Name changed for this.
I live in a lovely area in London zone 6 with all the amenities we need, good schools, great commute and generally a really nice community and cute area. We have been here (renting) for a few years and feel at home. DD is still in nursery but we will have to start thinking of applying for primary school next year and we were hoping to be able to buy a house elsewhere before the applications deadline. Now because of current interest rates and a couple of other reasons, I think it's unlikely we will manage to buy a house on time for school applications. This is making me reconsider whether we should just instead try and find a way to stay in this current area, given we love it so much. The issue is only due to costs, as here we'd only be able to afford a 2 bed maisonette (potentially with a garden). We don't have a massive budget and all the areas we'd consider are expensive but we could get a 2 bed cottage or shabby 3 bed elsewhere. I was quite set on moving and getting a house but have recently being wondering whether it would make more sense to stay here.
- We love the area and feel at home
- great commute into London (we work FT)
- good schools
- good amenities and we like being able to walk everywhere, barely use our car and we like it this way
I wonder though, is all this enough to compromise on a flat/maisonette (likely a leasehold property also) for the long term? We are late 30s and with decent salaries but still high childcare costs and not very likely to double our income so our situation will not be drastically better in the future and also not sure I'd like to increase what will be an already very high mortage in my late 40s to more to a bigger house.
We are not planning on having a second DC although you never know what life can bring.
The other areas we are considering are nice commuter towns in the home counties, with a more expensive commute, good schools but maybe less amenities to our doorstep.
Are we mad to consider a flat over a house just because we'd have an "easier" life?