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Original poster

House without bath - would you buy?

82 replies

Cornishsky · 08/05/2021 23:04

We have a small bathroom that needs updating. Our house is a three bedroom home. We tend to have showers not baths and are thinking of having a new bathroom that only has walk in shower (rather than shower over bath). The only thing stopping us though is whether this would significantly affect us selling the house in the future. Would lack of bath be a huge negative for home buyers do you think?

OP posts:
blueangel19 · 09/05/2021 10:07

Not a deal breaker for me. I regret not installing a walk in shower on our second bathroom as we never ever use the bath. Also, people can always add a bath/shower If the space was there to begin with.

MissingDietCoke · 09/05/2021 10:16

Absolutely not a deal breaker if everything else was right. We bought a house with 2 bathrooms but no bath but I was pregnant with 1st DC at the time so we planned in the budgeting to put one in ASAP as like PP said British kids bath time is a thing. I have never been in it (alone anyway, used to bath with the babies sometimes) as I'm a shower person and happily wouldn't have had a bath if just me and DH.

Andthenanothercupoftea · 09/05/2021 10:18

As long as there was clearly room for a bath, it wouldn't put me off.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 09/05/2021 10:26

We are replacing the bath with a walk in shower.
My parents and PILs have done similar.
In my parents case, it was decreasing mobility. Especially after my mother fell trying to climb over the side of the bath and broke her leg.

For us it's practicality. A decent, powerful shower is more use than a bath. We also only have one bathroom, so don't want to encourage people to linger in there. We have two daughters... So that's three lots of hairwashing... Easier in a shower.

We plan to be here 20years so want a house that works for us. Not potential buyers years down the line.

LushHeaven · 09/05/2021 10:34

Wouldn't put me off. Have two young children and they much prefer showers.
I think as long as there is space to put a bath back in, then most people would get over it if they felt it was a necessity.

Hallyup6 · 09/05/2021 11:01

I have young kids and it wouldn't bother me as long as there was space to reinstate one.

BlodwinTheThird · 09/05/2021 11:15

Not having a bath would devalue a house for me. If there was no space to put one in I definitely wouldn’t buy it.

As you have the room, you could always put one back in when you come to sell if necessary.

CoastAlong · 09/05/2021 11:19

I wouldn't buy a house without a bath.

ConcreteUnderpants · 09/05/2021 11:29

Build according to what suits you and your family. If that’s no bath, fine. You can always add one when you sell.
I always think it’s strange that people don’t do their homes how they want to live.

DblEspresso · 09/05/2021 11:36

I wouldn't buy such a house. Even though you could get one fitted, the size and layout can be a compromise if the design didn't factor in a bath from start.

joystir59 · 09/05/2021 11:36

We sold out two bed family home which had a large walk in shower in a newly renovated bathroom. We'd had a small bath taken out.

Amrythings · 09/05/2021 11:37

We bought without a bath when I was pregnant, wasn't an issue. We used a baby bath until DS was six months and ever since he just goes in with one of us. We'll eventually extend and add the bath back in, but I refuse to countenance shower-over-bath arrangements, I prefer the minor annoyance of no bath.

I will admit that toward the end of full lockdown we discovered that DH and I were both fantasising about having baths, specifically in the bath in the hotel we stayed after our wedding. But I think that was a lot to do with the raging cabin fever and our terrible WFH postures. It's an amazing bath though.

TeaSoakedDisasterMagnet · 09/05/2021 11:41

Wouldn’t put me off at all, I hate baths and much prefer a lovely big walk in shower.

Iwantcauliflowercheese · 09/05/2021 12:02

I wouldn't view a house without a bath. I also use it for soaking large items like duvets, not just washing myself.

onlymyselftoanswerto1 · 09/05/2021 12:49

I live in a house with only a shower and I hate it and hate that I have no choice. Will never move into one without a bath again.

Liliolla · 09/05/2021 13:02

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Baxdream · 09/05/2021 13:03

Wouldn't bother me. However if your house is a FTB type house for a young family and you're looking to move in 5 years, I'd probably put one in.
My first purchase I had no money for renovating it so I assume that's normal.

ImInStealthMode · 09/05/2021 13:08

It wouldn't stop me buying if there was space to put one back in if I decided to. I wouldn't buy a property with a bathroom that only had space for a shower.

IveNameChangedAgain2020 · 09/05/2021 13:11

I wouldn't stay anywhere without a bath (including my own home!). It's the one luxury I have!

Hebeee · 09/05/2021 13:53

We've downsized from a large house with two shower rooms and one actual bathroom to one that only had a shower room (albeit a fairly large space that with a bit of reconfiguring could fit a bath).

It didn't put us off buying, but we knew we'd be putting a bath in asap.

Not only that, but as I could lay in the bath looking out the window at the garden in our last house I wanted to be able to do that here too and the existing space (400 year old stone walls in our cottage) had no window.

So we reconfigured the entire upstairs to give me the bathroom with garden view, lol!

BiBabbles · 09/05/2021 14:30

I bought a house without a bath, though my children are older (youngest is 9) and my top bathroom priority was accessibility, so a shower with a good seat built in appealed a lot more than a bath.

However, the place does have room that we could swap the large shower tray for a bath if we wanted (it was swapped the other way when the place was adapted), which we considered doing once we've saved up to turn the downstairs WC & storage room into one larger room, but I think instead we're keeping that shower room as is because I love it as is and putting in a larger bath downstairs for those who want to soak though I'll need to look more into making sure it's as accessible as possible if/when mobility decreases further.

If you can manage to get something like Sivam did, that would likely appeal to a lot of people if you're selling in near future, otherwise do what suits your needs best.

gurglebelly · 09/05/2021 15:17

It wouldn't put me off buying but the cost of putting a bath in would definitely factor into my offer

starfishmummy · 09/05/2021 15:25

No.
In fact we viewed a house and walked away from a house where the bath was a token mini one - I'm short and would have been sitting knees under chin. Waste of everyones time.

PresentingPercy · 09/05/2021 15:49

Buyers will ask for money off. Most families in the uk want a bath. If they are not used to a bath then they won’t care but you will put off potential buyers. Only one bathroom puts off families teens as well. So I would look at all your space and make the most use of it.

Persipan · 09/05/2021 16:35

I think the problem, if it's a smaller bathroom, is that it's harder to see whether a bath would fit in if there isn't one there already.

I'd want a bath, but if I could clearly see that one could be added relatively easily, it might not be a deal-breaker. But if I can't see by looking at it that a bath would fit in, I'd be very put off.

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