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Original poster

Is a detached house worth the extra money?

69 replies

Blup · 19/08/2016 14:20

DH and I are currently house-hunting. We'd like a house with 4 bedrooms - so the DCs can have a room each, and then a spare room which can also be used as an office (I work from home). DH really wants a detached house because he says he "likes to feel he owns the whole place". Problem is, that's pushing out of our budget, unless we compromise on the fourth bedroom or go for a house where the fourth bedroom is a converted roofspace, but then we'd have no storage space for all DH's rubbish and would fill the garage with boxes instead of having it for the car.

I just don't think it's worth the extra for a detached house, but then I've always lived in semis and had no issues. DH has always lived in detached houses until our current one. I know you can get nightmare neighbours if you're in a semi, but really unless you're very unlucky, I don't think it's a big deal - and any case, you can have nightmare neighbours in a detached house too.

Any opinions? Should I be taking the "detached" thing more seriously? Or trying to talk DH round?

OP posts:

Palomb · 19/08/2016 22:34

Like PP we hasn't set out to buy a detached house but wouldn't want to go back now.

Our previous neighbour wes brilliant and we rarely heard him but we NEVER hear our neighbours now and that is just the way it should be.

WanderingTrolley1 · 19/08/2016 22:35

I think so, yes.

SusannahD · 19/08/2016 22:57

A detached is worth the money if you can afford it due to no noise through the walls.

Donatellalymanmoss · 20/08/2016 00:09

Some of you are talking nonsense I have a semi with loads of room to extend, that's not exclusive to detached houses! It's about to the size of the garden.

Thecazelets · 20/08/2016 11:21

Yes it is worth it. We paid a big premium (London so detached houses rarer) and it is worth every penny to me after years in standard London Victorian terraces. Probably harder to understand if you have never had noisy neighbours.

Nodowntime · 20/08/2016 12:43

In terms of potential extension if you have to give up the footage to go for the detached it is still more flexible in terms of extending it eventually when you can afford it, and likely to be cheaper than buying a ready made 1 (bed)room bigger house.

Whatthefoxgoingon · 20/08/2016 12:54

We have a detached in London but it's very expensive (seven figures) to get one in our area, so I'd have compromised and bought a semi detached if the internal layout was right.

Where houses are cheap, definitely would go for a detached with lots of land!

Whatthefoxgoingon · 20/08/2016 12:55

Extensions don't seem to be an issue in London as everyone seems to go into the basement.

mishmash1979 · 22/08/2016 07:46

We bought a beautiful 4 bed semi in a great area close to great school etc rather than a 3 bed detached round the corner. Moved 2 years later. Those 2 years were the worst of my life; neighbours were extremely loud. They had a movie found system in their lounge, u could hear them having sex every night banging against our walls, they had a dinner party every Friday and Saturday (inside in winter outside in summer) and played very very loud dance music. Final straw was hubbie going round to ask them to turn music down (we had guests round too and literally couldn't hear eCh other) and the husband said " f*k off mate, I have had enough of your stuck up s*t the past 2 years" I would never ever ever live in a semi again!!

CrimsonKing · 22/08/2016 07:54

Moved from a semi to a detached. Would never go back. Having that separation from my neighbours is bliss.

RoganJosh · 22/08/2016 07:59

Is it not worth looking at the ones with the fourth bedroom in the loft? you might find there is room for some storage elsewhere in the house or still some eaves storage.
Are all your boxes essential? It sounds like you have a lot.

Glittershoes22 · 22/08/2016 08:06

If you buy a semi will your husband be on the look out to upgrade to a detached in 5-10years? If so it might be worth pushing the boat out now and saving on moving stamp duty costs.

I grew up in a detached, OH a semi and we moved to a semi 5 years ago. I knew immediately it was not our forever home and kind of wish we had just made the jump to a detached straight away. We have just bought a detached!

I know a lot of friends who grew up in different houses and the partner who grew up in the detached house tends not to be satisfied until they achieve that themselves.

KittyKrap · 22/08/2016 08:20

The last house we rented was a four bed link detached. That means only the garages were beside the living area, neighbour A's garage beside our living room, our garage beside neighbour B. Great not hearing neighbours but pants where their conservatories blocked all the sun in our little muddy garden.

We bought a 4 bed detached and love it.

Openup41 · 22/08/2016 08:21

Detached all the way!

I lived in a flat as a child and end of terrace as an adult with lovely neighbours. However, I still dream of living in a detached house.

TheOptimisticPessimist · 22/08/2016 08:32

Detached all the way.

I grew up in a detached, and moving into an end-of-terrace at uni was a huge shock for me. Never again!

My aunty lives in a semi that she has been in for 30+ years and adores - it's always been perfect and she's had a lovely neighbour for all of that time. He has sadly passed away and his relatives from hell have moved on and made her life a living nightmare - loud music, renovations which left her bedroom with a hole in the wall, hearing constant screaming...

A garage for your car isn't worth your happiness being so utterly at the mercy of your neighbours.

Middleoftheroad · 22/08/2016 08:40

I love my detatched but it's up for sale as we need a 4 bed in catchment. For this extra bedroom we are going to have to compromise with a semi too. But we need thevextra bedroom and location more. Shame, as a detatched is so private.

namechangedtoday15 · 22/08/2016 08:44

Have lived in mews, terraced, semi detached and detached. For me, the priority would be the space inside the house (bedrooms etc). It's far more important to me to have a house that works for my family than whether it's detached or not.

It's a "nice to have" rather than a "must have" for me. If I found a house that had the bedrooms, downstairs space, garage etc within budget and it was detached - great. However no way would I compromise on internal space simply to be detached.

Original poster

Blup · 22/08/2016 08:59

To clarify - any 4-bedroom house is at the top end of our budget; we so far haven't found many 3-bedroom detacheds within our budget. Very few of the houses we've looked at have garages; it was just a couple that did, so we're probably going to be looking more at ones without.

So, within our budget, we've seen a few 4-bed semis, a couple of which have garages too, but the rest not. We've seen a couple of 3-bed detacheds, one with garage, one without. We've looked at a couple of 4-bed detacheds, but they were a bit too expensive, and had very little storage space. There just don't seem to be that many detached houses in the area we're looking, other than really expensive ones.

Most of the stuff we need to store belongs to DH, and he's adamant that it has to stay. He's also quite picky about the areas he'll live in, more so than I am. He basically wants to be nearer his parents, and won't consider places that are even 10 minutes further away (we're currently 15 mins away). I'm not that fussed on his parents' area, and it's also a bit more expensive (it's a handy commute to the local town, but DH doesn't work there so we don't need that handiness!).

OP posts:

Middleoftheroad · 22/08/2016 09:12

We are in the same compromise. There will need to be a compromise at some point. If DH has unrealistic expectations perhaps you could ask him to go on RMove and select a few - maybe then he'll see that it's not easy to get detatched 4 bed nice area without the budget. Your only option could be a doer upper - but they coild also be rare and hard work.

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