How am I ever going to afford a bigger house?

[rootsandwings89]

We bought our first home 1.5 years ago, we have 3.5 years left before our mot gave renews and we'd like to be in a position to buy a bigger home by then.

We have 2 x small children and a dog living in a small 3 bed Semi. It will do for now, but we definitely feel like we need more space and we don't have much privacy as it's quite open planned. I also feel our children won't be able to move out until they're much older so I want a house big enough for 4 x adults to live in.

We don't have any inheritance and we are currently clearing our credit card debt which should be done by the end of the year. That gives us 3 years to save, which sounds great but house prices seem to have jumped loads!

How do people afford to move to a bigger house without inheritance??

We were in our previous home 12 years and had built up a fair bit of equity. That, combined with my husband’s earnings increasing meant we could afford to upsize

I agree with the sentiments of most of the PP.

Chill and be grateful for what you have.

Myself and my partner (no kids) have lived in a 1 bed garden flat that we own for the last 7 years. It is only now when we have a good amount of equity collected and better paid jobs that we are finally able to move to a 3 bed house, which we are going through the process now.

Honestly, try and appreciate what you have - a lot of people would love to have healthy kids and a 3-bed house. No point worrying about future possibilities

I think sometimes you just have to accept your lot and hope for better things in the future. We are stuck in a two up two down with a 12 year old DS sharing with his 8 year old sister. We were supposed to move last month to a bigger place but it fell through a week before our move date, we hope to get moved next year after I'm earning more money. Its a pain but just gotta suck it up if you can't change it any time soon.

@rootsandwings89 Actually I have a friend who regrets not at least looking into moving as their 3 bed starter home with a box room now with 4 adult sized people in it feels very small compared to when they bought it as a couple. The jump now is too big from their house to the next one and they are stuck because of schools.

Things I would suggest. You have 2 children so school catchments are going to be a consideration. I think most people move for a good primary, a lot don't consider another move for a secondary, we did. It meant the primary school commute (kept them in their original school) wasn't that far but it does dampen play dates with parents feeling put out on collection so I would always offer to drop them back home. After all I am the one that moved. So look ahead to secondaries. We moved when Ds1 was in year 3.

Look into cheaper areas, we managed this because the local primary wasn't great so the house prices were much cheaper as no one wanted the requires improvement primary, remember lots of primaries feed into just one or two secondaries. We looked into admissions for secondaries and the likelihood of getting in.

Look at houses that need work and have the potential to extend. Again this is us, we bought a house that needed new windows, boiler etc but it is a house we have been in for over a decade and we will be here for another 10.

The younger you are the longer you can push your mortgage term too, the longer you leave it the less options you have for that. Run some numbers on London and Country best mortgages and change the term.

Look at ways to increase your income and cut down your spending.Get rid of all debt and have a good hard look at why you have credit card debt. Looking back was that avoidable? What are your spending habits like? Retraining, improving current job prospects. What courses do your companies offer?

Most people don't move every few years, the stamp duty and legal fees start making it a bad decision financially.

Our 3 bed is the bigger house we saved 10 yrears to move to, but actually I do feel like my I wish my older teen could have a room that fitted a double bed in, and Im conscious he will leave home young i think to get somr space. so I dont think its wrong to think about longer term plans if you can.

Literally all you can do though is save, earn more and move to cheaper areas or inherit. Some people extend but thats not so cost effective now

Most people don't move after five years nowadays. I think there was a period of time when house prices went up so much people 'made' a lot on their house so had more equity, so they were able to move quickly. But generally, no.

Also, in years gone by people could afford to buy a starter home in their early/mid 20s, work on it to add value pre-kids, then build up enough equity and increased seniority at work meant they could afford to buy a bigger house in their late 20s/30s.

Now people (especially the further south you go) are renting into their 30s, can't afford a deposit until they're earning well, and end up buying their first house much later. They're maybe already management level by then so fewer career gains, having kids before 45 is biologically essential so you have the added cost of childcare, and suddenly no-one can afford to move up the ladder.

I'm in my early 40s and the only people I know who've moved from their first, small house had an inheritance. And realistically, that's the only way we'll move out of our small three bed.

People are so entitled. There is nothing wrong with your house size to family members ratio. I know of bigger families in far smaller houses.

