Buying a one bed flat or a two bed house - what would you do?

[curiositykilledthiscat]

Hi, I'm planning on getting a mortgage on a property next year in the northwest, at the age of 50. I hope to get a small 16 year mortgage up to retirement age and I have a £50k deposit. I'm looking at properties for £120k or under and I'm not interested in shared ownership.

It's just me and I feel nervous because I can't get excited about living in a one bed flat even though the areas where the flats are look appealing in terms of convenience and there's less maintenance involved than there is with houses. I have flat and houseshared for roughly three decades and need a change.

Pros of flats in my chosen areas:

Less maintenance than a house.

Close to city centres.

Cheaper than a two bed house so repayments would be less.

Cons:

More chance of noisy neighbours.

Probably no garden access.

Couldn't get a lodger.

Flats are less likely than houses to resell.

The service charges. This is the big one. I'm concerned about the service charge going up every year. I don't earn much and probably never will. Moreover, I am nervous about paying it when I retire even when the mortgage is paid off (my pension pot is currently tiny).

Pros of buying a house where I can afford to:

More space. A garden.

No service charge that will go up every year and is beyond my control.

Option to get a lodger.

May be a better investment than a flat.

Cons:

Maybe more anti-social behaviour in the areas I can afford.

Boiler and roof repairs to cover but I will always keep a growing rainy day fund to pay for these.

Slightly higher mortgage repayments than a flat.

More maintenance to keep on top of than a flat.

Have I missed anything?

I've been looking for ages at Rightmove and notice there's a huge amount of flats for sale and some have been on the market for literally years!

I would go for the house, it will be better for you, especially in retirement I am assuming you would want to have a garden and the money from a lodger would help support you.

I think the answer to this depends on your priorities. If it's a place you'll stay in forever then being really happy with the location is very important. If you think you will want to move on at any point, then resale ease and value is important, which is also very tired to location.

Houses are a bit more expensive to maintain if they are freehold, so you have to decide if being master of your own domain is worth it for you.

Good luck

On a level paying field the house every time, But how bad is the antisocial behaviour?

Always the house.

If you buy a flat you are essentially still renting, you also have no control over fees or overall building maintenance etc...

I'm in the North East and if the North West is similar then maybe a small bungalow might be the mid ground your looking for, I'm in the north east and there are loads of little terrace 'ex miner' bungalows around that where built for retired miners back in the day. If you can get one like that it would be small like a flat but freehold.

Like this type of thing as an example.

An estate agent told me over three decades ago to buy a house rather than a flat.

Flats are normally leasehold, where you're at the mercy of the freeholder as regards ground rent and maintenance costs / service charges. Even flats with a share of the freehold can mean hassles with the other owners.

I don't know, it's just perceived, I suppose. Think Anfield and Bootle...I've lived in some properly dodgy places and it's never been a problem but when it comes to buying I was thinking of burglaries etc and you're more vulnerable to that in a house.

You can get a small house, maybe consider expanding your search zone.

Flats many more things to look out for, like service charges, ground rents, poor maintenance from management companies, lease terms.

I live in the North West, I wouldn't personally buy a flat.
Flat prices are more volatile than houses, and as property prices are currently silly/ high, any downward change to the market would see flats fall faster than houses.

A 2 bedroom house should be reasonable to maintain cost wise.

Even though in theory a flat would require less heating, many of them have no gas supply and just wall mounted electric heaters, which are really expensive to run compared with gas central heating.
Same with flat water heaters, if it's an electrically heated hot water tank for the shower, it's pretty expensive way of heating water.

Definitely a house, for all the reasons you mention. Look for one with a small garden that doesn't need much looking after if gardening isn't your thing.

When I lived in a one bed flat I remember feeling very trapped, even though most of the neighbours were nice. Especially on sunny days.

Also the service charges cost more than the mortgage. They'd almost double most years but they had to be paid.

House it's a no-brainer.
The service charge (& ground rent?) issues with a flat would put me off entirely.
I have lived in a flat back in the days when ground rent was nominal and service charges related directly to what was done in that year (yes, there really was such a time!)
Get a house. OK you have to pay the upkeep costs but at least you are in control of these to a large degree.

I'd say house... and

1. Get an alarm if worried about safety
2. Get good buildings and home insurance to cover things like boiler and roof repairs

House, if you can afford it. The cons / risks of flats are significant. You could mitigate some of the risks with a house through lots of research, visits etc.

I've moved around A LOT in the past 10+ years and have lived in and rented different ground and first floor flats and terraced, semi and detached houses. I'm a parent in my mid 30s. Once my son is out of the paddling pool stage and he uses the garden less, if I was going to buy, just from the lived experience alone, I would buy a first floor flat in a 3 or 4 story building in a nice area. Ideally with ample grounds surrounding it, and personal parking space. And yes, like a PP said, with proper radiators not the storage heaters.

I don't have time for gardening. I live in a rented terrace house now and the gardening is constant. I'm not sure I could be arsed with it when I'm retired either... It would have to be a full patio with potted plants. I prefer house plants.

