If you chose between location and property size which did you go for and do you regret it?

[donkey86]

When we moved to our current town about six years ago DH and I very much prioritised location. It’s a seaside town and we wanted to be walking distance from both the beach and the railway station. So we accepted that we could only afford a fairly small terraced house.

For the most part I’ve been happy with the decision even though it means our DDs sharing a room. It’s great to have everything in walking distance, especially as DH can’t drive. But yesterday I went around a new friend’s house at the far end of town. It’s massive! Four bedrooms, a lovely garden, a driveway. When I got home I looked on Rightmove (I’m nosy!) and I saw that a very similar house near them is on sale for less than ours is worth. Despite being well over twice the size!

So of course now I’m thinking of how much house we could have if we moved to the suburbs. But they don’t even have a corner shop close by. They drive everywhere. There aren’t many buses either. And DH would never agree. But that lovely garden - oh, I’d like one like that! We only have a courtyard patio.

I was just wondering how other people feel? If you went for location, do you pine for a big house? If you went for the house, do you get frustrated having to drive for a pint of milk?

Location every time, we moved from my "dream house" - 2800 square feet with attached double garage) to "nothing to write home about" house (2300 square feet, single garage) because of the school district. We are in a first ring suburb, about 1/2 a mile from the city limits. Don't regret it for a minute.

We have restaurants, cafes, a bookstore, liquor store, vet, and 3 parks all within walking distance. My kids can be pretty "free range" which I love. I miss my old house - more for the wow factor than anything - but the convenience and walkability makes up for everything.

Location for me was key. Made doubly important now I’m on Mat leave. I am a city girl and love having shops, banks, supermarket, coffee shops a short minute walk away. It’s helped me feel connected on Mat leave. Even if I don’t speak to many people every day I am out for a walk or a chore in the hustle and bustle of the high st.

However our house is a diy job which I regret. Couldn’t afford a done up house here.

I have to have a train/tube, shops & amenities within a 10 min walk.

Location, location, location. I choose house size over location in my last property and I was miserable living there and stuck somewhere I hated being for 4 years. Now we've moved but could no longer afford the 'nice' area as that went up much more in price than where we were living so we've moved to a different part of the country. We're really happy where we are now but if we'd taken the location house initially I think we'd still be there and close to old friends.

At first I went for house over location. The house was spacious and I loved it, but the anti-social behaviour made me on edge. I was only there 6 months & sold it. Moved to a really lovely village but much smaller house, nice neighbours, schools, park etc for the kids. They have their own bedrooms but ds room is tiny. For me I will always choose location and will upsize when i can afford to.

Location definitely.

We chose the bigger house in a slightly out of the way location. Such a PITA having to drive to everything.

Couldn't go for one drink after work as that meant £30 in a taxi home. Was going to be difficult once kids were at secondary school for them to get home.

Moved to a smaller house with school, train station, shop, pub, restaurants in walking distance. So much happier.

Always location, no regrets. Location always resells more easily IMO.

Just use a bike, or get an e-bike if you’re are just in the burbs. Get your food shopping delivered.

Location for me 100%. I've always chosen the best I could afford in a really nice place over more space somewhere not so nice.

We're in a 'naice' suburb about 15 mins walk from the village in one direction and 20 mins walk from a small town in the other. Small town is on the tram into the city. The schools are excellent and were walkable for DC.

When DC got older and the 3rd bedroom was too small, we were able to extend into the loft and make a 4th bedroom.

Our area is now very expensive. There is no way we could afford to buy our house now so I'm glad we stretched ourselves all those years ago.

Location for us. We bought a very run-down house in, IMO, the nicest bit of the city we live in. We’ve slowly been doing the house up and now, with an extension, it’s a great size for our family. The kids can walk to their primary, and now secondary schools, 2 lively parks on our doorstep, corner shops, pubs, restaurants all close by and takes 20 minutes to walk into the city centre. We can both bike to our workplaces. The downside is garden size and the peacefulness that can come with rural living. I do sometimes dream of a cottage with a large garden surrounded by fields, but, in reality, the convenience of where we live now will always trump the dream.

I kind of went for a balance of both. I was priced out of the initial area I was looking in, I could only have afforded something very tiny and the competition would have been fierce. I chose to move to a seaside town that had all the amenities I was looking for where I could afford something a bit bigger. Prices have risen here massively so if I sold up I could afford a house in the original area but I love it here too much to leave.

Ours is a bit of balance. We moved from a swankier part of zone 3 London to a less glamorous zone 4 suburb to get a house (we could only afford a flat in our previous location) for our family. We have more space here which we love. Bedroom each for the 2 kids, dedicated home office as I wfh and my DH is hybrid.

But this move also driven by location. Catchment areas for school, proximity to tube (we moved pre covid when we were then both commuting to central London each day).

We could have got/could still get a bigger house in another location but unless we moved to a completely different part of the country, I don’t see it as worth it in the south east. Our local high street is pretty grotty, could live somewhere more “naice”, but I like the realness of where we are. We have loads of great parks/green areas near us, can get to motorways easily when getting out of London and have everything central London has to offer a few stops away on the tube. I see this location as offering the kids freedom and opportunity when they are teens/young adults. So it’s good for us.

ultimately though nowhere is perfect. There’s always trade offs. You just have to work out what is more important to you.

