Downsizing from detached to terraced

[downsizing]

We’re in the process of downsizing from a large 5 bed detached house to a mid terrace 1960’s townhouse that will see us become mortgage free.

I’m starting to worry we won’t be able to cope with the change particularly as we have 2 teenage DS’s coming with us.

Looking to see if anyone has positive experiences of a similar move.

@TedMullins

How the other half live 😂😂😂 some of these replies are hilarious to me. If you want another point of view, I have only ever lived in properties attached to the neighbours having grown up in a terrace then lived in a multitude of shared houses and flats as a young adult, then onto a flat of my own. In all my 32 years, I’ve only ever had one noise issue and that was with specific neighbours who went out of their way to be a nuisance (swearing and arguing when asked to turn music down). Thankfully, they moved out, but I can hand on heart say that I’ve never had my mental health compromised by hearing neighbours’ TV, hoover, footsteps or the occasional muffled conversation.

You must not have read my post properly. What got to me was months on end of hearing babies screaming through both sides of my bedroom walls through the night, sometimes together but mostly one would stop and the other would start, along with one parent shouting at the other that it was their fucking turn etc. All through paper thin walls. Hardly muffled conversation, it was horrendous.

I live in a semi and can't imagine moving to a terrace unless absolutely forced to financially, my next move will be into a detached bungalow so I don't need to move again and I won't have teenage neighbours playing god awful music in my retirement.

I know a two couples, empty nesters, who've downsized into terraces to go mortgage free and they seem happy enough, but I suspect they'll move again when the steep stairs lose their appeal.

We’re currently in the fortunate position that we could take out a mortgage again if we hate it and want to move back to a detached house.

Obviously things change but if that were the case we’d have to leave our current home anyway.

I can’t say I feel reassured by this thread 😂. But no one has said anything I wasn’t thinking about already, I’m just hoping the pros will outweigh the cons.

@downsizing - I feel bad for replying now! I think asking a question like this will always draw out the negative stories like mine.

I think at the end of the day, there is a risk here. It’s probably unlikely - most neighbours are ok and if you were very noise-averse you wouldn’t even be contemplating this move - so chances are it will be fine. But only you know how much change/noise you can accept, what compromises you’re happy with and whether you’d regret it more if you tried it and it didn’t work out or if you play it safe.

Everything is a risk of some sort. I feel like this contemplating taking out a bigger mortgage for a detached house. What if I still get bothered by neighbours (there are enough horror stories on here to cover all scenarios!) and I’m saddled with more debt and living somewhere I don’t like as much...

Best of luck with whatever you end up doing.

@JammyDozen

Don’t feel bad I wanted peoples honest opinions!

I admit I might have been hoping for a few more positive experiences but there’s no point being in denial about what the reality might be!

I wonder if opinions will inevitably skewed by the previous bad experiences of many detached house owners? I do live in a detached house, having been 'forced' out of a more attractive terrace in a more desirable/central part of London because I just couldn't stand the noise any more. At the moment there's absolutely no way I would consider moving back to an attached house of any kind. However DH is very keen to downsize to a flat or terrace in our old area in 5 years time so that we can be mortgage free when the dc have all left home. He is much less sensitive to noise than me, and we have plenty of friends who have lived happily in their terraces for decades, so it does make me think that to a certain extent I am the problem!

I live in a terrace (1960s) and before I lived in a terrace (1901) and never had issue with neighbour noise. Terraced houses don't have to be noisy. But how do you choose, I don't know. You wouldn't know that when viewing.

Can you talk to neighbours in the same terrace to assess their experience of noise? I did this before buying mine so fully anticipated muffled sounds (even though I was dreading it as I am more sensitive to noise than others).

A detached house in a lot of areas of London would be completely out of most people’s reach, I only know 2 people who live in detached houses and both are in the 2 million+ price range, not most people’s budget.
Most people are in semis, terraces, flats, lots are happy and don’t have massive neighbour problems (or off street parking 😂) I sometimes think what’s portrayed as the norm on MN is not the reality for many.

I moved into a two bedroomed terrace and had to store many items in the cellar and attic. They got damp. I needed to get rid of more of my possessions.

I'd always found larger houses to be cold. Terraced houses seem a lot warmer and cheaper to heat but I think heat comes from the neighbours houses too.

I've lived in a few terraced houses - most are noisier than detached and semi-detached houses. Some of the houses were quiet though which may be due to thicker stone walls.