I've also had lads in balaclavas trying my back door in my current house, and I don't feel safe. I love the feeling of safety with a first floor flat.

In every flat I've had, I've had no problems with neighbours. Ever. Never heard them through the walls or ceilings or anything. In at least 2 of the terrace houses I've lived in, we've had horrible problems with noisy antisocial neighbours and the adjoining neighbours when they're out in their gardens screaming at their kids or each other. Granted, that was a cheaper area. In the nicer/more affluent area I'm in now, our elderly neighbours are lovely (and quiet) but every time I'm out in the garden, one of them will natter on and on and on... No matter if I'm reading, working or spending time with my child. I've started avoiding my garden if I've not got time for a chat. You can't escape your neighbours in a terrace. Detached is top tier for that, though, obviously!

The gas and electric has always been cheaper in the flats I've lived in, even with a dishwasher. The surrounding floors and flats keep you insulated, they heat up quick and are always toasty in winter (as long as you've got the proper radiators!).

They suit me, though. I like having everything to hand and going up and downstairs to fetch things or go to the loo is slightly inconvenient, and lugging the hoover up and down the stairs. Hoovering the stairs... Annoying. Taking the laundry up and down... Yawn. I get all the boring stuff done rapid in a flat.

I like having balcony doors in my living room to open in summer, especially when the grounds have been large and quiet with trees and things, too.

Also, why not a two bed flat?

I actually prefer living in a flat but it’s the service charge that puts me off, especially when you have no control over it. If finances are tight, I’d go for the house.

Still no garden, and the lounge and kitchen would probably be the same size as a one bedder. There's still more chance of having noisy neighbours than there would be in a house. The option to get a lodger in would be there, but I know I would feel more pressured to do this to mitigate the financial costs. Whereas I don't think I would feel that 'need' to get a lodger in a house with more space and a garden, but still would like the option.

The biggest thing is that I feel dread at the thought of paying ground rent and service charges (which will increase each year) when I retire on a tiny pension and being forced to get a lodger to indirectly pay for this.

Definitely agree with the alarm, however no insurance policy covers roof/boiler repairs that are down to wear and tear or maintenance issues. They would only be covered if something actually happened to them.

I worked in buildings insurance for many years, and roofs and boilers were almost never covered although any resultant damage to eg. decoration/kitchen cupboards would be but only if you have accidental damage cover.

Between my DH and I we have owned 4 flats. Every single one had horrendous issues with the management company and service charge. Like full on mental breakdown stress levels. I hated that with one I had to be classed as a director of a limited company, with one my DH owned, he was in a basement flat in a huge Victorian building. Very grand in its day but split up in to flats decades ago. The tenant in the top flat would moan about leaks and the management company decided a new roof was needed - long story short, he had a bill of 30k. Never ever again would I own a flat or let my kids buy a flat.

I would never buy leasehold or have a management company if there was a freehold option. I like to be in control of my finances which is very necessary when approaching pension age. Go with the 2 bed house.

Always a house, or bungalow if you're planning on staying there, forever home etc

I’ve owned a couple of flats… one was freehold, one was leasehold and both had equal amounts of hassle. The only way I’d buy a flat now is if I couldn’t afford a house. They are noisy and hot in summer - I can’t imagine what it must have been like over the past few days with the heat we’ve had in the South East. Management companies are an absolute bunch of shysters and it doesn’t matter what service charge you pay if something needs doing ( like a change of bulb in communal hallway ) they will charge you for it. If you’re not into gardening I’d buy something with a yard / small outdoor space and pretty it up with raised beds or pots and get myself a little seating area for breakfast or coffee. Also gives you space to dry some washing. Having a door open and pottering in and out is so nice on a sunny day.

Freehold over leasehold every time.

There's also a reason for the saying 'location, location, location' - the worst house in the best location rather than the best house in the worst location. Have a look here https://www.police.uk/pu/your-area/ for the crime stats in the areas you are looking at.

I rent a flat currently - shortly after moving in I had water dripping through the kids bedroom ceiling on and off, this got worse over several weeks, the landlord and his crap tradesmen were clueless about how to fix it, many failed attempts, to the point where I had a whole bathtub amount of water coming through the ceiling throughout the night - over Christmas I had to set an alarm every 3 hours to empty the huge plastic boxes I had catching the leak - my landlord thought it was ok for me to
have to live like that! The stress was unreal - had that been my own house, I could have stopped the leak in a matter of hours, and fixed it in a day or so.

And yes, a freehold house if your area has them!

I've owned both flats and a house. I'd choose a house over a flat if I could.

I currently own a flat, it's nice, but I miss having my own garden, we have a communal garden and its only a block of 6 flats so not huge but I miss having a washing line, being able to do what I like to the garden, it's a pain having to rely on the gardeners to cut the grass (because sometimes the grass is up to my knees) and they just hack the bushes and trees. My upstairs neighbours are like a herd of small elephants and their washing machine sounds like they've got bricks in it every time they use it.

House every time