Why do people choose tiny houses over huge flats?

[MovingtoParadise]

I don't understand it at all

The flat next door to me is for sale, it's 1200 square feet. All done out, no work needed. Lovely roof terrace with views over London. 10 foot ceilings. Own entrance.

Tiny cottage round corner is £150k more, back patio smaller than roof terrace. No views, on a busy road. Only 600 square feet.
Only 7 feet ceilings.

Cottage is half the size. Why aren't people interested in square feet

Don't most flats have a service charge? I wouldn't want noise from above or below, plus a private garden with actual grass would be important to me.

Freehold Vs leasehold. Leasehold law in England is a total pain.

Noise. Private gardens. Resale value. Separate floors giving a bit more privacy. Somewhere to shove your crap out of sight when unexpected visitors come over. Noise.

I don't understand this either. We have always chosen flats. Ours is around 1200 sq ft with own driveway, entrance and garden. But it is a flat not a house. Therefore it cost less.

Of course, the downside to flats is they are often leasehold and not freehold. We had massive expense and hassle due to this when we did an extension and refurb as we needed a license to alter from the freeholder.

Fears about noise from neighbours? In a flat you're potentially surrounded above, below and alongside other people.

I would always go for a house over a flat because you usually don't have any leasehold issues and it is better to not have other homes above and below yours.

If you own a home, you have freehold. You won't be paying service charges or negotiating to extend a lease. I wouldn't ever want to live in a flat again. They can be very noisy.

Oh yeah I meant to say service charge. Also autonomy on decor. Not having to go through management company or neighbours re building repairs. Storage.

As far as noise goes, it depends on the set up. We have no-one below and one flat above. We are attached to another house on one side but not the other. So if we were a terraced house, we would have as many attached neighbours as we do now in our flat. A completely detached house would be different of course. But in London, they are much less likely anyway.

I don't want people living above me.

Where I am flats are usually rented out rather then owner occupied. This means you're likely to get a higher turnover of people and there are clearly risks of getting a set of bad tenants in for a year or more.

I lived in flats for many years. I hate sleeping on the same floor as I "lived". I also hated that most flats have a horrible open-plan thing going on which can look amazing but means the whole place (soft furnishings, you, your clothes, the walls) stink whenever you cook anything remotely spicy.

I fucking hate living in flats. Fucking PITA. I'd always choose a house over a flat.

Stairs are an issue too, if you are likely to have buggies or bikes or heavy luggage or heavy shopping to lug about on a regular basis.

Freehold. vs Leasehold Service charge. People banging about upstairs or downstairs. Communal areas / gardens / bins etc. I would always go for a little house over a big flat after living above the neighbour from hell, fortunately only renting.

They're leasehold and you have people living above you.

Leasehold, service charges and neighbour noise, I think. All genuinely valid reasons for choosing the smaller house over the larger flat.

I like big, generously proportioned flats, but usually those come with a hefty service charge. And if you have leasehold, you are subject to things like not being able to extend leases without hug additional costs, or not being able to get a mortgage if the lease isn't long enough. Even share of freehold becomes very complicated with management companies, associated admin etc.

The people living upstairs in a flat always seem to have lead-lined slippers IME.

Service charges are my main objection. Feeling like a live in a matchbox is the other. And I'd take a garden over a terrace any day.

Leaseholds are a pain! I have a flat now but if I could afford a house in the future would never want the issues again that come with a flat - inability to do any work or extend into my loft, uncooperative freeholder, looming lease renewal coming up. My DP is also having issues with his flat, thanks to leasehold management company that pushes up the service charge by hundreds of pounds year on year. Last year they needed to do it to pay for X. This year they had the same excuse and forgot they used that already. Not having control over your own property leaves you between a rock and a hard place.

I've just recently bought my first house after living in flats since I left home
I could have got a bigger flat but I don't want to pay hefty management fees. I'm happy to trade extra bedrooms for my back door, garden, and driveway

I wouldn't live in a flat again if you paid me

Neighbours

Service charge would put me off.

I'd much rather have a 1200 square foot flat than a 700 house!

I don't get the issue with service charges - if you have a house you have to pay for a new roof and windows and stiff

All the above plus having your own front door is so handy for getting takeaways delivered- I hate having to schlep outside in the cold to meet the Dominoes man

My last flat had excellent sound proofing, I hear WAY worse day to day loving noise from my semi detached neighbour and hey are quite quiet!

Modern flats have wicked sound proofing and if you have a good located flat you might only have 1 or 2 attached neighbours.

Service charge, leasehold, no potential to expand, neighbour potentially on all 4 sides would be some of the reasons I wouldn't go for flats generally.

However my brother recently bought a flat which only has a downstairs neighbour and they are slightly off to the side and only their kitchen and living room over laps. He has his own garage, private drive and entrance, roof terrace, 1500sq ft, huge windows with original shutters, high ceilings, room to expand in loft and service fee is £50 pcm! I think his main issue will be the leasehold when he wants to go into the loft. However he paid £125k less than the people buying 2 up 2 downs (with the only bathroom at the end of the kitchen) 3 doors down from him. Certainly now something we might consider when our children are older.