Which house to buy?

[Roxymumoftwokids]

Hi, I really need help with deciding on a house to buy. We saw 2 houses in our price range on the same street. They are very similar. The first one has a loft conversion but a tiny garden. The second one hasn't got a loft conversion, but larger garden. There is £50 difference between them. Which one do you think would be better to buy? The houses are in South west London. Thanks.

Sorry, meant 50K difference, sorry for typos.

I'd go with a larger garden. The loft can be converted but the size of the plot can't be altered

Which is 50k cheaper?

The cheaper is the one without a loft conversion, but with larger garden.

It depends a lot on what you want and your appetite for doing stuff to the house and what additional budget you have but I would be inclined to go for the one with the larger garden, presuming there is scope to extend into the loft? Overall for me this would be the better house in the longer term as you would be going with max potential space and also potentially adding value. You can add space internally but can't add externally!

Brilliant. I've no idea of UK prices but presumably 50k would go a long way to getting the loft sorted.

Are they both on the same side of the street?

Is there scope to do the loft in the cheaper house and how much will it be roughly?
Do you need the extra space? I'd go for extra space because I don't live in the garden and my dc take up so much space.

Definitely larger garden. With 50K if you need more space you will have scope to do the loft there

£50k plus the stamp duty saving will pay for a loft conversion later and you have a bigger plot.

Yes, it seems like the loft is big enough to be converted, and most houses on that street have loft convertions. They are both on the same side of the street and have south facing gardens. We do need extra space, so will be doing a loft conversion if go for a cheaper option . I have no idea how much loft conversion costs and how long it takes. Hopefully it's doable with 2 little kids.

I'd probably get the one with the loft conversion if I could afford the extra. I have no interest in doing big projects, living on building sites or waiting to see if the budget spirals out of control. For 50K you know what you are getting and it is hassle free.

But I do a like a good sized garden.

Buy the bigger garden...less stamp duty etc..

Then, you can extend up (or out) for less than 50k and still have a house worth more than the other due to it being a bigger plot. No brainer imo.

Unless you hate projects. In which case 50k for no hassle ..

The larger plot, it won't cost 50k to convert the loft.

Are there other clear differences between the two (new kitchen / bathroom, off street parking etc)?