Happy living in a one bedroom flat

[tefalfortinfoil]

I live in Central London. It's a nice area with lovely regency architecture.
Dh and I share a one bedroom flat. It's small (less than 50sqm). But we love living so centrally, love the building, have lovely high ceilings, and have filled the flat with art and pretty furniture. We rent.

Lots of our friends ask us why haven't we moved further out to get something bigger, or why don't we get a two or three bed?

Is anyone else content in a fairly small space? For us it means we get to live the 'London lifestyle' and eat out, but also to invest money for retirement. Friends who have bought places further out are mortgaged up to their eyeballs and constantly fretting about the housing market or doing work.

Unless you are in social housing with security of tenure you risk being evicted when your contact ends if the landlord decides to evict you.

This is why people buy in this country.

I did this pre kids and was very happy.

Smaller space = less potential for clutter and less need for housework. And if you have a decent budget then moving every so often isn’t so much of a problem.

Enjoy!

I'd love a one-bed flat! I hate cleaning.

I find it very hard, similar size, not central London but that wouldn't suit me.

however, if you are happy, it doesn't matter what others think.

I live in a similar size 1 bed in central London. It's just me. I can walk to work, to the gym, great bars and restaurants, everything is within walking distance. I love it! I don't need more space for just 1 person. My mortgage is paid off. I live a nice life. Works for me.

The space sounds fine - and even lovely and cosy. I loved living in a 1 bed with my DH - also in London

I guess it’s the question of whether renting offers you enough security or not - which is a separate question

but to be honest it sounds like you are switched on and living your best life so good on you!

i think perhaps OP owns?

I loved my 1 bed flat, and our rent was very secure because our landlord was a local property company who rent out property. They’re literally called the “xxxxxtown Property Trust”. We lived there happily for nearly 5 years but moved into a house because we both WFH a lot and wanted a study each, and a garden, though the garden bit was Covid madness because now I never use it 😂 At all! TBH I would like to live in a flat again and be more central as now I realise what we’ve sacrificed for more space, but probably 2-3 bed as working from your dining table which is also your living room was pretty shit.

I would want a bit more space (ie two bed or a larger one bed!) but otherwise sounds great. Everything on your doorstep and easy to get around without needing a car.

First paragraph of OP says they rent.

Fair point yes, but you can get a lease for longer than one year. And in some locations, buying is actually far more costly than renting. As long as you invest most of the difference wisely, then renting can be better.

TBF, our rent was £720 a month and no maintenance to do, whereas our mortgage is £1000 a month, £500 of which is interest, plus we’ve spent so much on getting work done and maintenance that we’ve not saved much at all. We genuinely would have saved more renting as we were saving 1k a month each in the flat. I guess there’s the opportunity cost of not buying when we did, we got 1.99% interest whereas now it would be more like 5%. But yeah, it’s not a clear cut “buying=better”, I doubt our house is going to go up in value loads either.