I miss having a decent sized garden and don't like hearing my loud neighbours when I'm outdoors.

Not all semi you can hear neighbours. My in-laws have a semi, their hallway is the only part attached to the neighbours, their living rooms bedrooms are on the side where there isn't a a house attached. I've lived there before and never heard the neighbours. Obviously if your out in the garden then you'll be able to hear, but it was never loud or annoying

If you are in the fortunate position of being able to take out a mortgage again if you hate it, then why do it? Why not wait a few years until your kids are slightly older? You'd have to pay all the fees, costs and stamp duty again if you hated it, so it would negate any savings you had made.

I lived in a terraced house once, for 7 years and moved to detached as soon as I could, and wouldn't move back unless I really had to.

The benefits to being mortgage free aren't as they used to be, now the mortgage rates are next to nothing and there is nowhere decent to save the extra money. Personally (especially with teens) I would be choosing bigger house and nicer surroundings with a mortgage unless I really needed the extra money for a specific purpose.

Are there many pros on your list, apart from being mortgage free and possibly lower heating bills? Cons for me would be the increased noise, proximity to neighbours and lack of garden privacy, party wall issues if work is needed, no side entrance so everything having to be traipsed through the house, presumably fewer parking spaces, smaller living space, no guest bedroom, less room for teens to have friends over. Pre pandemic the house and garden was always full of teens.

Good luck with your plans though and I hope you don't mind me giving an honest opinion.

OP, I have just downsized from a 5 bed, please don’t underestimate how stressful & expensive moving is, not something I would do again in a hurry, unless you are certain, don’t do it would be my advice.

We’re definitely moving, so the expense and hassle will be incurred either way.

It’s just a matter of deciding if the terrace is the right house for us.

There are no parking issues two off-road spaces on the driveway and street parking. Even in our current house with big garden we get disturbance from neighbours bbq’s and music in the summer, annoying garden noise can happen whatever type or size of house you have.

Hmm I’m still very wary about the internal noise but space, room for the boys friends, parking, separate garden access from the rear of the garden are all things I’m not worried about.

Before my bad experience I had lived happily in flats, and many other mid terraced houses. The mid terraced house I moved from was great for the first few years so it's definitely not all bad.

In total that accounts for 18 years of no neighbour noise issues.

Unfortunately the 2 years next door to families screaming at each other day and night was enough to make me go detached and made me realise how bad neighbours can be.

I live in a Victorian end of terrace. I rarely hear my neighbours and certainly not ordinary sounds like going up and downstairs and watching TV. I occasionally hear the children but it is just small boys getting a bit excited. I agree that old houses are probably more sound proof than new builds unless the new builds are sound proofed.

You have probably already sold your detached home OP, so anyone on here advising you to stay put has missed the boat.

However, as a mum of teens and a smaller child, I cannot imagine moving to a smaller house (unless of a financial crisis) when the boys are teens still living at home. I think that is when they need most space. I live in a period semi that seemed huge when we moved in - DC were 7, 5 and unborn . Now they are older and DH and I are pondering moving to a larger home!! We are torn between extending where we are or moving.

But if you have not bought the terrace I would reconsider it and try to at least find a period semi - living in a house where you can hear every argument or TV programme that your neighbours watch is awful. We spend thousands on our last house trying to sound-proof the house as the neighbour played loud dance music into the night - we still heard the music!

We live in a 2 up 2 down semi. The layout is that all rooms adjoin the same rooms as the neighbour's, apart from kitchen and upstairs bathroom.

We hear a lot of noise, mostly living noise e.g. walking around upstairs and creaking floorboards, talking on the phone, sneezing, loud yawning, hoovering, swearing etc. The worst of it though is when the neighbour decided to embark on a 3 year long construction project. Honestly, it was the most awful experience with constant drilling, hammering, loud workmen...all going on at weekends and evenings etc. It ruined the relationship we had with the neighbour as they just didn't care one bit about how it was affecting us. It was the fact that we had no idea when the noise would start/stop and the fact you cannot escape from it, short of leaving the house.

One thing to also consider is if any potential neighbours have a dog. I love dogs, but the amount of people who leave them barking and whining all day is insane. Our neighbour, you guessed it, has a dog too, but thankfully it is not left too often. However, the barking at the front door, during play etc can get a bit much at times. Atleast in a detached the sound would be somewhat muffled.

