Maisonette with no mortgage or house with a mortgage

[OldSpeclkledHen]

Would you rather live in;

A) a large 2bed first floor maisonette with a large garden with no mortgage. Leasehold but low service charge.

Or

B) a small house (poss only 1 bed) with a small garden and a mortgage. Freehold.

Any thoughts appreciated please! Thank You 😊

[quote AldiAisleofCrap]@Persipan yes but it’s your choice what maintenance to carry out and when on your own home. You want suddenly have a large roof bill.[/quote]
It's your choice up to a point but if the roof needs doing you're going to have to pay for it eventually. Sometimes the roof has more of a say then you do! I do absolutely agree that service charges warrant careful consideration, and arrangements for repairs are a significant thing to take into account in that, though.

Maisonette. Only paying a few thousand a year will be wonderful and allow you to save. Practically everywhere in London is a leasehold and doesn't really affect us.

Maisonette.
Me and my husband have owned flats for years, always in well-manger blocks and leasehold sometimes share of freehold. No repairs to do ourselves, direct access to a large garden in one case for me and that flat was as big as many a small house - I loved it as did all my friends and family and lodgers and tenants.
It does depends on the flat but I don’t get the automatic issues with leases and snobbery against flats in this country. It both amuses me and makes me despair. I’d go with the spade, the garden and mortgage free every time! It’s the actual property and area not what you call it or whether it stands alone.
Oh plus me and my husband have made some lovely friends from neighbours in our flats in and outside London. We’re worried now we’re moving to a house about the expense of repairs and being too isolated (eve though it’s a terrace!)

I would go for the maisonette depending on ...

Will you have any neighbours above you in the maisonette? Upstairs neighbours are a lot more annoying than downstairs neighbours in my experience (not through a fault of the neighbours - just hearing someone walk on your ceiling). If you do have upstairs neighbours, check the lease on whether there is any clause banning hard wood flooring ... or try to visit the flat when the upstairs neighbours are likely to be home.

Will you be sharing the garden? If so, is any part of the shared garden directly below your bedroom window? I had a problem with one flat where new neighbours moved in and they would hang out in the garden late at night smoking.

Service charge can be an advantage - if the roof needs repairing, you share the cost rather than having to foot the whole bill yourself. As long as it is well managed.

A one bedroom house may actually be more difficult to sell afterwards as it is quite a niche market. A young family seems more likely to want a large two-bedroom maisonette rather than a tiny house. Especially if in a city where there is less of a knee-jerk reaction against owning a flat; people are more used to it/less scared by it.

Also, if any flats in the block are council flats, I would be wary - the private leaseholders tend to have to foot the majority of the bill for maintenance/repairs.

I'd also be wary if there was a lift - I'd definitely check when it was last repaired and how much that cost.

Is it period or built/renovated recently? If recently, look into all the problems people are having with cladding.

Basically, a victorian maisonette where there are only two maisonettes in the building or a well-maintained edwardian mansion block with a large sinking fund is a very different proposition to an ex-council maisonette with dodgy cladding in a huge block where you could be faced with a £10,000k bill for roof repairs out of the blue.

Freehold freehold freehold

If you can avoid leasehold do so!

Depends. We need more info.
Is it s maisonette in a complex of maisonettes? Is it a building with just 2? Who is freeholder...council or private company or person upstairs or who?

It also depends on your circumstances. If you will quickly grow out if a 1 bed and need more space so incur the costs of moving in a couple of years which the 2 bed big flat will avoid, that's something to consider. Also consider if you would be able to afford to move in a few years to a bigger house if you'd want to....if you could as salary will rise rapidly then that might be okay.

Yes to checking out the lease and service charge arrangements and maintenance.

Generally freehold is simpler and better, but leasehold flats kften allow people to actually buy something or get the bigger space their family desperately need and so the downsides of leasehold (as long as not issues with escalating ground rent, excessive service charges, short leases or likely big maintenance due to social housing owning freehold) are often worth it.

You sound in a strong position in terms of you could buy without a mortgage. I might consider getting a small mortgage and looking for a 2 bed house actually...the best of both worlds, unless there is a really good reason why you shouldn't have a small mortgage.

Depends how old you are and what you plan to do with the excess income over the next few years.

If you have plenty of years working ahead of you, spending spare cash on a mortgage is a good plan IMO.

Wowsers Thank You so much for all your responses!

The maisonette in question is first floor ex LA in a lovely village, but thanks to you ladies I've discovered the "suprise maintenance costs" that the HA don't tell you about!

I've lived in my v little flat for near 20 years, it's had its moments but I've always dreamed of moving to a house!

But then this place caught my eye.
It's still in the running, but I'm also going to look at houses (with a mortgage!) Thanks to the advice on here 🙂🙂

Can the house be extended, that would be a plus for me if your circumstances were to change.

My DM lived in a maisonette once and had noise issues with the woman above her (she could hear her walking around) and a guy living next door also downstairs like her. His alarm clock used to wake her up through the wall

Bare this in mind as walls etc can be poorly sound deadened in this type of housing