What are your "must haves" when buying a house?

[Oops41]

And your "nice to haves"?

For me I must have a utility room and garage and good sized rooms. Also a decent sized garden and off road parking.

Nice to have... room for a playroom, quiet street, kitchen on back of house that overlooks garden

Detached is my must have. I don't like other people's noise.

Must have at least 2 reception rooms - DH and I often like to watch/do separate things for a couple of hours. I sit in the study and he is in living room. (It's very annoying if he wants to watch a documentary and I want the sewing machine going!)

Nice to have - A pantry! I really miss mine from my last house.

We are looking at the moment and my non negotiables are

A lounge that is a separate room, not like my current house where the lounge is the only access to the kitchen meaning the room is part corridor and we are very limited as to where furniture can be positioned

Off street parking, my partner works shifts and doesn’t want to be hunting for a parking space at 2am when he gets home

A hallway, we previously lived in a house where the front door opened directly in to the living room, hated it.

Quiet road, again due to partners shift work, has to be quiet during the day so he can sleep

Separate study, the main reason for our move, I am WFH now and currently is in my bedroom which is not ideal.

A view. I didn’t know this was essential until I got one and realised what I had been missing.

A private not overlooked garden.

A gravelled drive with space for cars (plural)

Not open plan.

Nice to haves
A spare bedroom
A greenhouse
A built in safe
A mature garden
Windows and doors in a good state of repair.

Essential:
Off road parking for at least two cars
A nice outlook
Within walking distance of DC's schools

Would like but not deal breakers:
Not hugely overlooked
Detached
Decent Garden
Spare Room
Boarded loft or garage for storage
Downstairs Loo

Off road parking
Sunny garden
Utility room
Proper shower cubicle as well as Bath
Fireplace in the lounge

I don’t understand some of these, things like a green house, safe, shower Cubicle etc are all stuff you can put in yourself, you just need to make sure you’ve space.

For me, off street parking, two reception rooms, at least two loos, bathroom big enough to have separate shower and bath. Everything else is negotiable.

Period home
Downstairs loo
Separate shower rather than over bath
Separate lounge
Kitchen diner
Outdoor space
Storage

A separate kitchen and dining room, I don't like them to be combined.

Detatched, nice views, no near neighbours, at least 1 acre of land; anything that needs doing/adding to the actual house is negotiable!

Detached
Curb appeal
Not a through lounge
Large kitchen diner
Non-overlooked garden

We are looking at the moment and we're pretty flexible on the majority (trying not to limit ourselves).

Ideally it would be detached, and not miles away from civilization, so walking distance to town. I hate boxy, claustrophobic rooms, so i'd like them to be decently sized. And definitely a bath tub! We lived in Scandinavia for years, where they usually only have showers in their homes and i missed soaking in bath!

Actually, on thinking about it, the ideal house would be one that was a shell, and needed complete renovation. That way we could get the perfect home the way we want it.

I live in London and I’m not a multi millionaire - hence I’m really pretty flexible!

I like to be within a 30 minute walk of at least a few of my closest friends so that I don’t have to rely on cabs or public transport when I’ve spent the evening at their and am leaving in the small hours. A decent cycle route to work (i.e. not all on congested main roads and ideally through parks and along the Thames) is also pretty up there. Some kind of a garden I couldn’t do without, and either free street parking or the ability to have more than one residents’ parking permit, as I have three cars.

The rest I can compromise on. The way I see it, home is where you base myself and live my life from: I don’t care what it looks like from the outside or how high the ceilings are.

Must haves:
Good sized garden that has not been concreted/astroturfed over
Plenty of kitchen counter space
Good public transport links
Not noisy (be it neighbours/roads/aircraft/railway etc)
Not dark in living room

Nice to haves:
More than one bathroom
Living room that overlooks garden
Garage

@HappyChristmasTreeRex

A separate kitchen and dining room, I don't like them to be combined.

See that’s interesting as I’m the opposite, a seperate dining room only if I had two other receptions rooms and a big kitchen diner.

In my social circle dining rooms are seldom used, people either eat in the kitchen on on their laps in front of the tv. The dining room is saved for things like dinner parties or Xmas. And is really not used the rest of the year,

When I host dinner parties we eat in the kitchen, I find it much more sociable, but I only have dinner parties for close friends, so it’s not formal.

Must haves -
Utility room
Garage
Hallway
Large kitchen / diner or potential to knock through

Extra reception room for a playroom
Good sized private garden
4 bedrooms

Nice to have -
Spare bedroom / study
Boarded loft
Seperate shower
Very quiet road

^^ Agree with Bluntness. I currently have a separate kitchen to the dining room, but they’re directly opposite so when people are seated at the dining table you can still speak (albeit a little more loudly!) across the hallway whilst cooking and mixing drinks. I’d prefer a big kitchen diner for proper cooking-eating-socialising.

Sound silly but one of mine when we were looking for somewhere was storage for the vacuum cleaner and ironing board.
They are bulky things you need frequently but don’t want on display.

Our requirements when looking...
-garage or gated car port (for motorbike, trailer, canoes etc
-reasonably sized garden

• two living areas, so TV doesn't dominate the only family space
• 3 double bedrooms minimum
• space for walk in shower
• good school catchment
• mortgage we pay easily and pay off in ten years.

The house we've bought isn't perfect, but we can't have everything in life.

Must haves:
Kitchen big enough for a large table
playroom
ensuite bathroom

Nice to have:
utility room
guest bedroom/study

At the lower end of the market....
somewhere to put hoover / ironing board
A lounge that’s not in the kitchen
Either off road parking or a quiet road
Some form of outdoor space
Not first floor (we have cats so need to be able to let them out)
Gas central heating
Walkable to public transport / the shops

Must have
Separate living room, dining room, playroom/study and kitchen.
Garden
Nice to have
Utility
Garage
Porch
2nd toilet

Our little end terrace has all our must haves and a utility but at the expense of a garage.

Character, period property.
3 beds or equivalent space.
Shop and secondary school walkable.
Safe area
Good for commutes.
End of terrace, semi or detached but not isolated.
Bath upstairs

Nice to haves - Beautiful views, countryside around, doctors walkable, cafes walkable, bakery walkable, close to things to do, swimming pool close. Beautiful garden of a manageable size.

My main must haves are accessibility and location. It needs to be accessible for us long term or be able to be adapted easily & when walking through I need to feel steady - I think has to do with what the floors and stairs are made of, but some places I've felt off while others I've felt more solid.

Location-wise, it needs to be either in walking distance or regular buses the kids can use for secondary school/college, have shops in my walking distance, and parks & other green & community spaces in kids' walking distance

Nice to have:

A nice front garden with ramp to the door or space for one
A back garden that is easy to maintain or could easily be adapted to easy maintained while still being a decent size for the kids
A shower room and a bathroom with a decent bath
Not having houses across the street
Off-road parking

Must have:

Separate living room which is a no toy zone.

Play room next to the kitchen.

Simple and secure garden for playing in.

Hallway

Nice to haves:

Spare bedroom

Downstairs toilet

Utility/cloakroom

Study

Space for a kitchen table as well as a separate dining room.

En-suite