To buy a house with a bathroom downstairs only?

[PennyLany]

We are FTBs and have a limited budget for our area. All properties within our range are small cottages, often with 1 bathroom downstairs only (i.e. no loo upstairs). I know this is a pain point and might make it hard to resell but would it be silly to discard these types of properties fully? Here is an example:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145466324#/?channel=RES_BUY

We are a family of 3 with a small DD.

Bloody hell, for half a million quid I would want a bathroom upstairs with a gold plated loo seat!

But if it's the norm for the area/budget then I guess you need to consider it. I think it would get annoying pretty fast though.

I grew up in a house like that, no issues!

If that is what there is in the price band, it's what there is. Often, I think people on MN are fantasy shopping- in many price bands and areas, there are compromises. Your first house will rarely be perfect, but it'll be yours.

Go for it. There will always be people looking for houses on the first rung of the ladder.

Downstairs bathrooms are not uncommon in those little Victorian cottages. When they were first built they didn’t have bathrooms at all, obviously.

Plenty of people buy them and live with them because the prettiness of the house makes it worth it to them.

Firstly, I love the cottage. Very sweet. Secondly, I cannot believe how expensive it is! I live much further North.

I would say it depends entirely on the age of your DD and your own bladder control. (Although you can use a potty for DD). Does she need to get up and go for a wee when you come up to bed? Or will she at some point when potty training?

A downstairs bathroom is fine, provided no one is like me - post menopausal and needing to get up three times a night for a wee. It won't suit old people - it won't matter to a young couple that don't get up for a wee in the middle of the night.

We live in a 3 bed house with only a downstairs bathroom. It has never been a problem.
The real issue is in having just one bathroom between 4 with two teenagers who shower for hours! It doesn't matter where it is though!
Ours is also worth £500k

A friend had this layout. They resolved the issue by extending above the kitchen, repositioning the stairs so that the top of the stairs was nearest the wall with the chimney breast, knocking the chimney breast down, creating a corridor along that wall and creating an opening thru to the new bathroom.

We stayed in a holiday let like this and it confirmed to me that I would never buy one. Part of that though was that we have a dog who sleeps downstairs and so was disturbed if we got up for a wee in the night and we had to resettle him each time.

Like this

I wouldn’t but I also have bladder issues and would hate to run downstairs at 6am.
I am sure you know that Weybridge is very expensive and you can get a lot more for your money 2-3 miles away!

We bought a house like this as a young couple.

Then had twins and were quite happy there until they were 3 and we moved to get a bigger garden.

We loved that house and had a very happy 7 years there and no trouble selling.

I live in a house almost identical to this. You get used to the downstairs bathroom very quickly. You also find it has its benefits too.

I'd be inclined to see what's available in a cheaper area TBH. Aside from the bathroom issue, the front door and stairs being in opposite corners of the sitting room (and no hallway) would put me off, and the low ceilings. Also the wardrobe built in front of a window is odd.

If you can afford to renovate and extend it could be lovely, but not sure it's worth it unless you absolutely love that particular house / location.

I can't see why you would have trouble selling... perhaps to an older person with mobility issues

You can have our four bed two bath and cloakroom house for not much more than the price of that. But it’s on the south coast. Weybridge is ridiculous. Does it have to be Weybridge?

Not a hope in hell id pay that price for that.

What are the benefits?

The price!
But it’s a very cute house. I’ve had 3 houses with downstairs bathrooms and had no trouble selling any of them. Now I have a downstairs bathroom and upstairs shower room, but have to go through my ds bedroom to get to it. So in the middle of the night I still have to go downstairs, worse things happen at sea. You’ll get used to it!

I was expecting a £60k miners/workers house, not something half a million!

It looks nice, but I wouldn’t touch it with a child!

My first thought was if someone was sick or had diarrhoea, how much effort it would be up and downstairs each time whilst feeling like rubbish. I know that doesn’t always happen often but that would be my concern

If you have an extension out the back you can raise the height of the bathroom ceiling and install a roof window to add light and ventilation. Worked a treat for us. Otherwise no issues with only a downstairs bathroom.

These things totally depend on what's the norm for the area. If there's a lot of these kind of cottages for that kind of price in the area, people in that market know that's normal and accept that. If it's an area where round the corner I could buy a three bed semi with an upstairs bathroom for the same price, then you'll always struggle to sell, no matter how much character.

You can have a four bedroom three bath room for less than that just five minutes walk to the seafront in Cromer!!

However, shock over, in answer to your question - we had four bedrooms and one downstairs bathroom and it worked with no real problems. When toddler at the time was potty training we put the potty in one of the spare bedrooms.

The biggest plus side to a downstairs bathroom is the plumbing is so much easier than with an upstairs. There's also not so much worry if there's a leak in the plumbing. Ours was technically in an outbuilding off the back of the kitchen.

It did help there was a quite large garden too.

If I had no kids and did not plan on having them, it'd probably be ok. But with little ones it's something that'd put me right off. I'm gobsmacked at the price of it though. Move up north 😂

I live in a house with a very similar layout, have done since 2007. It takes some adjusting to, but then it just becomes normal - a bit inconvenient but you just get used to it.

Caveat, I wouldn't have paid half a million for my house, much as I love it!

Almost every buyer has to compromise. Only you know your own priorities. Have lived in a house like this, didn't even occur to me it was an issue!