Would you buy a one bedroom flat?

[flirpy]

We live in London. We don’t want to move far out or leave our current area. All we can afford is a one bedroom flat. We are a newly married couple. Aged 25 and 26. Living the London professional dream of long hours….

Are you renting at the moment and want to buy somewhere? I don't see the problem with buying a one bedroom flat, you do only need one bedroom. My first property was one bedroom when I was your age and now I'm a decade older I have DC and a few more bedrooms. I think it's just the process to start with the size place you can afford especially if there is no external/family help

what did you spend on your wedding out of interest?

to answer your question… yes in your shoes i would buy a one bed unless you intend to start a family asap

Yes. Owning is an investment you can recoup when you feel time for something differant in future and sell.

We got married at the registry and told everyone after! So cost very little.

No intention for kids for a good few years.

We are renting yes. Our budget is about £450k. We are likely to see decent salary increases but don’t want to be tied in to a massive mortgage.

Why wouldn't you?
Yes, get a nice one bed in as nice/close to work area as you can afford and have fun. When it comes time to have kids etc then figure out that step when the time comes.

Agree. Of course a 2-bed is more desirable but this is what you can afford and you'll be paying off your mortgage instead of your landlord's. In a few years time, if you wish to, you can move up. Good luck.

Yes.

But I would think carefully about what kind of flat you buy. The grenfell regulations are affecting the sale of a lot of high rise flats.

I'd either buy low rise or new ish build but I wouldn't get one with cladding.

As you are London may be very different as property is in such high demand there but I’d look at how well one beds sell in the area. It can be tricky to sell a one bed which we found out the hard way with our first property.
Congratulations on your marriage!

Keep saving like mad. The market is probably moving towards you (prices falling - or increasing less than inflation - whilst wages growing more than inflation).

Work out what a 2 bed will cost in, say, 2 years time (with current price changes). Work out what your deposit will be - how much you will have saved up. Work out what your target wages will be and therefore potential mortgage.

Whatever you choose. Pay very close attention to service charges and avoid any flats where those charges could runaway out of control as they have done for many others. Avoid any ex-council flats as the councils may not consider you when they decide which trade-companies and materials to use to maintain the buildings.

Get a 2 bed and do your bit for the country's demographics! Your country needs you!

Do you work from home at all?

I live (alone,rented) in a one bed and wfh 2-4 days a week. I wish I had a second bedroom to close the door on work, but not enough to pay the extra in rent.

If you can find one with enough storage then go for it.

If it wasn’t too small, yes I would consider it and sell up in a few years and buy a bigger place

What are your other options though?

I'm afraid i would generally choose to move area and buy 2 bedrooms, which is clearly possible on your budget. But I'm not certain that's the right choice... when I bought in London I was so far out I ended up feeling as if I might as well live somewhere else.

Apart from anything else, you only get one purchase free of stamp duty so I'd aim to make the most of that.

I would do the math very, very carefully. I gather that in parts of London prices are still so high you'd be better off renting, saving like mad and putting your money into broadly based investment funds that will appreciate equally well. You need to figure out the price-to-rent ratio in your target neighbourhood. Roughly, if the price of a typical property exceeds twenty annual rents for a similar property yiu might be better off renting.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/price-to-rent-ratio.asp

There are an awful lot of people currently stuck in 1 bed flats, following the cladding debacle, still unable to sell and no end in sight. But once they can, the market is going to be well and truly flooded! I know someone who bought one about 8 years ago, single. A few years later, a partner moved in and they started planning to move to start a family. Literally about to market and looking to buy. Now they can't sell. It's been 4? 5? Years, no end in sight, stuck in a one bed, with their disabled 2 year old. They will be desperate to sell their London one bed, as soon as they can, but unfortunately, by the very short-term nature of one beds, so is everyone else. By the time you're thinking of selling, some of these other flats may finally be allowed to sell, absolutely flooding the market.

£450K for a one bedroom flat these days in London 😳

Another reason for delaying for a while to buy a two bedroom flat is the potential to let out the second room, if you need to.

2 bedrooms here, for your budget, near Colliers Wood tube (Northern Line) and right on the edge of the lovely Morden Hall Park, and by the River Wandle

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/66260673/?search_identifier=b40bda366f66281be8481a4b74cef40fa728b5c6fd312f08ed466afe23031166

My OH and I bought a one bed garden flat (Victorian terrace conversion) in north London when we had enough to buy. Post-lockdowns and the subsequent changes to office working, we are in the process of upgrading. I wfh 4 days a week, OH 2 days, with some overlap when we're both home - so we really do need separate rooms to use as offices. I do think we have outgrown the flat too; we definitely started feeling like we wanted a change about a year ago.

I think a one bed works if you are not both wfh regularly, you aren't planning to have children for a while, you don't regularly expect to have guests stay over, and you want less expense and effort in terms of upkeep.

But as PP have said, if you aren't far off from being able to afford a two bed, it will be more comfortable, especially if either of you wfh regularly or you have family/friends you'd like to be able to stay over. That said, we haven't at all regretted starting at a lower price point with a one bed.

All of that though depends on where in London you want to live. Your budget would definitely be able to get you a reasonably sized two bed flat in my area, if not a smaller two bed terrace.

Yes. In the olden days that’s what lots of first time buyers did. It’s the first step on the ladder.

Family member started with a 1 bedroom flat and lived there a number of years. Kirstie and Phil used to say a good one bedroom flat is better than a small 2 bedroom flat. Enjoy your life, you are young.

We did - but it was a conversion (house split into two flats), we had share of freehold (so no service charge), a garden and it had a separate kitchen & big living room - so if things hadn't worked out & we couldn't move before having DC, we could have potentially nicked part of the living room to create a small second bedroom, or moved the kitchen into the living space.

We were able to move & buy a house a few years later due to career development & increased equity due to the Elizabeth Line.

I wouldn't, at your age - assuming you have time to save a bigger deposit and would get pay rises. We bought a 2 bed flat as our first property but not until early 30s. I think a 1 bed is liveable but a 2 bed is a better investment, and always handy in case you need to rent a room to a lodger to increase income, or if you have an unplanned pregnancy and end up having dc earlier than you expect. Have seen these scenarios with friends and being in a 1 bed made the situation much more stressful. And if your work involves any wfh, the extra space is invaluable.

Yes sure, as long as you understand you’re very likely to want to move if you have kids, and that would likely mean moving areas then. Nothing wrong with staying in the nice more central area and enjoying it for a while. Weigh it up against something that might work better long term - but you may not want to do that yet.

Having seen what has happened over the last few years I would say I would probably only do it if I knew I could afford to sell it at a loss. I would probably factor in 20% because I am exceptionally risk adverse. Looking at flat data for the last ten years or so in some parts of London isn't lovely reading.

If you are young and your careers are likely to be flying high, it probably still makes more sense than a rental you can't make your own, because it will make you happy, so you will thrive at work too.

I think things will get better for flat owners with some laws being changed, but idk if it will get applied to old flats or just new builds (eg marriage value and leasehold lengths). I would do my research before committing anyway. And I would definitely be looking for a decent lease length, in excess of 120 years, and buying an extension ASAP to make it a better sale option in the future.

Some Victorian conversions with basement gardens are utterly charming and even have a bit of a community buzz about them, which is very appealing.

If you definitely don't want DC in the next 5 years I'd say yes, it's worth it. The alternative would be to pay a lot of rent and have nothing to show for it in 5 years.