One Bed or Two Bed? London Dilemma

[beeram]

We need to move flats as our landlord wants his daughter to move in. We don't want to buy for another three years (complicated but valid reason.)

Right now we rent a small one bed. It's too small for us. It's just me and DP but we work from home 2 days a week. DP is retraining and will qualify next year and so his salary will go way up as a specialist doctor.

Should we:

A) Rent a one bed for £1,700 a month and need to move in a year or so.
B) Rent a two bed for £2,200 a month on a two year contract.

Both Flat A and Flat B are walking distance to work. Our parents live overseas so it would be great for them to be able to stay with us.

So you'd save £6k a year with the 1-bed option? I'd go for that and let the parents stay in a hotel, that's definitely going to be less than £6k! And then you've saved more towards your deposit.

I would rent the 2 bed as you work from home 2 days a week and are already finding the 1 bed too small. The second bedroom doesn’t need to be big and can be called a study.

Having parents staying with you should be less of a consideration as they can stay in a hotel when they visit.

no idea about your life circumstances but if you are in any way considering having a child, obvs go for the 2-bed. I know many people in London who tried to 'make do' with a baby on a 1-bed flat and it was very stressful dealing with newborn, looking for bigger accommodation, and moving.

I would invest as little as possible in renting given you have plans to buy. Unless money is no object, then of course get what's best for you now.

Obviously it's good to save money, but at what cost?

I don't think it's as simple as saying that if you got for Option 1, you'll save 6k. You'd have to factor in two lots of fees/moving costs etc and you don't know what you might end up paying for the second year if you move under Option 1 to a two bed. If it's more than 2.2k/month (presuming there's some sort of security over the number), you may end up paying more over the course of the two years.

Why do you 'need' to move out of the 1 bed?

You only WFH 2 days a week. Also you live within walking distance of the office , I don't see why you can't just go in more often.

What's the square footage/layout like? Are you homebodies? Personally I wouldn't pay more rent to have more space but that's just me.

If its for 1yr, I'd save and look for a larger 1 bed or one having a larger lounge area where you could potentially corner off a work area in each room to rent. IF parents visit during that time, they will need to stay elsewhere. Its only short term!

DH and I both WFH and lived in a caravan for 2yrs whilst renovating a derelict property. Yes, it was hard at times, but also depends on your jobs. If I needed to be on stand-by for a random call at any time, it wouldn't have worked due to workmen noise or noise from DH having calls also. When needed, one of us would move to the bedroom to take calls though.

If it were me, I'd just rent one bed until we were ready to buy. We had similar salaries but wanted to pay as little as possible in rent, and raise the highest deposit we could, because buying was an investment. That approach meant we could buy a decent size place in central London when we did end up buying, whereas most of our friends have had to buy beyond zone 4. You can be imaginative with small spaces of you look around, or use other indoor places to work. We used to use the indoor areas at the Barbican, which was completely free to access. We always had relatives stay in a hotel when visiting.