Thinking of moving to a flat. Please tell me the pros and cons.

[GirlScoutCookies]

I’m thinking of moving to a ground floor flat from my 3 bed semi. It’s a brand new flat(Still being finished) and I’m contemplating it due to disability and wanting to be on one level.

I’ve been considering a bungalow too as was my original plan but for various reasons including the maintenance of a garden, I’m leaning towards this flat,

It’s 5 minutes from a train station and offers more buses than my current home and is closer to the city which is very helpful as I don’t drive.

I haven’t lived in a flat since I was 9 I was raised in a top floor flat and loved it as a child but I’m wondering if I’ll still love it as an adult.

Any opinions/thoughts would be much appreciated.

TIA

I absolutely love living in a flat and haven’t lived in a house for years. I do hear some noise from the flat above me, but it’s not horrific. My friend who lives in a house has far more noise to deal with from his neighbours than I do.

I would massively prefer to live in a bungalow (particularly a detached one) than in a flat if those were my options. But that's because I prioritise quiet and privacy above everything else. Others are more sociable/ people-tolerant and might actively like to feel surrounded by people and benefit from their heating being on.

If you can find a bungalow with a smallish garden you could have most of it paved and just leave a tiny border for easy plants, if you wanted.

I've lived in both flats and houses and my preference is always a house. Please do not underestimate the joy of having your own outdoor space, especially in the summer. It's great to sit in my yard when it's warm (I'm also not interested in maintaining a garden). And it may sound trivial, but another drawback about flats for me is that unless you have a balcony, there's nowhere to hang out and dry wet laundry.

Noise - people above you making noise and you obviously can't control who lives there. Depending on where in the building your ground floor flat is, you may also have to endure hearing people coming and going into the building.

I'd go for a bungalow with a tiny garden.

People on here hate flats so you won’t get a very even view.

The reality is that there are bad flats in the same way there are bad houses. I love living in my flat. It feels really safe and it’s never really cold.

I can hear the neighbours walking sometimes but unless you can afford to live in a detached property I actually find that in general people in flats are more considerate as they KNOW they can be heard.

@MiseryIn very true. OP had said it's a new build and respected developer so would be lovely and up to spec and adhere to latest regulations with soundproofing and insulation . It's the conversions of old large houses which are problematic especially WRT to noise

My sister lives in a ground floor apartment, 16 in the block.
Hers is on the front with large French windows and small patio area and grass & tress in front

Her main snipe is
with the large trees(there all along the road)
she doesn’t get much day light in the apartment
it’s dark. Check position
The next door neighbour has 2 kids and they play on the grass in front of their apartment but play on her side sometimes and use it as a short cut to the bins .

Are the apartments for everyone or retirement?

I live in a ground floor flat with a garden. I love it! It's warm because it's surrounded, i never use the heating. It's ground floor so it doesn't get hot in the summer. I love that the floor is continuous throughout, not interrupted by stairs. It's easy to get furniture in and do laundry. No stairs to clean. No stairs to negotiate to have tea in bed. I have a mopping robot that can do the whole house. This one's not relevant to you, but with a small baby I don't need to worry about stairs and my hips in the first weeks and I can wheel him into any room. We have reasonable neighbours though, which is vital. The building is concrete and very little normal day to day noise gets through. I have a front door straight onto the street and no communal hall which reduces friction.

@Paaseitjes ❤️vertical living too

Thanks everyone. I couldn’t find the thread until now but I’m very grateful for all of your advice. In the end I decided to go for it and I moved in yesterday. I think that it will be a positive move for me, all things considered, but only time will tell.

I would not buy a ground floor flat due to noise from above.

My friend's son lives in a modern flat and doesn't hear the children in the flat upstairs at all.

I hope you're very happy in your new home.

Well done, OP.
You’ve weighed it all up and you’ve got there! Must have been stressful but now you can just get on with making the most of life.
every good wish

Thats great OP congrats on your new home! I still love my flat 4 yrs on even though I can hear the neighbours, it’s really not something i care about!

I am currently in a flat for work posting, from a house at home. It is very different.

I miss not having a garden. I am lucky that I have a good balcony (and even more that its’s covered). I am also high enough to not worry about putting my clothes horse of clean laundry out to dry. And I can do some container gardening there.

there are noise rules meaning I can’t run washing machine, dishwasher or tumble drier late at night - so I can’t start them after 8 in effect. When I often only get home them. And there is actual noise from the lifts and other apartments also. But no antisocial neighbours, it’s mostly muffled “daily living” noise rather than music/loud tv/screaming kids (or adults) etc.

storage is very different. If you own it, you can build in units more than as a renter. But the space feels more limited to me also. And I am not allowed to use any gas appliances so limited to electricity - and if the power goes out, I cannot use naked flames so no bbq or camping stove (I am not asking the question about candles, on purpose).