I think given the crazy house price rises of the last 2 years we will never be able to upgrade to a bigger place. And maybe the same will happen to you too. The jump in our area would be some 300-400k extra for one more bedroom + bathroom. It's not possible so we will stay in our 3 bed flat and make do.

And some people are so judgemental. I'm not entitled at all, I've worked hard to get what I have, never said I don't appreciate it or there was anything wrong with it. I said I think we will need more space because I don't think my kids will be able to leave home until they're a bit older. But thanks for the advice :)

I worry that's your right. I wasn't sure if other people had the same thoughts or not. I just don't see how we can ever do it.

Thank you :)

Thanks :)

I do know how lucky we are to have what we have, I grew up with nothing as a kid. I think that I have a problem where I can't stop either word I bf about the future or panicking that I'm not doing enough for my kids lol.

You are making yourself miserable about a situation in the distant future that may never arise. Please try to chill out and be thankful for what you have. For the next few years, everything is just fine as it is.

Thanks :), I know I have a problem with over-worrying and over-thinking. Hearing a few people say so on here has actually made it sink in with the house.

Pay rises and savings.

When we had 4 DC in a 3 bed open plan house 18x22' my cunning plan was that they rented us an over 55 apartment and they lived in the family home. We had one in the loft storage room that if you were under 5' you could stand up in the middle.

As it turned out when they were aged 9-17 we relocated and got a small 5 bed. Just meant that partners have moved in 😜

Where do you live? I'd sit tight and keep doing what you're doing; paying off the credit cards etc. Moving twice in five years would be expensive so whilst I'd keep an eye on the property market - maybe for a doer-upper - I'd not put pressure on yourself to move too soon.

Overpay the mortgage as much as possible which will increase your deposit on the next one. Taking shorter terms on the mortgage also helps keep interest payments down which might mean higher monthly payments but you end up paying down the mortgage capital way quicker.

We have done it several times now via overpayment and each small step up was not so much hassle, even paid off the last mortgage before moving and saved the equivalent payment for a few years to add to our current purchase to max out what we could get.

This has meant few treats, cheap cars and crap holidays (if at all) but it is worth it to us.

When DH and I married we had 5 DCs between us so needed at least 6 bedrooms plus an office space. We had to move to a cheap area, and bought a dirt-cheap big Victorian 8-bed semi for the same price as 3-bed semi in the nice area we’d moved from. It needed everything doing to it and we pumped every spare minute and spare penny into doing it up for years. By the time we’d finished it all but one of the kids had moved out. I (eventually!) adored the house, but hated the area, so we sold up and were able to buy a 4 bed detached in a nice area. They’re all adults now, but only one still living at home. We’ve got plenty of space for when they come to stay. Don’t panic, there’s no rush. We did all this over 15 years. We made huge sacrifices, but it turned out okay in the end!

If you haven’t afforded to move by the time your kids are adults maybe once they start work they could contribute to the mortgage if you moved. By that time, hopefully you will have paid off your mortgage by overpaying and coukd just get a 10 year mortgage.

Our method was time and mortgage overpayments which allowed for decent equity so we didn't need to overextend for a new mortgage when we moved. This has also allowed us to continue overpayments so we can again be mortgage free in our new home and reduce our fixed outgoings.

As others have said it’s all in the power of paying down your mortgage, and hopefully the value of the house will go up too.

this calculator is useful to see how much equity you will pay off over time

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-rate-calculator/

I have no idea if your finances but for eg, if you bought a house for £300k with a £250k mortgage, in x5 years you might pay off 40k (including overpayments/ savings), and your house might be worth £350k so (350-210 = 140 equity. Plus another mortgage of say £275k (140

• 275 = £415k to spend on the next house / moving fees.

I realise this may not be enough but it could perhaps be possible to add to the mortgage to do a loft conversion or add on a conservatory with warm roof or outside study etc. Or as others have said once you are through the school years it might be necessary to move to a slightly cheaper area.

(and it can be useful to do a rough 5 year plan to see how finances could work out, eg if we could save xx amount per year, and might be earning xx amount by year 1, 2 etc we will have xxx by year 5), but nothing is ever set in stone. As others have said you could spend lots of time worrying about this and it depends on how much you want to save vs need / want to spend on things now