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!

House for me too. What areas are you looking?

I was in your situation a few years ago when I got divorced at 53. Because DS was only 17 at the time I ended up buying a two bedroom flat as I couldn’t afford a house. Since moving in, my service charge has doubled to almost £2k a year and my ground rent has trebled. Fortunately my flat is in a block of just two and my neighbour is also a single person so it’s fairly quiet. But in hindsight, I wish I’d bought a one bedroom house and a decent sofa bed!

House or bungalow

That way in retirement your are forced to pay high service charges you have no idea how high they can get

Plus a 2 bed you have option of lodger like you mention. You could find someone of a similar age and they would help with bills

Thanks to all for the comments. @BammBamm I've been looking in Preston and other parts of Lancashire,, also merseyside. Manchester and Stockport are too expensive.

I've been rightmove-ing again and see that in the preferred city I want to live in - Liverpool - the service charges and ground rent currently total on average £1.6k a year for decent one bedroom flats, which sell for about £90K. There are OK two- bedroom freehold houses selling there for £130k. I've read on here that if you have a choice then south Liverpool is where you want to be rather than north of the city centre?

Monthly payments with a £50k deposit:

Mortgage mortgage repayments (£297) plus charges (£133) for one bedroom flat = £430

Mortgage mortgage repayments for a two bedroom house = £519. (I know there's other costs to consider).

In conclusion, I agree with the consensus - better to stretch myself a little and get a two bedroom house. I'm not quite ready to move yet but this is the kind of house I'd like which will likely sell for more than £130k:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/162477047#/?channel=RES_BUY

If you're mortgage is going to be till near retirement, and you don't plan on early payoffs, you might wanna have a look at what you want in the future, like having no garden, parking outside...

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/160454723#/?channel=RES_BUY

This kind of cottage could done up really nicely

I forgot about the lack of washing line when living in flats! I've been taking that for granted, clearly...

The noisy neighbours issue has not been worse in flats than houses for me.
Genuinely, I've never had an issue with it in a flat. I've lived in 4 different ones in the past 10 years, but they've been the post-2000s contemporary low rise flats. Although actually one of those was a Victorian mansion house flat, and that was very quiet, too. Not sure if I got lucky, or the way the neo Georgian ones are designed keeps the elephant hoof effect at bay.

All my intolerably noisy neighbours have been in terraces. I've left two terraces because of it, and I don't like this one because of opportunistic burglars trying my back door handle.

Swings and roundabouts innit.

OP, I live in the Northwest. Have you looked at Glossop/Hadfield/Greenfield/Mottram just outside of the Stockport area of Greater Manchester? Properties tend to be reasonable there. Perhaps a bit out of the way though, if you like to be close to a bigger town centre.

I'd suggest an apartment in the converted church in Ashton, but the centre is... Hmm... No comment 😆

No brainer, always buy a house rather than flat in you can afford it, for most of the reasons you mention. Just to pick up on a couple of your points:

• Less maintenance on a flat - No flats still need maintenance. The difference is that with a house you have complete control over the work that is done and what you decide to pay. With a flat you will just receive a vastly over inflated bill, for work you might think doesn’t even need doing, and have little choice but to pay it.
• Lower repayments on a flat - Maybe so, but that will be more than offset by the extra costs associated with a flat, service charges, ground rent, major works invoices etc.

Don't go for a flat. They are getting harder and harder to sell especially in less expensive areas.