Move or stay?

[Pittapatcat]

I'm really not sure what to do so any advice would be great.

I live and have a mortgage on a terraced house with a living room, dining room and galley kitchen and upstairs is a bathroom and two doubles and a single. The garden is a courtyard style space. I have two young dd's in primary school.

I have been thinking it would be good to get more space for when the kids get older. So a third double, bigger kitchen and garden. We can borrow more but not enough to get everything we want. Gardens are small in the area so to get a bigger one i'de need a much bigger budget. This is our first home and in a lovely location.

BUT interest rates are on the up (our fix ends soon). Cost of living is on the up, gas and electric etc. Would this be a totally crazy time to move?

The mortgage advisor said that porting a mortgage isn't reliable so we should go on a tracker if we're thinking to move or fix with a no exit fee deal. God I'm confused🤦

I am not sure they will appreciate a bigger garden to be honest as they will be used to the one they have. Having all double bedrooms would be more of an advantage. I think we are all in for a tough time financially. I might be tempted to stay and fix for 10 years, but then I am on a low income. I can see that the interest rate thing is putting pressure on you to make a decision about staying or moving.

I’d fix with a portable mortgage for now - who is your broker? We recently fixed with L&C as brokers and they encouraged fixing but ensuring it was portable.

if you want a bigger garden for yourself, get it for you. the kids won't notice the difference.

when DC are teens they want (a) a private space to hang out with friends - bedroom or snug or similar (b) good transport links so they can walk / bus / bike to school independently and meet friends independently. Do you have those now and would you have them in a new house?

cost of living and interest rates are definitely going up, so I would not take on a bigger mortgage unless you have the kind of job with a rapid promotion track & growing salary etc.

@NeedAHoliday2021 That's weird as I spoke with L&C too and the advisor said that portable mortgages aren't reliable as the lender may not agree to lend more or refuse to port. So he suggested either go on the tracker (at 5% 😱) if moving soon or go on a short fix of 2 years with no fee if you end the deal. I thought to port too.

The garden would be for me really. But the kids do love the garden too so I think we would all love more space. But I'm aware that would change in teen years.

I would sit down with a big piece of paper or spreadsheet and really calculate the cost difference and stress test it.

Once you account for bigger Mortgage, council tax, higher utility bills, potentially more on maintenance cost with more outside walls etc how tight is it likely to be?

If the answer is tight then I'd look at fixing for at least two years. It depends how big your mortgage is as to how much of a risk penalties might be for a longer fix. Personally I'd be thinking five year fix but it depends on a lot of factors.

Are you already in a good catchment for secondary schools?

Is there anything you can do to make the house work better for how you live? Do you use the dining room? Could you open it to the kitchen? Or repurpose with a small sofa and drop leaf table. Put a wardrobe for the smallest bedroom in a hallway/ convert an airing cupboard.

Can you paint the walls of your yard and get an outdoor rug?

Also is your house likely to be an easy sell? Is the street always popular? It might be a good time to sell a less popular house when so little is on the market but otherwise it's not the time I'd choose to move if I didn't need to.

The counter argument to this would be that interest rates may well be higher in two years time so a bigger property will cost more and to consider your age for mortgage term if you think you will need to move eventually

FWIW, I’ve ported my fixed mortgage every time I’ve moved. (With the Halifax.) I ended up with two sub accounts, one for the old rate and old sum and one for the new part.

So we've had a big chat and decided to stay at least one more year. That way we can have another winter here and see how the increase in coats of living affects us over the next year. I feel it's only just beginning. And also childcare will reduce I'm a year.

@Calmdown14 we would be moving locally so location would be similar and no changes to schools or transport links. So it's a decision about the house and garden rather than area. Although we would likely move further from a park we love. We are one street away now but would probably move 15min walk away as the streets around here cost too much for the next size up house. I need another 100k then could buy what we actually want.

Our house now needs a new kitchen and it would make sense to go into the side return to double the kitchen space. I just don't know if I want that massive hassle when at the end we would still only have two doubles and a small garden.