, but not at the expense of living further out (we are in a central London borough, zone 1 tube) which most of my friends have done. But lots of families prefer the quieter, more provincial life anyway once they have dc (as they can't have much of a social life anyway so they don't see the point in living in an area with good restaurants/bars). I'd love to have a house in the area we currently live in, but we'd need to spend 3x as much as the cost of our flat to get a house here, and not a detached one (very few come up here) so neighbours would still be close by anyway.

Noise. Either above you or below you, either you making it or your neighbour. Far too any threads on here about it - I know I couldn't cope with what half these posters have written about.

For me it would be pets too. I couldn't cope if I couldn't just open the door and let the dog (or cat) out to do their business.

I think flats in the UK are usually not designed for families - most are relatively small, only two bedrooms, no outdoor space, poor sound-proofing and so on, so people gravitate towards houses once they have children. In other countries it is much more common for families to live in flats, so they are better designed for use by children.

I've lived in some awful flats when I was younger, with very noisy neighbours etc. but then I moved to a detached house, and though it was wonderful, it was in a very studenty area so there was noise every night at around 2am. We slept so badly there.

I did have a home birth in that house which would not be ideal in a flat (noise)

I always said I would never live in another flat however when we found this one, we went for it immediately due to beautiful location and size of the rooms etc. Also it has a 120ft x 30ft garden which we are going to miss like mad.

Our neighbours here have been absolutely perfect (well apart from the top floor which has varied) and they are patient with the children's noise. The ceilings are massively high, it's very old and would be stunning if it wasn't for all our messy stuff everywhere.

But it is rented. Ironically we're buying for the first time and we've bought a flat again. But it is top floor maisonette and again, huge and spacious and compared to the houses available at our budget, it is bloody brilliant.

Excellent location/street, loads of children and space to play, nice neighbours, and it has sole use of the garden which is about 60x24 but that's big enough (and less to mow and weed than where we are).

Only problem is the steps from flat to garden are a bit unsafe but we can easily go round from the front till we can afford to replace them.

It is worth it just for the sake of location and size tbh. And it's beautiful I hope we are not too noisy for the people downstairs.

To sum up I think a garden and your own entrance makes all the difference, as my three boys would be desolate without a garden but I am broadly with you OP. Flats can be great.

Also meant to say, the houses within our budget were all almost without exception on really dodgy noisy classified roads, or in the middle of 'student village' or were about 10ft square in slightly nicer roads.

We did find one that was large and beautiful but it was in a rowdy village and there was a govt proposal to put three gypsy sites in the village which we thought was potentially a bit of a problem.

Because I don't want to live on top of or under other people. With a house you are usually far enough removed to not hear a lot of what is going on with neighbours. I don't want a lease hold property. I want my own private garden. I want to be able to unload my shopping and not walk miles with it and then up a flight of stairs. I can afford a house in my preferred area so why not have one ?.

turns out dh wants a house before dd goes to school as he wants a garden, oh well lol

i think having to work with others over communal issues is a PITA. We had a leasehold flat, and the management co were a bit shite. I imagine share of freehold can still be complex - given the amount of to-ing and fro-ing we've had with neighbours over a shared water supply pipe I'm very glad that the only thing we share with them.

size/noise is not really an issue - plenty of flats are well build and spacious.