I know we're privledged but need advice or experienced views

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We both earn over £60k (UK) and bought a semi-detached property a few years ago with a monthly mortgage of ~£1,750pm, which is affordable for us. We don't have an urgent need to move but would love a detached properly with more parking and a bigger garden. However, we live in an expensive area so can't afford what we'd really want right now. What would you do?

1. stay put and save for what we really want.
2. move to a doer-upper that we could renovate/extend in a few years.
3. extend ourselves and get the dream property but be stretched and not be able to save money each month.

Additional info: moving to a much cheaper area isn't an option. We don't intend to have children so school catchment areas and additional house space isn't an issue. My partner is of the opinion that life is short and why wait for our "dream" house when we're retired. I hate the thought of living in a property where lots of work is needed when our current property is modern and very functional, but wouldn't be against a property that's liveable but needs an extension/superficial renovation.

Any advice or experience would be much appreciated! Our main issues with our current house are: semi-detached with noise from neighbours, busy estate with parking issues, small-ish garden for partner (loves to garden) and dogs, central busy area when we'd prefer a small town/village vibe with walkable amenities.

Thanks!

2, personally, but long term renos can be expensive and tiring!

1. Option 4 stay as you are while saving for an extension but re examine your options when the time comes.

1 or 2 for me. We're just coming to the end of a renovation and it was incredibly tedious, but the worst bit I found was doing it with small kids, which wouldn't be an issue for you so it would be painful but manageable! The doer upper option means you can get it exactly as you like which is really lovely.

3 but ensure you have contingency for rate rises and redundancy. I wouldn’t do 2 now. I do extensions and renovations for a living and as long as you want to do it for a house you’ll live in forever and aren’t expecting to make a profit, then fine, but it’s so expensive at the moment with a diminishing rate of return.

I would go for No 1 as option 2 is very expensive to extend/renovate these days. Option 3 maybe a struggle and are your jobs really secure? Try and save as much as you can and give yourself a timeline. In the meantime try to get to know the market you are wanting to buy in. Hopefully th3 time will pass very quickly and in no time you will be in your dream house. Good luck in whatever you decide.

Probably 3 but depends what you mean by stretch

I would say 2ish. We bought a not particularly stylish house (70s) with a big garden in a great location and redecorated it, plus a little bit of building work at the start (knocking through to make a kitchen diner, new kitchen, new bathroom). We did it slowly. Then about 8 years later we did an extension.

I wasn't even sure whether to bid on this house but now I adore it. Don't be afraid of taking on a project, just do it in bite size chunks (and only take on what you can afford).

I might be tempted by 1, and maybe not even save - the holidays I'd go on if I were childfree! Is it worth extending yourselves for a house?

Definitely wouldn't do 3. You have a home, it's not worth the financial pain to go for the dream.