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?

I saw this after i posted but yes! I thought this! My concerns were would a buyer be put off for not being able to imagine a bed instead of a children’s room? As it would need to be a bit of a bunk bed situation?

I’m very willing to move out a bit. Just would prefer to stay in zone 2 but I’m not digging my heels. I’d live further out if it ticked the boxes of our needs. We need to sell to see what we have available to us. The flat is listed 50k less than what we paid. And we have been pressured to go lower!

We once sold and had to pay the bank an insane sum of money at closing because of how much we lost on the house. We did not sell for enough to pay off the mortgage so had to make up the difference.

We really wanted to move through and for various reasons, it did make sense financially in the very, very long run. Most importantly, we moved to a city with cheaper housing and better schools. Best financial decision we could have made.

Could you reconfigure it to make it into a two bed, i.e. move the kitchen into the living room or something? This will most probably raise the sale value as well as giving you a bit of extra space in the meantime.

Do you have to stay in London at all?

I mean not just moving out from zone 2 to zone 5, but move elsewhere. A 1 bed zone 2 flat would buy you a whole house elsewhere. And you wouldn’t have to both work as long hours to afford the craziness. Generally in uk, further north you go, the cheaper.

( we lived zone 1, moved abroad in the end for a better work/ life balance)

It might be worth waiting six months or so to see what a new budget does to house prices/ the market etc.

Give the children the room for now to give yourselves a better quality of life while you explore some options. Then when you feel confident to sell again either do the airBNB/ short term rental option and maximise the flat to appeal to the right type of buyer. If its a one bedroom then no one with children would be looking so it might be good to showcase it as an adult only space.

I think overall my advice would be to move further out of London and try to get more room/space for your family as they grow up. Wishing you and your family all the best.

They haven’t and I’d definitely move if we could but we can’t move until we sell it if you see what I mean? So I can’t go anywhere right now. Or did you mean rent somewhere? The more I talk about this on here the deeper it becomes! Lots of moving parts to consisted. DH actually a job interview which means a pay rise and a slightly better situation for us but I still need to get my situation in check. I always used to be Cher, a rich man lol now after having kids I feel like the old lady who lived in a shoe with this house!

Thank you for your comments. I don’t know if it’s because I’m hormonal but your well wishes made me feel teary! I think this must be effecting me more than I realise so thank you for making me feel seen. I’ve literally had the same thinking about adult only space. So every time a viewing comes around the toys are well out of the way and I’ve made the house as minimalistic as possible. I think the issue here is money as well because before we used to have a storage unit to help but we had to give it up and since my lack of work flow very things felt very strained on everyone as I’m feeling emotionally wrecked by it and my partner is concerned he’s not able to support us. I then can get snappy and out of sorts with the kids. My job is amazing when it’s happening and pays very well which keeps you from leaving. It’s like a toxic but very good looking bf lol The advice you’ve given might be the way to go because we can’t do anything instantaneously due to needing a buyer before anything else

Yes we never meant to stay this long! A shared sibling room whilst they’re little is ok but eventually I’d love for them to have their own rooms. I never did and hated it but equally it prepared me for this mess!!

But the price of the flat is the key factor here (apologies if you’ve already posted it but can’t see after a quick scan), a 50k drop on a 500k flat will be less bad than a 50k drop on a 300k flat. How much is it listed for? I would be tempted to cut my losses and move if at all possible. I’m in moving purgatory, we’ve been trying to move now for 2 years and the time just flies by.

Move out of London. Is it really worth it?

50 minutes to Euston and 5 minutes walk from the train station. £150k
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/96595039#/?channel=RES_BUY

Further out village location where you will drive to the station 10/15 minutes. £5 a day parking at the station but much nicer house. £250k
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/150619241#/?channel=RES_BUY

Why don't you get a triple bunk bed. One of those where there is a double bed underneath and a single bunk on top?

Then the bed room is still a double bedroom for those viewers who lack imagination!

In fact you could get quad bunks (a double on top of a double). I've found a reinforced example that supports 4 adults.

Combine with bed tents for privacy and that could buy you some time for the market to improve.

www.reinforcedbeds.co.uk/collections/quadruple-bunk-beds/products/anmer-quad-bunk

Please do reconsider renting for a time. Ask your estate agent (being in the US I almost put realtor) and see if she/he has a seller with a larger property you could rent for two years. You could rent your unit for the same period with the ability to show for buyers in a few months.

You could then have a larger place to live for the time being while property values rebound. Your own tenant might come to love your flat and want to buy. Give them the right of first refusal.

If you are happy with the area, schools etc, I would take the flat of the market and concentrate on making it work for you over the next couple of years. That takes the pressure off you in having to ‘stage it’ for sale and gives you all a break. Try and use the time to save a bit of money. When the dc are at school, you may be able to save on childcare etc and have a better idea of how your career is looking.

I would recommend this:

1. Get a comfortable sofa bed + mattress topper so you and DH can sleep in the living room and set up the bedroom for kids. I saw you were asking if it would put buyers off. Before joining Mumsnet I would've said of course not because surely they'd realise they can set the flat up however they want but having spent some time here now.... Yeah, some people can be quite superficial but hopefully it wouldn't put off serious buyers.
2. For storage, always go vertical. Eg instead of a big wide chest of drawers, use a tall narrow one.
3. Declutter as much as you can. I imagine you've done that already though.
4. YouTube has very good videos of families in small spaces, I love watching them. But keep in mind that a small space in the US (where a lot of the videos are from) is perceived very differently and I cannot believe what they present as small houses sometimes 😂 search for Mariah Dolenh's channel, she used to live in a small flat with three kids before moving and has some videos on it.

