One bed flat on quiet street or two bed on A road?

[prissyl]

Trying to decide between two flats. No kids. Just two of us.

Flat 1: £1,950 a month for a one bedroom, overlooking a park, quiet road, upper floor.
Flat 2: £2,450 a month for a two bedroom flat, ground floor, on an A road (not a busy one).

The two bed is much bigger, it’s 70 sqm vs 45 sqm. Has a bath where one bed has a shower.

Two bed will be a lot more practical, can have guests to stay, but won’t be as nice because of the road?

100% 1 bedroom on a quiet location.
Save the extra money.

If they were the only flats I would choose flat 1. But really, I would prefer to wait until a slightly bigger 1 bed on a quiet street becomes available because that one is very small.

A two bed on the same street as the one bed would be about £3,000, which is too rich for us.

But there must be other quiet streets you could consider?

I'd be inclined to pick flat 1.
But depends. Would you need the 2nd bedroom as a home office? Or to store things? Or do you plan on actually having people to stay. If it would bring a lot of benefit then it would be worth it.

The cheapest flat you can tolerate so you can save to buy?!?

The one on the quiet street for me too. If anyone who wants to visit you would require overnight accommodation, they can either book into a hotel or sleep on the settee, depending on their age/finances/relationship etc.

(Yes I know, "tell me you're an antisocial wee git without telling me"... etc)!

Personally I value space... and so I live on an A road! But it's so down to what you yourself prioritise, it's not a one-size-fits-all situation.

It depends how quiet the A road is and how soundproofed the flat is. Flat one sounds very small and you may feel cramped. But it depends how much space you want/need. Do either of you work work from home? How much are you bothered by noise? What is more important to you space or quiet? What suits one person is another persons worse choice..

Can you visit both again at a different time of day and make sure you see them at the weekend as well as in the week..

Personally I’d go for less space on a quieter road. I live in a flat and the road by me had the layout changed a year after I bought it. There a now cars and lorries up and down all hours of the day. My flat actually shakes sometimes!

You can't spend 500 a month on extra rent in case you have people to stay. It would be cheaper to pay them to stay in a hotel. I would pay less rent and save up.

What’s your lifestyle? Are you WFH? Out a lot vs homebodies? Do a lot of home exercise? Basically how valuable is it to have the extra space. If it’s just for guests to stay I would go for the smaller quieter flat but if you also have other uses for the extra room then it may be worth the bigger one. Unless you are very light sleepers… no amount of extra space is worth disturbed sleep!

Depends on how sensitive your hearing is and also how good the glazing on the windows is. I rented on a non busy A road once and never will again - at night a heavy lorry would drive past every hr or so, shake the Victorian windows and wake me up.

That said, have a good look at that park you’d be overlooking. How quiet is it really? I once rented a place that backed onto a recreation ground and it was lovely in the week, but all weekend there were football matches there from 7am, and apparently this had to involve men nonstop swearing at each other at the top of their voices.

It depends - are you saving up to buy? If so that extra £500 you’re saving on the one bed could be used towards a deposit. I think this is the main thing and for that I’d lean towards the one bed then as you’d be saving £6000 per year.

I live alone and currently live in a two bed but it was only £100 per month more expensive than the one beds in the same block, it’s definitely worth it. I think a one bed flat is too small for two people!

I happened to choose a flat on an A road because it had a balcony, not sure I’d make the same choice again if I knew it was on a fairly busy road. ( it was being built when I reserved it and I didn’t think to ask the agents about if it was on a busy or quiet road) it was hard to see from the building plans map what was what, but there are two bed flats facing the small park on the opposite side so I wouldn’t even have had to pay extra had I went for the quiet side which is annoying.

That said, I’m not the best sleeper, but I sleep better here than I did in my last flat which faced onto a courtyard. It’s not bad but it depends on each person and just how busy the road is.

Personally I'd go smaller, cheaper and more importantly, quieter. I'd also prefer to be upstairs rather than on the ground floor - more light and more privacy.

I think people make a good point about if you’re saving to buy, pick the cheaper one for that reason alone.

I would prefer to be on an A road than a quiet street when walking home late at night, so I'd go for the 2-bed.

Flat 1.

Living on A road is a health risk and noisy.