5 bed house or 4 bed with study...

[waterhouse]

Which would you rather buy? We are looking at new build properties and there is one that is a 4 bed house with a living room, kitchen/diner and large study/playroom downstairs. It has a detached double garage. There is another property which is slightly bigger with 5 bedrooms, but downstairs there is only a kitchen/diner and a living room. It has an integral double garage.
We are really stuck as to which would be better in the long run!
We can afford both, but the 5 bed one is a little bit more expensive.
We are 2 adults and 2 children, but we will be having guests a lot so we do need at least one spare bedroom...... Any advice greatly appreciated!

One with more downstairs space.

I agree
Put a sofa bed in the study and it can be a spare room as well if necessary

More downstairs space for sure, unless you've 4 kids who all want their own rooms. The 4 bed house sounds larger by your description.
New builds tend to like to cram in as many bedrooms and bathrooms as possible but when you see the downstairs space it's really not enough for a family of the size which would need so many bedrooms.

More downstairs space defo

Definitely the 4 bed- more space downstairs

One with more downstairs space without a doubt

We have the 4 bed you describe a d having the flexibility of the extra room downstairs is great.

The 4 bed with more downstairs space.

We had a 4 bed with an integral garage and it did impact upon the living space. We did consider converting the garage but for various reasons it wasn't really going to work.

4 bed with bigger downstairs space. Chuck a (decent) sofa bed in the study/playroom if you will need an extra guest room.

Thanks all. Yes it sounds bigger but it's more that they've fitted more rooms into the space iyswim. The 5 bed has a bigger living room and bigger kitchen. And overall it's 200 sq ft bigger. I think the reason I was asking is that I read somewhere else that a 5 bed house will always resell better. (It's not going to be our forever home, we will move again at some point). But I do tend to agree with you all that I'd rather have separate spaces downstairs.

Which one 'feels' right ???

Plus is there an option of splitting the garage and having an extra room downstairs. ( would that work) have u got any floor plans your could post x

If by integral garage you mean that garage takes up some of the space that "should be" the downstairs of the house - I hate the kind of house.

We're in the process of buying a 5 bed new build and have chosen this one over a 4 bed with study.

However, the garage is detached! I would always choose the house with bigger downstairs space and tend to discount integrated garages to be honest.

4 bed. When your children are bigger they will migrate upstairs. I also prefer a detached garage.

We have a 5 bed with only sitting room & kitchen/diner/family room. Have to admit I was a little concerned (big first world problems!) about lack of another room downstairs before we moved in. But in fact we barely go in the sitting room as it is so I have no idea what we'd do with another room.

My only proviso is that ours isn't a new build so all the bedrooms are big doubles - therefore dc's toys are all in their rooms & they bring down to play then take back up, or just play upstairs. We are able to have our room, dcs have their own rooms (2 of them), then a large study & a guest room.

I really don't like integral garages though!

Integral garages are a complete waste of space - unless you plan to convert it to space.

I think most people look for a balanced house - so similar sized upstairs and downstairs. A 5 bed sounds well sized but if half of the downstairs is taken out by a garage, it's not attractive for post families who'd be looking for 5 beds (in my view).

I'd buy whichever house has the largest square footage upstairs, if it's the 5 bed I'd then convert the garage into a second living area eventually.

Compare the downstairs square footage (minus the garage) from the plans of both - also are the back gardens of both the same orientation or is one better than the other?

Selling on I would imagine most people would want the opportunity for a home office - this would need to be downstairs if clients visiting.

Extra downstairs room is much more flex than an extra room upstairs.

Are all 5 beds doubles or is one small -- if so it doesn't really count to a purchaser as a 5th bedroom.

Check if you can convert the garage -- there are lots of restrictions on new builds - many are not allowed to extend for instance - get this in writing if you are reliant on that.

Downstairs space everytime. I hate integral garages, you end up with a small house with an extra bedroom, not a "proper" 4/5 bed house

Hmm I would have said the 4 bed because of extra downstairs room but then you said the kitchen and living room are smaller in that one.

Personally I'd prefer 2 large rooms downstairs to 3 small ones so sounds like I'd pick the 5 bed. But depends how big/small the actual rooms are and also how much you as a family prefer being all together vs own space.

Basically I think upstairs sounds fine for you in both, so pick the house whose downstairs you prefer.

I have a preteen and a teen , both boys and we have a room downstairs that is a study for them/den.

I agree older children tend to migrate upstairs but not if they have the downstairs space.

For future resale a house with a "playroom" downstairs would be better for a young family. The study in our house has been fantastic for the children having the space to play but also leave out complicated train track runs for weeks on end when they were little. I would much rather their bedrooms be for resting and sleep than play.

Thank you everyone for your replies. It does seem that the 4 bed is a hands down winner. Think we need to go and have another look in the showhomes. Wish we could have the best of both but sadly budget won't stretch that far!

Yes waterbuffalodancing that is my thinking. At the moment our "playroom" is basically one end of our kitchen/diner and the train tracks/cars/every toy under the sun all end up migrating into the kitchen area... Would love to be able to shut a door on it all.