House vs Flat

[housevsflat]

First time poster but long-time follower. Sorry for the long post!

I inherited my family home following the death of my parents and sold it earlier this year, currently living in rented after a flat purchase fell through. I am in the fortunate position of having around £400k to spend on a property, mortgage free, although I would prefer to not spend the entire budget.

I am torn between two properties and would love some outside opinions:

Property 1 - House
2 bed, Victorian terraced house in a larger town, been on the market since January, asking price £390k (I wouldn’t go above £375k)
Pros
· Recently renovated, no work needed in the foreseeable, but obviously the higher expense of the upkeep
· Outside space, easy to manage garden
· Walking distance to town centre, close to friends
· Walking distance to station
Cons
· On-street parking, but I’ve driven down there at all times and there's always been spaces directly outside
· 1hr30 to work, longer with rush hour traffic (although I work shifts so not always an issue)
· Old property, would likely need a lot of upkeep
· Higher end of budget

Property 2 – Flat
2 bed Flat in smaller town, only recently come to market, asking £325k (cannot afford a house in this town)
Pros
· Easier upkeep
· Under 1hr drive to work, close links to motorway
· Walking distance to station, quicker & cheaper to get to London than property 1
· Allocated parking space
· In the long term would be easy to rent out, if say I moved in with a partner in the (distant) future
· Centre of town
· Lower end of budget, could invest the rest elsewhere
· 125 year lease
Cons
· Flat (?)
· No outside space
· Service change and ground rent (£250 a year)
· Further from friends but easy to get to larger train via train or car

Both towns are in the South East, London commuter belt.

I am single and 26yo, I’m not looking for a future proof home, so it needs to be a good investment for the next 3-5years, and I need to move sooner rather than later as I feel like I’m just wasting money in rentals.
Am I silly considering a flat over a house? Should I be looking towards the top end of my budget as property is a good investment, although is it a good investment at this point in time?

Thanks in advance!

Never a flat. Just search for threads about the nightmares people have been through trying to sell their flats. It is an eye opening read. People will tell you that they started out in a flat and moved up the chain etc, but flats are no longer a good investment. They have stagnated in value over the past 7 years

Problem with victorian properties with no parking is their future desirability/premium is going to take a big hit from a) being very energy inefficient & b) no capacity to support owning/charging an EV.

That service charge is a LOT.

House. Every time.

If someone claims to have renovated an older property be careful to check that they haven't just decorated it well.
Ask questions like the following:
How old is the boiler? How regularly has it been serviced?
How old is the fuse box? When were the electrics replaced? When were they all last checked by an electrician?
Ask them what work was done by tradespeople and what was done by them.
Ask them how old carpets and flooring are.
Ask them who installed the kitchen and when.

Hi, I just bought a flat back in March, but it is a two bedroom, very spacious and bright place with a very big wraparound balcony which opens up into a large terrace as it is a penthouse. I don’t think I would have chosen to buy some thing if it doesn’t have any outdoor space.

personally, I would not want to rent it out, you never know who you’re renting to and you still have to pay for the repairs and anything else that goes wrong. I also looked at the rent I would receive, it’s not even that high so wouldn’t really be worth it.

Option 3,

Use the £400K as a massive deposit and take out a mortgage to get something better.
The service charge and ground rent are ridiculously high. I wouldn't buy that flat.
As a rule, if I could afford it, I'd buy a house over a flat any day of the week. I would buy a flat because I couldn't afford a house, but that isn't your situation.

I wouldn't choose to buy somewhere where it took me 90mins to commute to work one way, on a good day. Not in a million years. That would get tired very, very soon.

Look at option 3.