Should we buy a bigger house right now?

[HouseOrHolidays]

Myself (30F) and my other half (31M) currently live in a lovely 2 bed mid terrace, with a small garden, and village location. We are fortunate that due to the timing of when we bought etc we have a very small monthly mortgage payment, which allows us financial freedom in day to day life. I also enjoy travelling, and the small mortgage payment means I can do this more. The house is perfect for 2, but I think it would be a squeeze if we ever wanted a child - currently both of us are unsure if we do want children though.

We have the opportunity to buy a slightly larger house, detached, 2 bedrooms + study, larger garden and a garage, still in a lovely village location. But it will mean doubling our monthly mortgage payment. We could afford to do this but it would remove the financial freedom we have enjoyed for many years, and would mean me cutting back in travelling/holidays too. It is more of a 'forever house' and worth more than our current property so could be seen as an investment to the future too. But is more house than we really need right now for 2 of us. Location wise we're unlikely to get repeat opportunities to purchase a house like this in the future.

Do we buy the bigger house, and cut back in day to day luxuries and holidays, or stay in our smaller, cheaper house, but enjoy a more extravagant lifestyle for now?

I think you need to clarify numbers as otherwise it’s near on impossible to say. How much is your net monthly income? How much do you currently pay and what would the new amount be if you moved?

To me, this doesn't sound like enough 'more' to justify massively increasing my mortgage. You'd be moving from a nice 2-bed in a village... to a nice 2-bed in a village. And particularly when you aren't sure you want to have children, which is where you're perceiving the value of this house. Also, unless this is a situation where it's like a family member who would sell it specifically to you, do you definitely have the opportunity to buy it anyway? It sounds like a location where properties come up fairly infrequently, so I'd say there's a good chance someone else would pip you to the post anyway, given you presumably aren't on the market yet?

Personally, I'd stay put, and take advantage of your current low interest rate and comfortable financial position to overpay. That way you'd be building equity now, which would be odd benefit if you do decide to move to a larger property later on.

Everybody has different priorities in life. It is likely that anybody giving you a definite yes or no answer to this question would probably be projecting their own priorities.

I also notice that you mention about just yourself travelling, not both of you:

"I also enjoy travelling, and the small mortgage payment means I can do this more."

Is this perhaps a debate that you and your partner are having at the moment?

If one partner is really more focussed on settling down and/or prefers doing things at home and the other likes to travel a lot then the different demands of these two priorities can cause resentment if one partner feels that they are generally always the one that "gives in" and goes along with the wishes of the other partner.

In this situation, for one partner the priority is finding that "forever house" and enjoying it. For the other partner a home is really no more than a place to stay in between their travelling (or, to quote a pop song from 10 years before you were born, )

If you and your partner are having this debate then this isn't really the forum to resolve that debate.

Whatever your decision, it is possible that one partner may grow to later resent that joint decision.

I also remember a thread from a couple of years ago where a couple slightly younger than yourselves asked the same question:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4576579-to-prioritise-travelling-over-buying-a-house-for-now

I’d agree it doesn’t sound like much more house for the money - what is the price difference? If you are happy where you are for now then I think stay put as moving is very expensive and the new place may not be big enough forever either.
Perhaps save half the difference towards an onwards move in the future. It’s great to enjoy all your disposable income but it can be a shock to have it wiped out in one fell swoop once you do move on.

I think there's a lot to be said for detached over terraced. We moved from a very nice terraced house to a semi detached and really like having that.

Stay put and increase your savings for now, so that if you do decide to have children in future your in a better financial situation.

No need to make that decision now, I think wait. It doesn't sound like you're getting a huge amount more for a doubling of repayment.
Maybe put extra money aside as savings too.

I wouldn’t unless you want extra space for the two of you right now. If you aren’t sure about children, I would stay where you are until you know whether you will need a house with more bedrooms or you don’t need more bedrooms but you would like more space to avoid having to pay all the costs of moving twice if you end up with 2/3 kids.

If you’re unsure about kids I would stay put. It’s not the best time to buy imo, I would wait a while and enjoy yourselves.

It sounds like a lot more money for not much extra house

I'd move. A lot to be said for a detached house. Sounds like you are only frittering your money at the moment. At least you will have something to show for your work and live in a great place.

I’d stay put, enjoy travelling and doing stuff but also try and build up a good amount of savings.

Stay put. Save a bit and travel. Moving from a 2 bed to a 2 bed does not seem worth it to me.

So our current mortgage payment is £650, and we overpay by £200-300 a month. The new payment would be around £1400. Our joint take home income is around £4.5k (partner currently earns slightly more than me). My job is pretty secure, but his has potential to not be, given in the 3 years he has been there he's already seen 2 unexpected restructures resulting in some redundancies. We've always said we feel lucky that if needed one of us could cover the mortgage payment alone, and this wouldn't be the case any longer if we move (or would be more of a struggle). My job also means it would be easy for me to pick up extra work if needed though, which could help cover situations like that.