Location for me. We live semi rurally and the kids are out building dens and bridges over streams while the village is half a mile away. Kids can still bus it to their Saturday jobs and cinema in town.

We've just moved for location.

Doubled the mortgage, house (if you balance all the give and take) is about the same.

But all 7 schools around us are Outstanding. We have 4 children, so removes the fear of getting into the best school - they are all "best".

Plus, the village community is amazing, I would never have imagined this welcoming community spirit existed.

Location location location!

Family of 4 in a 2 bed flat but we live in a really nice part of central london and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Chose location over larger garden. I love gardening. At the moment, mid 50s no kids at home, the location is perfect. I plan to move when we retire, for a bigger garden. Just as this one I’ve planted matures….and someone will rip it out for car parking.

anyway, walking everywhere, shop round the corner has much to recommend it.

Depends what you mean by “location” our choice was between living in the centre of naice market town within walking distance of everything, but compromising on garden size and views, or living a short drive away in a bigger property.

We chose the bigger house and we LOVE it, it was actually more expensive than the central houses. We do have to drive everywhere but that’s not really an issue for us and taxis (and an infrequent bus) are readily available.

However whilst rural, the area we live in is still beautiful and very desirable with good schools. If the choice was between a good area and a shit area then I would 100% choose the good area.

We chose house, I grew up in a large house in the country and that was always the kind of house I wanted for myself as an adult. Husband and I both worked from home so we could live anywhere in the country (within reason).

We found a 7 bedroom house on 8 acres and it’s heaven. Feel so lucky to live in this wonderful house, it has everything we could possibly want and I hate leaving it. We are rural and I drive a lot to take children places but it’s completely worth it for the house.

We are very unusual in choosing house over location, but we did the location thing in London and our flat was just not great, small, pokey and dark, we were out all the time so it mattered less but it certainly influenced us in wanting to find a house we loved.

We chose the bigger house with an amazing view but we are still on the edge of catchment for a good high school. Different for us though as both drive and can also walk short distance to corner shop (hill walks even closer) and 20 minutes walk to supermarket/doctor/dentist, on a bus route too at supermarket stop.

Bought for location primarily. Very Accessible area, so well connected for services and transport. Luckily we're near a beautiful river and parks too.

It's a mix of things, really, that has kept us here. Mainly, there has never been a pressing reason to move. The catchment secondary school is not great, but it was cheaper for us to go private than to move to a better catchment!

We have a nice house on an attractive street, with good neighbours. The house and area don't have everything we might want, but there is everything we need.
Occasionally I see something advertised that catches my eye, but it's always swings and roundabouts. The last one was a gorgeous flat in a converted stately home (so presumably better soundproofed than our old flat). But it is out of town, with a mile walk to a village with a bus stop, where the buses are infrequent, so you'd have to drive everywhere. Here we have buses round the corner, leaving every few minutes. We can walk to the main station or into the city centre, or to the supermarket or sports centre.

Although the kids are grown up now we are not looking to downsize - our house isn't huge, one offspring is still at home, 3 of us are working from home... so a smaller house in a different area wouldn't work for us. I suppose we could afford a more expensive house now, but I'd rather spend my money on other things.

We picked our home based on the amount of space it had. It was cheap and had been on the market for years and we wanted to be mortgage free. We were moving with my Dad so needed 2 bathrooms. We wanted a big garden and to be near a bus stop. There were only 3 that had all we needed so we went for the cheapest. Nearly finished doing it up 10 years later. It is home!

Tiny house in Edinburgh Vs larger house in town on the outskirts. Never regretted it even tho I spent a few years on the sofa bed before eldest moved out.

Kind of a compromise. It would be nice to be somewhere with coffee shops and pubs etc within a say 5 mins walk but no suitable houses available in such places within my budget, and we did need space as I work from home. Agree with PPs it's also about the type of house: I wanted something solid and well-built and with potential to extend later too, with decent sized rooms. Also would not be prepared to sacrifice driveway, decent size of garden, good school catchment or quiet, no-through road. But I wouldn't have moved somewhere that children can't walk to places when older as I want them to be independent. Mainline station are less than 15 mins walk as are Waitrose, restaurants/ cafés, leisure centre, etc. Or to somewhere without a good taxi service or shopping/ food delivery services etc.

A friend moved about 30 mins drive from here and bought an absolutely huge and beautiful house but it's in the middle of nowhere. Fine with two pre-school kids who enjoy the outdoors but I think now they are getting older and she has realised she'll be driving them around everywhere until they are old enough to drive themselves! Also means meeting friends has to be planned in advance. I guess we all have to make compromises and which work best for you will depend on your lifestyle.

When it comes down to it most people are making some kind of balanced compromise between the 2, I very much doubt anyone here (with kids at least) is buying a studio apartment to be in Westminster for example (extreme example I know London isn't what everyone is striving for).

Most people know where their lines are drawn in terms of what they're looking for in terms of location and what they need in the minimum for a home. I never believe anyone that says location, location, location. Just look at the programme, more often than not they push the boundaries of the location search and a lot of the time that clinches it.