If you've extended instead of moving are you glad you did??

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Our current house is in a fantastic location but we've outgrown it, it has a smallish garden and it's a semi whereas we'd love detached. Our only realistic option to extend is up into the loft which would put us over 4 floors as we're already over 3 floors (tall skinny house).

We could move but due to lack of availability in this area (we've been looking for 2 years and nothing suitable has come on) it would be a big move. Change of town, school etc.

Budget is about £800k to move, which would mean LBTT of £54k and moving costs of £10-15 kish. That would go a long way towards a loft extension...

Really torn as to what's best. Any experiences or words of wisdom? I'm worried we'll extend and still get fed up with the small garden etc then have a 4 storey house to try to sell.

I suppose for me it depends where you live. We are in the countryside, so although we have a small garden, we extended but have fields on our doorstep so for us that was the right thing to do. I guess the main question is what’s most important to you? Location or garden? Good luck! Hope it goes well whatever you decide to do.

Is the downstairs of the property big enough for your family? Will converting the loft solve the space issue you have? We had a similar dilemma but decided to move as a loft conversion would’ve made the house ‘top heavy’ in that the living areas weren’t really big enough to balance a four bedroom house and we knew we’d end up having to move eventually and might have made the house more difficult to sell - especially difficult if you need to re-coup what was spent.

I think the question for you to answer is whether the house or the location is more important to you. Your options are to stay in the fantastic location and slightly improve the house, though it still won't be the ideal house. Or, get the ideal house in a less desirable area.

I think the potential extension is a bit of a red herring, because it's still not going to fix your problems: small garden and being semi-detached. How much will the additional space improve your quality of life? Is the location enough to outweigh the small garden and being semi-detached?

We had similar thoughts here. Just had an inheritance payment and we're all for extending here, but then thought what could we buy with it instead. Turns out we need over £150,000 over our too high budget to get anything half decent and we would still need to adapt it a bit. So we are staying put and doing the work here. We do have a decent sized garden and our plans won't make the house out of proportion, which I would worry with yours being already a 3 storey.

We did a big extension and loft conversion to stay in our current house. It did greatly improve the house and I love my new big kitchen diner and loft bathroom but actually 5 years later I now want to move.

I have got a bit sick of living in a terraced house after lockdown. My neighbours have started to really irritate me and one built a huge 'garage' in his back garden (2 storey with windows??) which makes me feel very hemmed in.

We stayed here because the location is very convenient for work and school with no commute rather than because we love the area. Since the kids are at secondary school and I went back to full time work and with Covid I don't feel a part of the community as much as I used to.

All in all if you are not really happy with the house then I think that feeling will only grow. I expect you probably could be happier elsewhere

Thanks for all the thoughts. It's hard to know. We're quite risk averse so we are tempted to stay put as we know the school, area, commute etc. But people move every day and get on perfectly well in their new homes! Our children are still little - the one in school is only primary one, so now would be the time to move before they settle more.

The house would still be quite balanced I think as it's a bit short on bedroom space v living space at the moment in my view. But being over 4 floors is hard work and won't appeal to all buyers if we do decide to move in the future.

I see a lot of concern on Mumsnet about appealing to all buyers, but what's perfect for us will be very different to what's perfect for another family. Our house has quite a strange layout but we're very happy with it.

In terms of resale values, could you speak to a local estate agent about your extension plans and ask for an estimate of how much value they think it will add to your house?

The house would still be quite balanced I think as it's a bit short on bedroom space v living space at the moment in my view. But being over 4 floors is hard work and won't appeal to all buyers if we do decide to move in the future.

But you've been looking for ages and there isn't something "better" within your budget. So people may say "well, that layout isn't ideal", but then what they think is ideal isn't available, and if it is, it's not within their budget.

Even in expensive areas, everything is a compromise.

Can you get over being semi-detached for the long term? I think that's the main factor in the decision, if your location is fantastic and you can make the house suit you better with more bedroom space.

We were never going to be happy in a semi. In hindsight we waited too long being risk averse about the pre/post Brexit market, then were hit by covid, and ended up paying 25% more for a detached house than we would have if we'd bitten the bullet in 2019! It's made a huge difference in terms of both space but most importantly privacy and distance from neighbours. The market isn't going to drop dramatically any time soon so if you really do want detached I'd go for it, rather than having an expensive extension, still not being happy and moving in a few years when prices may make a detached house even more out of reach.

Also depending on where you are the cost of loft conversions also seems to have gone up hugely - maybe get a quote to help the decision.

We've estimated about £130k to do the loft conversion, a new en suite in our room, new kitchen, a few other minor improvements and a garden room/shed thingy. We're in Fife in Scotland. Prices for tradespeople are eye watering, my parents recently had some work done that I'd class as fairly minor and the original £22k estimate 2 years ago is now £55k (they've had the work done and had to pay the £55!)

Costs of moving would be about £70k in tax and moving costs. Then increase in mortgage by about £250k.

Think we are very similar TheEconomista - too risk averse and we've missed the boat in terms of price rises. Houses that would have been affordable at £800 a few years ago would now be on closer to £1m which would be a bit painful to pay. The kind of houses we want (top end of the market in our area) used to hang about for months while we dismissed them for having the wrong colour bathroom or some nonsense.

We're going to see something today at £800k so we'll see how that feels. It's the first thing we've been able to view in months so that's positive at least.

Thanks for all the replies.

I did a loft conversion to take me from a 2 to 3 bed Victorian mid terrace. Cost was about £60k vs probably £100k plus to move. We got a bigger 3rd bedroom than we would have by moving (affordable house would have been a 30's semi with box room.

I love my new bedroom it's 27ft so I have an office at the end (of it (that doesn't intrude on bedroom) There would not have been room for that in the 30's semi.

The downsides of staying were that I still had a small living room but I have since got around that be redoing the kitchen diner and getting a living area in there as well.

The only enduring downside is parking - I only have enough space for 1 car (and not a large one at that!)

However I don't have what would prob be £200k to move to a decent 4 bed so have to put up with it.

You have 2 small children maybe you “want” more space but do you “need” it, that aside a small garden is not ideal and I certainly would not add a 4th floor. That would be very unusual in a single house and not be attractive to buyers.

The housing market is crazy at the moment, it will settle down, and remember you are buying and selling in the same market.