4 of us in a 1 bedroom flat!

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This is very long story but I’ll try to cut to the chase. My partner and I bought a property before covid and it was perfect for the two of us. We got pregnant with the intention of moving when the baby was born but covid hit and totally derailed our plans. We hoped to get out but after multiple reasons we had to hold off. One major reason was the flat had depreciated in value and we wanted to hold out and see a raise in price. Our DC was still so small and our flat was big enough but then a surprise arrived. We thought ok we’ve got 9 months to get this sorted but the market completely crashed and after the valuation we are now down a whopping 50k from what we paid. We had no one interested and it sat ok the market for nearly a year! Now, We’ve had lots of viewings recently but no sale and we are desperate to get out but cannot afford to lose so much. Obviously it affects the next step of location and type of property we buy. I’ve also had a very quiet year with work and I think my mortgage application wouldn’t be favourable. We were hoping to port, I know they still check things but it may be less strict? I’m not sure. Selling at a low price could potentially mean a huge upheaval as we wouldn’t be able to stay in the area. Schooling would be effected and work etc. we’d potentially have to move out of the city to a completely new place. I’d just like to know would be people willing to sell low in order to get on with their lives despite it causing such an upheaval forcing major and somewhat unwanted change?

How old are your DC?

Is it a small one bed flat or spacious?

We've done it before just to get to the next step. We lost about £10K but this was the London market many years ago so it was all fine a couple of years later.

How about renting out the flat and renting somewhere yourselves until the market picks up? It's not for the faint hearted as there are a few pitfalls but it's one way out.

It’s actually not crazy small for a London 1 bed but it is small. Our balcony isn’t one you can even really lay out on. The children are 1 and 4!! My partner is really struggling because there’s no storage. As am I but when it was just us it felt quite minimal. Add the army of hot wheels and monster trucks it’s getting insanely messy. I’ve done well with the space I have but it’s a battle to keep this place in any way tidy. Every time a viewing happens I end up shifting everything into the communal hall in a tucked corner just so that can imagine the space without children’s crap and cot! I’ve been taking turns sleeping on the sofa with DH just so the 4 year old can have the double bed with one of us. It’s been hard!

Have you had any offers from the recent viewings?

Yes 10k we’d do but this seems a vast amount… we’d like to stay in London as both our jobs revolve around being here and we feel a commute from the suburbs whilst doable is still expensive and dh doesn’t want to live the life of leaving before the kids wake up and returning by the time they are in bed only to see them on the weekend. I know as they get older they won’t be in bed but I think he already feels like he’s missed out on so much working full time. We looked at renting but because of the extortionate charges attached to the property (service, reserve fund, ground rent etc) we don’t think the we’d be breaking even just to cover ourselves. Also rental market right now is so expensive we’d be looking at paying about a third more than what we pay for a shithole lol

No! We got so excited as a couple came three times! We thought movement at last. Then decided they wanted a renovation project. Good luck at the price they were thinking of offering in this place I don’t think it would go far!

If you are buying the same area as you are in it doesn't really matter that the price has gone down, whatever you are buying will also be cheaper than it it would be in a stronger market. If you wait for yours to go up, let's say 10%, then whatever you are buying will also be up by about 10% and if that is a more expensive property the 10% will mean more actual cash to pay. Yours is not going to go up 10% whilst the rest of the area stays where it is at now.

This is where is gets tricky because our particular property has depreciated. The others in the area have not by this much or at all. This is is a new build but no cladding issues and in a lovely development. The issue agents have said is that is because it’s a 1 bed without certain things such as garden. Therefore we are slightly more disadvantaged had the price not gone down. Also if what you can afford has improved then it has less of a dent. It out situation is a little more tight due to now having kids and their related outgoings as well as a lower income. These factors effect how we proceed unfortunately

You talk about not having storage space. Does your flat look cluttered?
Clear out as much stuff as you can and put it into storage temporarily.
Then stage it as much as you can. Neutral colours, throws, cushions, vases and plants.
Have a clear kitchen.
Put a bit of lovey towards that before dropping the price further.

Ah, right. Well in that case I would jump ship as soon as possible and probably look at a cheaper area. New builds don't retain their value very well as they quite quickly look dated and those that want an actual new build will buy something new. I am also guessing yours now look very cramped and smaller than it is as you probably need extra beds in there and it sounds like you have very little storage.

Either way, with 2 kids you can't really wait much longer to move and it doesn't sound like your flat will ever catch up to the properties that haven't depreciated as much in value, the gap will probably just widen as time goes on. It might be though getting a big enough mortgage now that there are twice as many of you and it sounds like income has gone down and not fully got back to where it was so I think bigger but cheaper is probably the way to go even if you are further away from London or in a worse area.

