Planning to start family, should we stay in current home or move before kids arrive?

[Rosestar123]

Hello,

My partner and I (27 & 28) currently live in Walderslade, Medway. We were FTBs in May 2018. At the moment, we have a low mortgage £560pm at 2.19%.
We bought the house under our max budget, we were keen not to outstretch ourselves and wanted somewhere could add equity too. Due to the low mortgage, we are able to save £1.5k a month currently (after bills, fun things, etc paid). Bought for £170k - houses on street with the same layout have sold between £185-197K over the last 2 years.

It is an end of terrace, 2 allocated parking spaces to the side of the house, big garden, 2 bedrooms but a very small living space. Our downstairs is one open plan rectangle, which is our kitchen, dining, living and my home office (homeworker due to COVID). So I am feeling very squished! Which hasn't helped from working from home the last year and being in the same room. And its only me, my OH and dog living here.

We are planning on getting married in August 21 (fingers crossed) and then plans to start a family shortly after.
For context, we are both public sector workers, and no large pay increases on the horizon! I am the main earner, which will have an impact on our take-home pay when I do go on mat leave.
We are paying for the wedding ourselves and currently paying off all our credit cards so come August we will be married and have no wedding or credit card debt! We will then begin the house saving in earnest.

The question we have been toying with, should we stay where we are and have kids here and move in 2/3 years.
Or move next year to somewhere bigger prior to kids.

OH feels it's better to stay where we are, save as much as we can (due to low mortgage v. income), and says move after we have 1st child. That way we can move to forever home and I not turn around a few years later and want to move again to somewhere bigger (which he has a fair point). He thinks that a lower mortgage means when I go on mat leave I can be off for longer as we'd have smaller overheads etc.

However, I feel the space is too small for a family, worried that we will feel on top of each other and that if we spend the next 2 years saving, by the time we do move we will have been outpriced to what we want. Is it worth to have ££ sitting in the bank when it could be best put to use invested in property? If we were going to move, the mortgage advisor says that we'd roughly be lent a max £335,000. We'd need to add a deposit on top which we'd get from equity and savings. But that's looking at mortgage payments circa £1,200.
Ideally would like a 4-bed detached house, garden, and family living space. So I'm worried that getting what I wanted for our current budget is pushing it and if house prices rise even more we will have to go for somewhere smaller.

Thank you! Appreciate any thoughts.

Picture attached of floorplan of the current house.

As the parent of a toddler and another on the way, it’s living space you need. Bedrooms are a non issue given the general nighttime disruption of small people anyway (and ours is an excellent sleeper).

If you have a large garden I’d 100% go for adding a garden room as a playroom. Then you could stay where you are as long as financially necessary.

I moved before we had our DS and it was a mistake. We thought it was an ideal house for bringing up kids but had no idea what a family actually needs. So we’ve only been here since July ‘18 and are on the market again looking for a more sensible house.

Also buying and selling houses right now is not for the faint hearted. Check out some of the other threads or the news. Many houses are not selling for the list prices you see but much much more which means houses that look affordable actually aren’t.

Also you might attract more for your house than it’s really worth right now but if you’re upsizing you can expect to pay massively inflated prices to move as the same % on a bigger house means more £££.

If I were you, I’d 100% stay put.

I would wait. I am sorry people assume starting their family will begin straight away and it does for some but can take years for others. Why move to a big house planning on having children and put that financial and emotional pressure on yourself to get on with it? We can't tell our bodies what to do.
Also, one thing hopeful parents often don't think about is schools. If I was advising anyone, pick a house where you think you are going to like the relevant nursery, primary and high school. Of course things might change but once your children are on an established path they will make friends, you will make parent friends to help with lift sharing etc - and its easier to stay in that grove then say right you have to go to a different high school on a bus because we've discovered our local high is not so good.

If you already know you'd want to upsize, move before kids. We did and it was 💯 right for us. You'll be eaten up with them once they've arrived and the hassle of moving won't appeal at all, but the things you dislike about current home will bother you more.

As your DH says you can save but I think prices on family homes will continue to creep up and cancel this out. Moving in 2-3 years your kids will be very young still, and nursery fees / mat leave could restrict your borrowing "on paper".

The mortgage increase will feel painful when the childcare costs kick in but that part is reasonably short-term, meanwhile you'll all benefit from the extra space at home. Plus it's some relief that a crying newborn at 2am isn't disturbing an attached neighbour!

Obviously don't do anything that would give you sleepless nights, and only proceed if you feel you could manage the payments. But there's never a great time to move, if you can make it work I'd go for it now.