We are in the process of moving to a detached and have done many reconnaissance missions to check out the area and neighbouring properties at different times of day and night. It is amazing what you find out. I would recommend anyone buying a property does the same.

I've lived in 3 terraced houses. One was fine and I heard very little from the neighbours. One was a 1960s ex council, so pretty flimsy walls. I heard a lot of day-to-day noise like the tv, radio, dog barking etc, but as the neighbour was a nice old lady it would stop pretty early. DH travels a lot for work so it was actually quite comforting to hear her moving around.

However, current house is in an area with lots of young renters and it's been a pain. We hear their parties, talking and tv noise through the walls. We get people moving in and out each year and never get to know them, so we resent the noise. We also have a family downstairs with noisy kids and their fights/tantrums can be ferocious.

So I'd say it depends on your neighbours. We plan on moving later this year and we're seriously considering a detached place even though it means a less favoured area. Research I did suggested that soundproofing was hugely expensive and often ineffective

I've always lived in terraces or semi's and never been bothered by noise. Sometimes we hear the neighbours going about their lives but that's normal and doesn't bother me. In fact I find it reassuring, especially at night, I like to know there are people around. Next door have a new baby and I very occasionally hear distant muffled crying that's about it. I don't think you will know how you feel about the noise until you try it out, people react so differently to noise levels. I think your plans sounds brilliant, and like you say if you realise it's not working you can always change later on.

Ok I'm massively panicking now

What if the detached house is in a rubbish area?
We moved from the city to a semi rural town to afford a detached house
And it's awful, there's absolutely no job prospects here and just nothing, it's lonely isolating and just crap, have to drive everywhere and I'm sick of it.
Very 'small town mentality' aswell which has been horrible...
So we are planning on moving to a semi in an amazing area in the city!
I'm hoping the benefits (me getting a job, being able to do some training courses, hobbies, walking to all the bars, restaurants, friends, walking distance from both our families) will be so worth it!

Also my mil and parents both have semi detached houses and I have literally never heard their neighbours.
Even growing up I just don't ever remember hearing neighbours at all so fingers crossed we get lucky...

Ahhhh off to overthink this for the next 3 hours....

I have just moved from a big 5 bedroom detached house post separation, into a mid terrace 3 bed.

I love it. Things I love:

Not having to clean the damn huge house. I am constantly amazed how little time it takes to clean my terrace and therefore how much time I get back.

Maintenance - the detached house was a constant round of maintenance, because obviously it had 4 external walls and also 5 different roof levels - including 3 flat rooves (nightmare!) It was like painting the Forth bridge - once you got to the end re. decoration and maintenance you had to go back to the beginning and start all over again.

Bills - my terrace is sooo cheap to heat as it only has 2 external walls front and back, no huge loft space sucking heat out, and you kind of get insulated by the houses next to you.

Security - XP used to work away quite a bit and it would just be me and DD in this rather huge house with plenty of access points for potential burglars - I actually got bolts on my bedroom door for the nights when he was away. And one night when someone did try and kick our front door in and XP was home, he didn't hear because he was at the back of the house at the time leaving me to deal with it!!

I am fortunate to have quiet neighbours but yes of course I hear them at times, but I quite like it and find the sound of other humans quite reassuring in lockdown!

I had a huge garden - again, a nightmare to maintain without paid help. I had three huge trees and come November I had to do the back breaking work of clearing up two trillion leaves only to find another two trillion on the lawn the next day! I do NOT miss that.

Do I miss the space - a little I guess, but it only encouraged XP to hoard stuff because we had so much space to store crap. The amount of crap we had when we eventually started sorting out to pack up was embarrassing actually. My terrace teaches me to be selective and only keep stuff I really love or is really useful. Large houses cause you to hoard a bit.

So all in all I can say - downsizing from detached to terrace living suits me.

@Vintagevixen I think I love you 😄

So nice to hear a positive viewpoint

@Vintagevixen what a lovely positive post. I moved house just before Christmas, from a 3 bed end terrace that was built in the 90's to a 30's mid terrace in a slightly less desirable area. I did it for the money - I had £60k equity and I've reduced my mortgage by £30k and taken 3 years off it and have money left over to renovate. I'm single with a 19yo ds.

Yes it's taken some getting used to, I can hear most things from the neighbours on my 'living' side but then they will also be able to hear my son on his Xbox until late

I would much prefer to live in a semi or an end terrace but for me, the fact this takes me closer to being mortgage free is priceless. Lots of advantages too as @Vintagevixen has pointed out.