Would you recommend renting different types of property before buying?

[childofboomers]

We live in London and are in our mid 20s. Rent a gorgeous little one bed. Will probably buy something similar. Love the area but appreciate there are loads of great areas, and our money would go much further if we moved further out. We are happy in our flat and in no great rush to buy (will do in 2 years maybe).

But before we buy, I'd like to try living in a different type of property and area to see if it would suit. Currently live in a traditional period conversion. But want to try living somewhere a bit more urban and somewhere more modern.

Do you think it's a good idea to try different areas and property types before buying?

I think it’s probably slightly unusual but if it appeals to you then why not? It’s an advantage of renting to have this sort of flexibility.

I did this because of needing to move around a lot for work. It is disruptive and expensive - although less so if you're not moving much stuff. And harder to put down roots as you need to live in an area for a while to build up relationships. Although it was different in London for that again.

It has been useful to get a feel for different types of property and what they were like to live in. And discrepancies between areas - I had no idea how much council tax could vary even for similar sized properties.

I think this depends a lot on your financial and work situation more than anything else.
As a person currently living in London (rent) and needing to buy, I've not had the flexibility to move just to check out an area.
The costs would have impacted my ability to save too much.

If you can move more easily, why not?
You've also got a lot more years ahead than me, so that affords a certain flexibility too.

We rented 2 different places before we bought though for different reasons. We rented a tiny one bed flat in the centre of town for 6 months before we sold (moving across country) and then a larger property a bit further out once we moved all our stuff. It was helpful because the area was new to us and we were able to work out where we preferred living and could concentrate our search on that area.

I think it makes sense to test out an area or a property type you're unsure of. We planned to rent in our new town for a year initially, to see what the commute was like, how accessible places were on foot, what the traffic was like, if we gravitated towards other areas of town we didn't expect etc. I could imagine doing the same for property types- do you like having X feature, can you actually cope without Y, how is the sound proofing, what are the bills like etc.

We never ended up doing it, but I still think it was a wise idea. If we ever had to move to somewhere completely new, we would rent for a year at first to get a feel for the place.

I don't think it is a bad idea if you can be bothered with the hassle of moving and expense. I don't know anyone who has done it though.

We have learned SO much about what NOT to do in a house and what sort of houses cause us issues over the last five years (two flats, three houses). IMO it means when we do finally buy, we will have ruled out or accepted an awful lot of irritants we weren’t aware of before having a string of annoying or unsuitable rentals.

However, it’s also made us exceptionally fussy - and that in itself is a problem which takes a lot of willpower to overcome.