Unfortunately it sounds like you are going to compromise. You can’t buy in the same area if you take the 50k drop but you need more space. Most people have to move to the suburbs when they have kids/ want a bigger place with a garden. You’ve also said you’ve had a quiet year with work…. Can you change jobs? Are you self employed- could you make more money going back into working for someone else and then try for a bigger mortgage when you’ve got a bigger salary?

You either need more money (change jobs/hope for better year) or to go somewhere cheaper. I cannot imagine having two kids in a one bed flat, you certainly can’t keep taking turns on the sofa!

I'd do whatever it took to move, my mental health would be in shreds if I had to live in such an overcrowded situation, and that would impact on the dc....you may well be more robust than me of course, but it would do me!

I'd move out to a bigger place and look at changing jobs or whatever afterwards to make it work.

Yes I am self employed and very dependent on other people hiring me if that makes sense. So the drought has been worrying. I have thought about a change, this will just take some time. Perhaps I should set some time limits on that also because I feel like we’ve just been frozen and not taking much action out of feeling a bit hopeless!

It definitely has! I’ve been strong about the situation but it’s definitely effects me and my partner and like you said effects the dc in one way or another. I think the issue is not being able to sell though so we can’t buy anything until that happens!

Can you rent it lut and rent bigger?

Luckily ours is actually very high spec so looks great still and we’ve been very good at taking care of it. If anything the posts are least making me feel like I’ve done ok in this situation considering! However it’s taking its toll now. I think my partner feels nothing can be done until the sale. I I’m the other hand don’t want to let that come to us. I want to take some action! Maybe it’s time to change agents!?! And also get my income higher somehow

Yes we could bit as it’s so high in £££ here we’d definitely have to move further out which I would be ok with but DC starts reception in September which makes things even trickier. But not only that the rent we can obtain would only cover the mortgage not all the other service charge etc

Can you book a Airbnb for a month - stage the for sale and put it on with a new agent. I think you need to move and selling will let you work out what you can afford

Yes this is what my husband said which holds a lot of ground and make sense. I’m worried because of how long we’ve been trying to sell. Been up since April and I’ve found that as we’ve been on the market three times it definitely taking so much more than a month to sell on. No one’s offered anything apart from a ridiculous offer which I think our previous agent just said to make it look like they were doing something. Also the extra months rent on top of mortgage and nursery fees would leave me without any money! So I don’t think I can afford that option as good as that would be!

I think taking a £50k hit is crazy, but going on what you’ve said, perhaps with hindsight you hugely overpaid for yours. Do you think it will recover or is it time to draw a line under it?

Have you had an Ikea visit recently to get some ideas about small living spaces that perhaps you’ve not considered? Perhaps try taking it off the marker for a year and seeing what you can do with beds/clever furniture to make it more liveable for the time being.

How much is the flat listed for? How much do you have in equity? Are you looking to stay in the same area?

Is it possible for the bedroom to become the childrens room and you get a sofa bed for the living room? It's not ideal - a friend of ours was in a similar situation and had to do this for their own sanity.

Be aware of the CGT rules in case you're tempted to rent it out. It may make the situation worse.

I hope you have positive news soon.

Edited: got the acronym wrong!

Your dc haven't actually started school yet so this is the time to move out to cheaper area and even once they start earlier moves are easier..

If you're not getting enough work then look at a job where you could afford somewhere even if it's a 2bed rather than 1 bed....So smaller steps....Is dhs job moveable/transferrable?
Many people have to move a big chunk away and start in different areas but its worked... I couple I know gone up near Nottingham, another Swansea, another near Norwich...

Yes I would put a time limit on looking for other work. It’s easy to delay it, think things might improve but a time limit will help you make a decision as there is no delaying your children getting older…. I don’t mean to sound rude and certainly there are much worse things but your child is starting school and doesn’t have his own bedroom (or one shared with siblings.) Even if you hadn’t had your surprise child you would still be overcrowded.

yes we definitely overpaid as we did a help to buy. But we can’t change the past so here we are! I did think that too you know… I thought about getting a getting a very high quality sofa bed and letting DC have the bedroom. That would solve the sofa situation and the boys could manage for a bit longer as they’re still small. I know tons of families live way worse than us. I am grateful to have a roof over my head! My only concern was if we do put it on the market would buyers be a bit weirded out by seeing a children’s room instead of a primary bedroom?