Which to choose?

[Supergluerules]

So, 2 properties I am interested in. Some perspective would be appreciated please.

Both are in conservation areas with protected frontages, both need work doing to bring up to spec including poss rewiring, insulation, floors, sanitaryware, kitchens. I have budget for this and both are more or less same price and same area.

1: victorian 4 floors, terraced, 1938sqft, 5 beds, kitchen, dining room, sitting room, 3 cloakrooms, 1 shower, 20m back garden, driveway shared.

2: edwardian detached, 2 floors, 1313sqft, 4 beds, kitchen/diner, sitting room, 1 shower room, 1 bathroom, 1 cloakrm, garden front and back, garage, drive.

I love the style of 1 but realistically 2 offers potential for future resale and is more 'desirable' being detached.

Thoughts on this, I suspect I need to move quick to get an offer in.

I’d choose no 2. Lots of advantages to being in a detached and the garage will provide excellent storage or possible utility/ laundry area too.
The shared drive at no 1 could cause conflict and 4 floors is a lot for cleaning etc.

Ditto. We're two floors now and want to move to one to make life easier in old age.

Also, if extra bedroom(s) are in the loft then I'm not interested. There's usually limited headroom somewhere and I imagine that it'll be a nightmare to heat or keep cool.

Use Area360 on RM to uncover any other desirable/undesirable features.

I think 2 sounds the best. 4 floors is a lot!!

If they are similar prices, 1. might sound like you are getting more house for your money, but you are probably getting more work (extra floors) and potentially more trouble (shared drive) for your money.

2, definitely. I love Edwardian houses and they tend to be less narrow (shotgunned rooms) than Victorian. And detached any day of they week!

If you're brave post some Rightmove links.

2 sounds the better option

No 2 as it’s detched, own driveway and only 2 floors.

I would never buy a house with shared access.So 2 for me.

Having read various driveway threads over the years I would discount house 1 just on the basis it has a shared drive.

Do you need 5 beds or is 4 sufficient?

No 2 unless you desperately need an extra bedroom. A shared driveway can quickly become a bone of contention, and detached rather than terrace is better every time - you don’t have to worry about your noise, nor will you be impacted by other people’s. A shower, bathroom and loo are better than one shower room (for the whole house??) and four floors would keep you fit, but you’d be so fed up with cleaning the stairs! Also garage v useful.

House number 2 sounds much better.
Detached and 2 floors is preferable plus a garage would win it for me.
I also prefer Edwardian architecture to Victorian because houses are less ‘skinny’ and I think tend to be lighter and brighter. I don’t like the ‘corner of the room’ position of the windows on the back rooms in Victorian houses because it makes the room dark.

What size is the garden of 2, and are the bedroom sizes good ie proper doubles? If they are and the garden is comparable then house 2

I have a shared drive. No problems at all in 15 years. I would pick property 2 though, because it’s detached and over 2 floors.

Thanks all, really appreciate your feedback.
We have DS3 at uni so would need some space for them, but DC1+2 are working in big cities, so unlikely to (hopefully?!) need to return.

DP did keep saying why would we need so much space for just the two of us, esp over 4 floors, plus as you've said, extra cleaning. 1 is also in an area where many of the houses were converted to flats, so it's a mix of flats/rentals/private/single homes. It only has a back garden, whereas 2 is a corner plot with garden around 2/3rds of the house.

Let's see what happens, apparently house 2 are only accepting offers after an open day. Would have been useful if the agents had made this clear in the listing.