Chicken/Egg situation - should you move somewhere bigger before you have DCs?

[PinkMartini]

We've recently had our flat (Zone 2 London nice and close to the tube) valued and the agent assured us he'd be able to sell it quite quickly and for a fair amount more than we paid for it. So far so good.

It's useful for DH who works centrally though it's still 40mins ish door to door . I work from home so not a problem for me but having shops for milk & papers etc nearby v handy.

We like where we are well enough but most of our friends are a bit further out now so being central isn't as important as it was socially iykwim.

So I've been looking at houses a bit further out - some in London Zone 3 and some a bit further out again but terrifed about being lonely and bored.

BUT we don't really have a reason to move yet. Other than I would quite like a garden and we're trying to TTC and I'm not sure how baby freindly this flat is. Is that reason enough?

Is there a logic in moving somewhere beforehand so your "ducks are in a row"?

Grateful to hear other MNers thoughts on this. TIA

There's no deadline on this, though. You could wait until you're pregnant and then sell and that would be ok too. Try not to get too bogged down in it. It's impossible to get everything perfect before having a baby, so don't even try!

If you wait you'll always find other demands on your finances which will make you waiver.

Hi Pm! DH and I had the same dilema. We're in a great little house for 2 of us but not very child friendly and we'll probably have to move at some point.. we decided to TTC and have the baby first and then move once the baby was older. We decided this because it meant no stressful house move and starting all over again (decorating and doing kitchens etc) - also we don't know what will be important to us once we've had a baby so thought it would make more sense to live where we are and see what we want once we have the little one - also from what I've seen from friends - the baby is in with you for the first 6 months anyway so before they are crawling it seems easy to control them so I'm sure that if you flat is nice for you it will be nice for your baby..

Having said all of that I'm sure that moving now will have lots of benefits too - you just have to go with what feels right!!

Haven't read other posts, but a possible reason for moving before baby arrives is that you then won't be in the position of trying to show your house while also trying to deal with a new baby. On the other hand I wouldn't stress about it. People have babies on narrow boats.

If we had bought a bigger house when we first bought one we possibly wouldn't have had to move subsequently - and it would have been a lot cheaper (house prices are similar to London here) and we could have afforded it more easily as we were both working full-time.

So I would definitely recommend moving now as house prices in London are likely to increase faster than salaries, iyswim.

My advice is - wait and see how you feel after baby is born. New parenthood is a massive change in itself, and there's a lot to be said for being in your comfort zone in other areas of your life (a flat you feel at home in, an area you know well etc...). Small babies don't need much space, either, to be honest, even crawlers. Its only once they are running around the place screeching - and that you start to crave a bit of space! And 'baby friendly' means different things to different people - personally, I found living on the zone 1/2 borders great with a new baby, as I wasn't so isolated. I could walk out of my door and be near shops, parks, people in 30 seconds.

My son is 2 and a half now and we are moving out to Zone 4 to a leafy suburb, so things are slightly different! But I wouldn't stress too much at this stage - see how things feel once you're a mummy xxx

p.s. re: London house prices. For the price of a flat in a fairly central area of London you can buy a house further out. That won't necessarily change overnight. Prices may rise, but I don't think you'll be priced out of the market if you wait a year or two.