Mortgage free or great house?

[LaAlouette]

Firstly, this is 100% a first world problem I am extremely fortunate to have.

We are moving house. They area we are going to is expensive and we have two choices:

1. Buy a cheaper house and be mortgage-free. We could afford something that is a reasonable size with nice garden, but likely semi-detached on a narrow plot.
2. Spend an extra 150k to get somewhere detached, with a nice spacious plot.

Both would be in a good location. We have secure jobs and are in our late 30s. If we got the more expensive house we could afford to repay the mortgage in 15 years or so but wouldn’t have much left over and wouldn’t be able to save more than the bare minimum for retirement etc.

Thoughts? Do we go with the flawed house to be able to relax financially or actually do we want to spend the money to have a great house?

The better house. It's where you live, you need to love it.

Absolutely 100% go mortgage free

I would always go great house, especially if under 40.

Great house

Should have put this in AIBU to get votes!

In your 30s? 2, every time, unless you feel in a precarious financial position. £150k on a mortgage at (presumably) a really low loan to value doesn’t seem like it would be the difference between feeling relatively comfortable and under great financial stress given that you’ve managed to get to a position by your late 30s where you could potentially be mortgage free.

In this financial climate ahead of a recession? Mortgage free absolutely! It might be smaller/less posh but you aren’t likely to lose it if things go sideways financially!

Depends on your circumstances, how much that extra £150k will stretch you. If not much then go for it, but now is the time to be conservative as the future does not hold any certainty.

How secure are your jobs, and what is your attitude to risk? I would always go mortgage free, but I have a low tolerance for risk and need security above all else. I love that our house is ours, and no one can take it away.

I would go mortgage free and do some travelling / nice holidays. Plus bigger house, more to heat, more to clean....

Do you need the extra room that house 2 will bring, if not I would go for the smaller house and use the money to enjoy life mortgage free

Mortgage free.

Wouldn’t even be a bigger house necessarily. Just detached and more private. I can’t work out how much value I place on that and whether it’s worth a significant chunk of our income every month.

Detached is probably better longer term, you may end up moving again if you go for a smaller semi and will waste money on all the associated costs. Not to mention how annoying the whole moving process is!

I'd go great house. Over the long term, property is a good investment and if you have calculated that you can afford the mortgage now and if the base rate rises in future, and also afford the additional bills that come with a larger property, then I think you'll love it and it'll be a good use of money.

£150,000 mortgage is hardly a fortune! There must be a variety of houses for sale. Would £150,000 extra open up possibilities? More then just detached? I would go for the better house. My DD has twice that mortgage on her own!

I would definitely go option two especially if you're in your thirties, good job m, good ltv. Maybe a small detached house. I regret daily letting DH convince me that a semi d is great and now we're stuck with very noisy and intrusive neighbours. Cannot afford to move as prices are ridiculous atm.

As long as your jobs look reasonably secure then definitely the bigger house. You are in your 30s so you have loads of time to pay it off.

Mortgage free especially in this financial climate.

I vote mortgage free.
Interesting split of opinion though.
What benefits do you anticipate from the detachedness and bigger garden? Just how private do you want to be? Is prestige important to you? Compared with retiring comfortably?

Mortgage free for me. We were lucky enough to have this choice about 10 years ago, and it's meant we can really enjoy our life with the kids, lots of travelling, weekends away, all our income is really disposable income.

It depends how much you have left over with the more expensive house. You say not much, so I would be inclined to go mortgage free and have more disposable income.

We were in a similar position after an inheritance. Extend house or pay off 90% of mortgage. We opted to extend, now I love my house with the extension but with hindsight think maybe paying the mortgage off would have been better and less stressful long term.

Mortgage free especially in the current climate when all the bills are rising

Prestige is not important to me. The advantage of detached would be peace and privacy, which I do value. Not much left over after the mortgage means less money to be spontaneous and having to watch what we spend, but we’d be able to afford the essentials and low-key holidays.

A detached house gets my vote. You’re young so plenty of time left to repay. If things sideways financially you could always extend your 15 year term.

We had nightmare neighbours in our semi (so noisy) and love the peace our detached gives us.