Thank you for your reply. So it's actually me that both enjoys travelling and wants the larger house 😂 my other half would happily stay where we are, as the things the new house offers are more my priorities than his (a larger garden, larger kitchen plus utility room, detached, separate study and closer to work for me). For him he would also benefit from the study space as he works from home a lot, and the garage is a priority for him as he'd like an at home gym space. I am also the driving force for travels/holidays, and will go on my own or with friends/family as well as together as a couple, as he is not as interested in this, although we have done lots of trips together too. I agree I do worry about him resenting the decision to move if it isn't his priority, although he says he is happy with the move if that's the decision we come to. And I definitely don't want him to always have to give in to my ideas, as I suppose he already does with the travelling! I think I also need to try and better assess my priorities, as I don't want to resent my own decision to move if it limits my travels so much that I'm not happy. There is somewhat pressure from both our parents too, particularly mine, impressing on us that this is too good an opportunity to pass up on - I do think some of this pressure also comes from a place of wanting us to settle down and have kids (which neither of us are decided on just yet) and this automatically makes me go against it a bit!

Thanks for your reply. So we would hope to sell our current house for 210k and the new house is 350k. We bought our current house for 165k at the time when rates were very low which is why we have the low repayment.

No, the jump in monthly payments for the differences to the house is not worth it

Not worth it. £140k extra on the mortgage- how much is that extra per month? Over how many years?

Financial freedom please every time.

Going against the grain here and saying I’d do it potentially. You’re future proofing and with a take home of £4.5k you can easily afford the £ 1.4k. The challenge may come when you have kids, if that’s what you decide to do. The triple whammy of the higher mortgage, nursery fees (about the same as a mortgage!) and a loss of income through maternity leave/going part time do have a huge financial impact.

Whilst you have no kids, prioritising over payments to mortgage to get that down would be very sensible. You’re still relatively young so lots of time to pay off. I was two years older than you when I bought my current house, and we will have fully renovated and extended it, and paid off the mortgage in 15 years (or less hopefully!). It’s worth 2.5 times what we bought it for too.

I think given your salaries you can easily afford it so I would go for it personally. You said your partner works from home a lot so a study is a big benefit, as is a detached house and this house is more future proof as you may decide to have a baby in the next few years. Even if you don’t, the new house isn’t massive and still seems like it has benefits over your current house.

In my opinion your thirties is the decade to stretch yourselves if you have decent salaries by then & have any desire to live in a better house. I would say wait for a “proper” 3 bed to come up since you are describing this one as 2 beds plus study. But there seem to be reasons why this house is particularly attractive to you and you are implying it’s unlikely a 3 bed would come up in such a good location? It’s hard to advise without knowing all the details but based on what you have said there would be several benefits to living in this new house & you can easily afford it and still have holidays (possibly not so many) so I would make an offer.

I wouldn’t.
wait a few years. Rates will come down, your salaries may go up, you’ll have clarity on the children situation and may be able to get somewhere a bit bigger for a better deal.

The numbers sound fine but I would want a proper 3 bed to make it worth the additional cost

I’d stay put but focus on saving a bit more in a high interest account. It doesn’t sound like the new house is worth the big expense of moving, I’d only move for a reasonably big increase in space etc.

Is part of the increase to £1.4k mortgage payment due to the potential new mortgage being on a much higher rate? If so, its not a fair comparison as your current £650 mortgage rate will go up significantly when your fixed rate ends.

I've made assumptions here that you want to borrow about £270000 over 30 years (assuming you are under 37) vs £145000 over 30 years when you remortgage. If rates are about 5%, your current payments will go up to £750 a month anyway, add on the overpayment and you're most of the way there to the new mortgage. I have also assumed that paying off your mortgage isn't your main priority as you've said it is travel and also that you only overpay up to £300 which it could be much more on your good joint income, so you'd be happy not overpaying.

I do think that the larger house sounds much better and from experience once the do we / don't we move house conversation happens it can be quite unsettling even if you want to stay as it sows that seed. I'm not saying you might as well go for it but I really think it needs bottoming out. I don't think this particular house has the pull factor (one of) you needs but it might be time to start keeping an eye out.

I don't think this makes good financial sense.

I would either stay where you are and continue to save/overpay or buy a house that needs work and add value.

£1400 for a 2 bed is crazy, especially if it's only worth £350k. I'm 5 years older than you so bought at a time when houses were cheaper and have done work to every house we've had to make money. As a result, we pay £1100 for our £500k house.

You need to increase your equity to bring that monthly payment down. I'd be looking for 3 beds that need a lot of work. Especially as you're in a position to do it without kids yet.

Do you know whats stopping you making a decision around kids? That's the big deciding factor here so maybe it's worth sitting still and waiting until you've both decided, then you'll know what kind of space and house you'll need.