Anyone regret buying a top floor flat (no lift)

[123Valentina123]

Looking to buy and love a flat that has been sitting on the market for 2 years and a 200k fall in price. It’s on the top floor of a period building with no lift. I’ve always lived in ground floor flats. I’m very fit and so don’t mind climbing stairs. I know it will be a PITA with shopping, suitcases, etc. I know it will be difficult to sell and I’m fucked if I lose mobility become seriously ill. BUT the space is amazing in terms of size and layout relative to other flats at a similar price point.

I’d be grateful for any thoughts on top-floor loving.

Top floor flats without a lift (as long as not a high rise) are brilliants. Nobody above you to cause noise, fabulous views and very warm as heat rises. They are usually more expensive and sell easily. Family member had one.

A good friend of mine had such a flat. It was great until her Mum got elderly and couldn't manage the stairs. She only visited twice a year but being unable to do even that made my friend regret it. She sold.

I think being on the fourth floor with no life and no personal outside space will put most people off, and it is currently tenanted. While the shared garden sounds lovely how much will you use it when you have to go up four floors to go to the loo or get a drink. I'd be asking questions about how to make the roof safe and usable.

Same as pp, they didn't put lifts in Victorian tenements 🤣

It was a major pain when DS was a baby but after that it's been absolutely fine, and we live almost next door to a fantastic primary school, with a top performing secondary just down the road.

High ceilings, huge rooms, bags of character occasional mice, I'm never leaving.

My two best friends married and moved out to the dark side of the moon. They've got fab gardens, driveways etc but I wouldn't swap. I can see waitrose (and the guy over the road naked) from my living room window 😊

Check the fuel bills, it may be very cold, or it may be the flats below keep you warm.
Otherwise welcome to a new slim you, all those stairs will do you good. Lived briefly in the 80s on the 4th floor with a crappy lift so took the stairs, never been so slim and fit.

Exactly this for me too!

Are you in Glasgow and does he have long hair? My Scandinavian colleague lives in a Glasgow tenement and I can imagine he wanders around naked all the time, except for maybe his socks and birkenstocks.

I had a 2nd floor flat in a period conversion and it was fine to live in and easy to sell. I did get noise from downstairs and strangely, their cooking smells!

I would imagine there must be some other issue that's caused it sit on the market for so long? 🤔 Any conditions in the lease that are particularly unfavourable? Or was proper permission not sought to extend into the loft space, does the extension have building regs approval? I nearly bought a house with a loft conversion that turned out to be potentially unsafe...

Can you get out easily if there is a fire lower down in the building?

Check with deliveries such as furniture as some won't carry up past the first floor.

I lived in a third floor flat with no lift in my 20s and early 30s. It was great - I had buns of steel. 😄

Many mortgage companies won't lend if 4 floors or more and there isn't a lift

When I was looking at buying our first flat with DH, I ruled out any flats without a lift as I thought it would be a pain when buying furniture, big shopping trips, visitors with mobility issues or babies etc. DH thought I was being fussy but 6 years later we had an unplanned pregnancy and we were definitely glad to have that lift! My DM also had a bad leg injury and would have struggled without the lift, and I had several friends who had babies during that time too.

Would moving in furnitures be an issue? If not, plenty of people live on top floor flats without lifts and manage.

I much preferred being in a top-floor flat - nobody upstairs so minimal noise.

My suggestion for the shopping would be to get yourself an old-lady trolley with stair wheels (like a triple wheel that lets you just pull it up stairs) to help with any heavy stuff.