There's so much pressure on you right now and I think if you can find a way to make it a bit better for now, you can put your energy into planning your next steps re work and picking your next location.
If you want to share layout or sq m2 or any pics with 'problematic parts', I'm sure there would be people here, incl myself, willing to see if we can advise more.

Best of luck! ❤️

We had 5 of us in a 2 bed (3 adults) so a similar situation (DH and I and 2 under 5s in one bedroom). We sold up when dcs were 4 and 6m. It was chaos but we managed. My DSis had 4 in a 1 bed until the dc were 4 and 9, that would have driven me mad (but financially it was sensible for them to wait as they were waiting for the right property to come up and it did). It might horrify some but it's a bit of a rite of passage for a lot of Londoners!

Financially we took a hit on our flat although not as bad as £50k. I don't think it makes sense to rent out and rent a place in your situation, especially if you can't rent in a cheaper area if you want to stay in your area for schools. If you can afford to take the loss and still buy a bigger place, I'd continue to try to sell. Psychologically I feel more settled now we've moved into a place that suits our needs for 15+ years and draw a line under the previous flat. If you are in zone 2 I would have thought you could still buy somewhere in zone 3/4 rather than leaving the city entirely?

We were lucky to get free storage and to stay with family for a bit while doing viewings - I couldn't have coped doing them when we lived there, we didn't feel overcrowded living there but we used every inch of space and photos with all our stuff there would have looked awful.

You mention high service charges and reserve funds etc. these are always a big issue. I would personally price to sell, take the hit and move out of zone 2 to a cheaper area where the maths would work with the number of bedrooms.

I’m sorry you find yourself in this predicament. Unfortunately new builds can take a long time to appreciate in value. They normally depreciate in value for the first few years due to the fact they have lost their main selling point- the fact that they were brand new. Help to Buy has been heavily criticised for this reason though I definitely appreciate it is the only way for some people to buy a nice property so I can understand the initial appeal.

I think the answer is you will need to move out of London to a cheaper area, despite your partner in particular being unhappy about that idea. It’s not ideal to have longer commutes but it is a practical solution to being able to afford a bigger property. Many of the people who commute into London would prefer to live there but can’t afford to, especially couples with children.

With respect, you have chosen to have 2 children and that does make your current living situation unsustainable. There is no ideal solution but I believe that accepting you have lost money on the flat (which happens and happened to us with our first flat) selling it for what you can get and moving out of London to a bigger property is the best thing you can do for yourself and your children.

I think you should move ALL the kids / family stuff into temporary storage , stay somewhere for a few weeks ( holiday??) hold an open day and take a low offer.

Your family needs to move on with life, out of London . Do it while your daughter is young and hasn’t yet made friends to leave .

I can’t work out if you want to stay or sell low.

We ported but if you need to borrow more you’ll need to do affordability checks, we couldn’t buy our house now (2 children and 2 lots of childcare later).

If it were me I’d have a massive clear out and redesign the space from scratch. Bunk beds if needed. IKEA is a good starting point.

Hi, we were in a really similar position to you, except only one child in a 1 bed flat with depreciation of value.
honestly, we held out so long it sent my mental health down the drain.
we ended up having a long heart to heart about what was important to us and we ended up selling at a loss as we just didn’t see things improving. It really stung at the time and the sale still hasn’t gone through 5 months later as leaseholds take an age but we moved anyway, into a rental for a bit, in a cheaper area with more space.
I have no regrets, in the end it was just money, we have the rest of our lives to recoup that, or not. It was worth it for us to feel less trapped and happier
p.s we got a short term rental/air bnb in for part of the selling time and it’s more than covered the cost. before anyone jumps on me, yes this is fine with our mortgage and we are doing it legally

I think it is important to know how big is the space in feet and how much do you love the area. If it's big enough and you love the area then there is plenty you can do to utilise the space better. Multi functional furniture, room dividers, storage ideas. Lots of ideas on YouTube. Or try 600 Square feet and a baby website. It might give you an extra couple of years where you are, after which child care fees should be much less and you can afford a bigger place.

I've been there and it is hard. I registered for an allotment when we were in a tiny flat with a DC. It took 18 months to get a half plot, thoroughly overgrown, but it was a fantastic outdoor space for DC to 'garden' and be outside. We eventually moved to a bigger flat but kept the allotment!

But if rents are so high in your area you'd get a decent rate for yours too, no?

So our flat isn’t Actually the pokiest to be fair when I’ve compares some period two beds where the toilet is right next to the bath for example or doesn’t even have a bath it’s a shower. But the bedroom is very awkward as it’s an odd shape with a slightly triangular feel. It’s a pain. I’d be ok with zone 3 even 4 I just would want a train line. I think we have just had an amazing time here with the kids. We are 30 mins door to door to soho for example, tons of amazing parks, lots of free things for the kids all within walking distance. My kids genuinely love city life. The buses are even still a novelty, all the splash parks and incredible libraries and museums. We walk loads even though we have a car. And contrary to popular belief I do feel a level of community especially within the families. I’ve used the city more than I did in the middle part of my relationship where it was a Netflix and stuff your face kinda era! I think unless you’ve done London as a family and really immersed yourself it’s hard for people to get the hype. But it’s just so good for families….cost and pollution are obviously the downfalls.

I think the renting out is a nice idea but if we are still paying on top to cover reserve funds and service charges it doesn’t make sense as our rent would be very high. I do think we may need to take the hit because agents are telling us it needs to go lower in price ffs! And I want to move on. I recently met a person at work who moved from where we live now to zone 3 to a gorgeous flat but prices have gone up since they bought.

did you guys end up staying in the city or did you have a fresh start somewhere new?