But it is all ok the flat and the space has made me simplify what I need. My heating bills are lower as others like hot rooms and I don’t need so much (sometimes I am even opening windows to cool down the apartment in winter!). Ground floor would benefit less from that, but still less exposed walls/roof to lose heat to outdoors than a house.

There is a good building manager who deals with breakdowns, puts out the bins, keeps common areas clean etc. Is there a plan for your building on that?

Sorry, I just realised this was an old thread.

congratulations and enjoy your new home!

No brainer, get a bungalow.

More potential for noise from neighbours in all sides in a flat. Also with flats you have no control over the costs of any work done to the building. The management company send you an over inflated invoice and you have little choice but to pay. With a bungalow you can choose when / if you get any work done and decide who does it for you.

Flats are for people who can’t afford anything else. Can’t see why anyway would have one out of choice, if they can afford a house/bungalow.

Family member lived in a top floor flat. No noise and just much better views. Only thing with their block of flats were that it was a commuter town and lots were rented out so less of a community feel as renters tended to keep themselves to themselves and not be interested in fostering friendships. The pluses are that I think all rooms get used as everything is close by.

You will be future.proofed, you have great access to the outside world as your situation changes, you will still have loads of space. Laid out well flats feel really homely.

I lived in a 50s bungalow for a while and it was freezing. The layout was good but you get that in a flat.

As long as the service charge isn't one of those horrible ones that can triple, go for it

I’ve just moved from a house to a flat (also in Scotland) and love it! We spend a lot more time together as a family as no-one disappears off upstairs to their bedrooms. Although a downside is the kids will just yell from wherever they are rather than coming to find me I suppose 🤣 We’re in an area with lots going on and great transport networks and I’d rather have that than a house further away. Easier to get to know your neighbours and feels like more of a community - everyone chats. I also enjoy not having to do gardening (full-time job and 3 kids means it was always bottom of my list!) but we do have the backcourt so I could if I wanted to. Very much Team Flat here!

Are you in Scotland? As I really don’t think that’s true here where we have beautiful tenements! (I live in one by choice, as do many others I know. I could definitely afford a house if I wanted one, in fact I moved from one 🤣)

I completely agree, but OP has gone ahead to buy the flat. Better to stretch a bit to buy an house than comfortably buy a flat. Aside from the outdoor space issues and potential noise problems I mentioned, the leasehold issues alone (in England) would put me off but I hope it works out for OP.

I’m in C London and have always lived in a flat on the ground floor with huge, beautifully maintained communal garden. It’s enabled me to meet my neighbours and we’ve become really good friends. Location of the flat is everything. I could never live on a main/noisy road. I almost bought a house outside of London and I’m so glad I didn’t due to the long-term cost of maintenance of gardens, roof, etc. I doubt I’ll ever live in a house. I’m about to buy a 3rd floor flat in the same area - the light and views are gorgeous.

Get a share of freehold with very long underlying lease, low service charge and well-maintained building. I saw plenty of gorgeous flats but the service charges put me off (7-10k a year).

Noise isn't always an issue. I live in a block of 18 flats and they are built with really thick concrete walls and are soundproof. I never hear footsteps from above.

The only sound that carries is front doors shutting in the hallway when they swell up a bit and need to be slammed a bit to close.

I also moved into mine because of disability and I don't regret it. I also was tempted by a bungalow but I'm glad I went with the flat as I get a lot of deliveries and often I'm too ill in bed to answer the door. The packages can be safely left in the hall outside my front door until I'm well enough to fetch them in.

Do make sure any mobility aids you may need fit properly around the hallways - I have to fold my wheelchair to get it out my flat and it did mean I'm not able to have a powerchair.

EDIT: Oh you moved in already! Gratz on the move and I hope everything works out well.

Thanks everyone for the advice and kind wishes. I appreciate it.

I can afford a bungalow(Though my new flat cost more than my house did.) but I don’t want the maintenance of a large bungalow and the bungalows in my wealthy area tend to be very large with large gardens as a result and I don’t want to maintain a large home or garden. If I could have found a small bungalow with a court yard garden then I’d probably go for that if it was in reasonable condition but they are very rare here so I’d probably never find one.

My disabilities are an important factor too especially as they will continue to get worse. This is much more accommodating for them and I’m literally 5 minutes from Dr’s surgery, library, restaurants, train station, pharmacies, supermarket etc which will be very useful when I’m struggling to walk.

I’m sure that some things will annoy me and I’ll miss a few things about my old home (Though probably not the garden as I really only ventured out there to put the bins out) but practicality had to win out and hopefully it’ll pay off in the end.

Thanks DoAWheelie. I really appreciate the advice about aids and hopefully my experience in my new flat will be as positive as yours.