2 bed house for a family of 3 as a forever home?

[BettyBoopBetty]

We live in an expensive area of the SE, just outside London (need to stay in this area because of work, proximity to London so not planning to move further out). We have 1 DD but not planning to have more DC.
Our budget would most likely get us a spacious 2 bed house - our ideal would be a 3 bed but there aren't many available on the market within our range and those that are available are often in need of a lot of work.

It seems that a "proper" family home for most is a 3 bed house at least, often 4 bedroom +. I don't understand how people can afford that these days, unless they are already on the ladder and can make a big profit by reselling or are very rich. We have a good income but also lots of outgoings as we have been paying a high rent + full time childcare and we would never be able to stretch to a very big house like that.

Is it weird to consider buying a 2 bedroom house as our forever home? We are not from the UK so I am still getting familiar with the housing market here etc. When I see these advertised they are almost never targeted to families, but having 1 DD means we'd be fine with just 2 bed.

Anyone in a similar situation as their forever home?

Plenty of families live perfectly happily with spare rooms, offices, playrooms etc. You expand into the space you have.

I would prioritise a good school catchment over a big house. Indeed we did... we could have got one of those shiny 4 bed new builds with a ensuite etc within our budget, but in a worse school catchment. Instead we have an older 3 bed, with quite a spacious garden, in the cheaper bit of a nice village with the best local Secondary school.

We have a 2-bed with just us and DD. I know what you mean about people commenting about moving to a bigger house - but we just don't need it. It might be nice to have an office I suppose but, that's just a 'nice to have'.

A lot of British people are obsessed with gardens and having a large not overlooked garden which comes with a bigger house. I hate gardening and would rather just go to the park...

We have a 4 bed and 2 kids, the spare room is useful for us as a home office and spare bedroom as we have a lot of family overseas.

But two bedrooms for you sounds perfect

Yes, family visits occasionally, just a few days a year so I can't base my whole decision just around 7-10 days per year. I do work from home half of the time yes. A spare room/office would be just delightful to be honest but if the living/dining area is big enough, I reckon I could compromise.

It sounds absolutely fine. Having a spare bedroom is quite a luxury nowadays, we don't have one. Also I think that location is much more important than size of house.

If you're in an expensive area of the country the forever home concept is partly down to stamp duty which makes it really expensive to keep moving.

It seems that a "proper" family home for most is a 3 bed house at least, often 4 bedroom +

No, it isn't. That's a mistaken understanding on your part.

A 2 bed home for a couple +1 offspring is perfectly normal.

We were in a 2 bed flat until DD1 was 4 and that was fine. Moved to a 4 bed when DD2 came along.

May be a sensitive question but is it possible that you might have a DC2 later along the line? We hadn't planned on DD2 and had made various plans based on being a family of 3.

We would have been happy with a 3 bed but soon found to get 3 decent size bedrooms, we needed to buy a 4 bed as one room was always a box room! If you can get two good sized rooms to accommodate teenage homework etc, 2 bed is fine

I have a three bedroom home for a four person family so the same: no spare room. Plenty of people don't have a spare room in / near London; it's a luxury.

What is useful and can make the house feel bigger than it is, is two receptions. We actually split our through-lounge (Victorian terraced house) back into the two rooms it would have been originally. So now when someone needs to be put up overnight I do have a private space for them, the front room. The other reception opens onto the kitchen and is more like a dining / family room, it's not big but we can manage for a few days.

Remember also your DD won't live with you forever. It's quite a treat to have an actual spare bed now that DC is away at at university for most of the year.

Totally fine.

We have 1 DC and have recently moved to our forever home which is technically a 3 bed bungalow but we use the 3rd bedroom as a dining room so for us it's a 2 bed.

Our family is local so we don't need a room for people to stay in. I work from home with a day or 2 in the office so I have a desk set up at home in our lounge but as my Dd gets older I can see I will share it so she can do homework.

People seem to be obsessed with large houses and space and spare rooms - which is fine if you can afford it/ have a large family etc. But if you know you won't have more children and will be happy in a 2 bed then you won't have more room to clean and heat.

We are careful now with the 'stuff' we bring into our house. So all furniture and really anything else we have is considered as we need to be careful with space (we still have a garage and loft) but having moved from a larger 3 bed house (spare room used to dry clothes essentially) we had stuff to dispose of and don't want to accrue it again.

Also I second other comments about living space - this is more Important- nice garden good size kitchen/lounge/dining room. Is your child still young and in the Peak toy stage? Life changes so the way you use rooms will change too. So for example we have a lovely sun lounge currently used as a playroom/toy room. In 2-3 years we will be out of that stage nearly and we will convert it to a nice sun lounge again with chairs etc - somewhere nice for us all to sit and an extra room for dd to sit with friends when they come over.

Thanks all. I agree re the living space being more important than an extra bedroom. I’d like a decent size living room + dining space, ideally. Not sure if it’d make a big difference in terms of bills because some spacious 2 bed have the same sq mt as some average 3 bed.

I think it's absolutely fine. My mil lives in a typical Victorian 2 bed terrace house, if we only had the one child it would be more than big enough for us as a family. We have three children and live in a three bed house. We have a larger ground floor (single story extension) which provides ample living space for us as a family and will continue to as the children grow.

OP you'll probably find there isn't much more space in a 3 bed. Rather than having 2 double bedrooms you will often have one double bedroom, one single and a boxroom. Realistically you're better off as you are.

Where I live, on a council estate, many of the houses are 2 bedrooms.

There are some that are 3 and even some 4 bedrooms but they are rare. As are the lovely Parlour homes (2 bedrooms, dining area, living room area) where most people take down the wall and have one long living room.

The only reason a 3 bed is standard is because people used to have 2 children. Although before that people had more kids, so go figure. 2 bed makes sense if you only have one DC!