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

Must have & will not compromise:
Can be easily resold

Almost essential (depends on area):
Detached
Private garden
Driveway parking

A downstairs toilet accessed from the hall NOT a utility room.
A garden with grass.
Dining area in/ off livingroom rather than kitchen.

Must:
Huge garden
Utility room
Detached
Light and airy feel
Parking
Homely feel

Would like
Playroom
En-suite
Neighbours that like to cook and bring me food!!

We wanted a big shed, stables or space for them, at least five acres, an Aga or Rayburn, and less than 30 minutes commute. We don’t live in the south east.

Depends where you are on 'the ladder' or, more crucially, what your finances will reach to.
Also depends on your stage of life - so when we bought here almost 20 years ago, the big garden was a real plus for dc to grow up in. Now there is no-one to play in it, I'd look for a much smaller garden so it is less work to keep tidy.
When we bought this house, we had one car for the family. Now we have 4, before girlfriends and boyfriends of adult dc come round - so, now, I'd like more parking!

etc
etc

However, I think - if money were no object, the 'detached' would be number one for me.
I also would want a downstairs toilet as minimum requirements.

It's all about the outside. We've moved quite a few times and we've stuck to a formula that works for us.

Location
Situation
Kerb appeal
South or South West or West facing private garden
Off road parking
No traffic noise

If you have all those you will never have a problem selling when the time comes.

Not really bothered about inside. That can all be changed.

We’ve got just about everything we want. It would be nice to have off street parking but we’ve never had it and what you’ve never had you don’t miss. I wouldn’t trade my pantry for it! It would be lovely to have a view though.

We are looking and don't have a huge amount of flexibility with out budget...things we wouldn't compromise in are:

• location (near our primary school)
• 3 bedrooms
• not a tiny garden (minimum around 9x11 m)
• parking

Nice to haves are:

• an extra room to have as a play room
• detached (but I'd rather have more space and a semi)
• downstairs loo

Walls. A roof. Doors

Must have

Off street parking for 2 decent sized vehicles, long enough for a van (DH works on call for emergencies from home
2 toilets, ideally 1 of which is downstairs.
More than 1 "reception" space
Garden not totally blocked from evening light.
Shed for bike storage

Nice to have.

Shower away from kids' bedrooms
Utility room so wm/tumble dryer not in kitchen/eating areas
Space for freezer in addition to fridge freezer.
Space for a piano!

@Lastfreakinglegs

Walls. A roof. Doors

My thoughts exactly! But I’d add windows as an essential too!

A yes Windows are always good

I am currently thinking of moving and my must haves are a private garden, doesn't need to be big just somewhere I don't have to watch my ndn drinking beer in his garden all day and listening to his lairly friends, good parking doesn't need to be off-road and decent sized bedrooms. Nice to have would be a third bedroom, a semi or end-terraced and a bigger bathroom. Not asking for much!

Must haves are off street parking for 3 cars and 4 bedrooms. Everything else is negotiable although 2 bathrooms, lounge at the back of the house & a second reception room would be good.

Well next one the biggest must have will be detached house!!

Other must haves will be 3 good sized bedrooms, downstairs toilet or the space to have one put in, parking, decent size garden that isn't super over looked and some space between the house and neighbours house.

Nice to have would be utility, downstairs study, garage and en suite

If I was rich then it would also be a period property with a lovely view, but I am not so it wont even feature my nice to have list

Must have is a large kitchen. No box rooms.

If I was buying I would like to have a hall, a dining room, a downstairs toilet and room in the kitchen for a big table.

My house is nothing that I wanted (other than detached) but I absolutely love it. We only found it out of pure desperation when we couldn't find anything that met our "requirements" and I completely changed my search criteria on Rightmove.

I am so much happier here then I ever would have been in a house that was right on paper.

When we bought our current house the essentials before we started looking were:
Location (school catchment for secondary)
4 bedrooms
3 reception rooms (wanted a sitting room, playroom and dining room)
Good sized garden
Size of rooms, we didn't look at any houses where the rooms were smaller than our old house.

But this will depend on what you already have, we had a detached 3 bed with 2 reception rooms and we wanted more living space and more bedrooms (3DC).

Things we got that wasn't on the essentials list that we only realised we really wanted when we looked at other houses: utility room, quiet street, high ceilings, entrance hallway (saw one house which had a hallway but they always used the back door into the kitchen), not a house being flipped, no conservatory.

Detached
Private parking
Decent sized garden
Access to countryside close by

I have done a whole house renovation, so most of what I wanted I did for myself, including large windows and a utility room.

My must haves that had to come with the house:
Detached
Quiet road without much through traffic
South facing reasonably sized garden
Off road parking

Oh, driveway was essential as well. Interestingly, the pandemic has shown that having a study far away from the living floor is fab, I really liked being far away from the kids doing schoolwork during the first lockdown. Even now DH works in the extension and I'm in the attic soas far away as possible from each other.

Small rooms, economic to run, clean lines, set in a quiet location, away from heavy road pollution or noise, good access to countryside walks, safe environment for kids, access to basic amenities a short distance away, built in the last 90 years

Detached parking 1960s ideally

Must have
Off street parking, a decent amount
A garden. With grass.
Upstairs bathroom

Nice to have
Downstairs toilet
Some sort of annexe for elderly relatives