HELP! Stuck in a rental

[TaupePanda]

We have been in a rental for 2 years - lots of false starts to move and now I just can't see the wood for the trees and could use some thoughts.

For context: we live in an area with mostly victorian terraced houses. Not big, with crap gardens. That all being said, we love it here - great schools, great high street, parks, transport etc... We moved from London and we absolutely made the right decision.

There are a handful of big houses - really big houses - in the area and in 2023 we had an offer accepted on one. We sold our house overnight - its a very hot market - and got an great price for it.
The day before we were all due to exchange, our onward sale fell through - they wanted to stay after all. We were gutted and had to decide - stay or go anyway.
We felt that being in a fast-moving position of rental would be useful. Plus the figures looked like:

£545k - our sale price
£100k - the cost to go up into the loft
580k - the sale price of our neighbour's house at the same time as ours, who had a bigger kitchen, an extra bathroom and two extra bedrooms.

Ultimately it felt like the maths pointed to a better deal if we sold up.

So, we moved into a rental and have been here ever since. 2 years down the line, we have explored so many options including moving away but that is very low down on the list of potential solutions - the kids love school and we have built a great community around us.

We think we have two options now:

1. Move back into a small 2 bed house, which will cost us at least as much as we sold for. Do the work that we didn't want to do but just accept that we haven't a choice if we want to stop paying rent.
2. Wait it out for a rare bigger house and stump up the 20% plus increase in prices from the past 2 years. Its extremely competitive so it is always a case of offering over asking.

I think this is where we have gotten ourselves trapped. We don't feel we can justify spending £900k on a big house that actually isn't ideal in terms of layout etc and will probably need more money spent on it. But, we also find it difficult to see the vision for a house that we'll have to extend and actually the difference in price won't be that big once you have done a side return and a loft!

It feels like both options are expensive and rubbish but we have to do something - I'm sick of paying rent, which is also a lot of money. We're just spinning around in circles now, never liking anything or questioning the value. But, we can't change the past and have to move forward!

it was hard to vote, but 50.5% of me would go for a bigger house and do it up gradually.

900k if you are outside of London is ludicrous money on a house. Can you move area?

Well yes, but we don't want to. Lots of houses are more than that - its not the most expensive part of the city. I think that it isn't that unusual to find those prices outside of London anymore - parts of Bristol, Bath, Oxford, Cheltenham, lots of the Cotswolds, Cambridge, all the home counties...Of course we can buy a house for less but we love where we live. We're happy to pay for the right house but just can't seem to find quite what we're looking for and pull the trigger

Ha, the same quandary we're in - about 51% says go big and the other 49% says that's silly when it's a lifetime to pay off and it won't even be what we want. And the conflict continues

I’d definitely go for the bigger place but be prepared to live with it and do it up gradually (unless it’s a wreck).

Reasons are that if you like the area it’s best to plan long term (I.e older kids moving home), going for the smaller house will feel mentally like moving backwards and the bigger house will be a better long term investment.

Be flexible about what you will look at though and make sure you are top of all the estate agents lists as a person ready to move. Don’t rely on Rightmove etc- sought after houses will go before they even make it there. You could also try leafleting all of the big houses for an off market move.

How much bigger is the 'bigger' house option? Is there an in between option?

If you can afford the bigger house go for it. If you get a house a lot smaller than you had before you'll feel like you have gone backwards and you'll resent it every day. House prices go up over time as you've found out.

If you can come to terms with not having exactly what you want, which of the two options will you hate a little bit less? Sorry to put it so… using the word “hate”

I would wait for a rare bigger house to come up.

You moved into a rental so will be in the perfect position to get accepted by a seller over other interested parties that are in a chain when the great house does come up. Maybe give up the idea of a "perfect" house though - they pretty much all have compromises of one kind or another. It's just a case of finding a bigger house in a great location that has compromises you can live with and where you definitely feel you have traded up.

Thanks all. TBH, we think we might just have to come to terms with the fact that we can't really afford to live here anymore. In 2 years there have 5 big houses on the market starting at a price we could stretch to. Our position hasn't made any difference - we got pipped to the post with a 55k difference in offer price ( we offered over and they topped us by that much) by someone who was a completely cash buyer. So, we buy small, move or start an only fans page! A shame, but we can't all have what we want, I suppose.

I am sorry for you, houses are so overinflated now it's just ridiculous.

We want to move and when I look at the houses here in the town I grew up in I just can't believe that a 3 bed semi is half a million. I'm not even sure we could afford to buy our own house and we have good salaries. Madness we will likely move area which is a shame