To move or not to move?

[HettyMeg]

DH & I have been talking about whether to move or extend for about a year.

We are in a 3 bed semi in a very desirable suburb with good schools. Location is fab, daughter is in an excellent nursery and will feed into a great high school eventually. However our house feels tight with one DC and we may want to have another. We don't need another bedroom but would like more social space. Downstairs is all open plan so essentially one big room and I WFH so we're always on top of each other. Looking at extending out the back.

We have been looking in our current area and we probably can't afford the house we want, not to mention that properties rarely come up in our price bracket in the small area we want to stay in.

A year left on mortgage fixed rate.

Now starting to consider a move to a slightly less desirable but still nice location 10/15 min drive away, where we are more likely to be able to afford what we want, but where we would be walking away from connections we've built up locally.

Do we extend or move to a different area?

Can you afford the extension you’d want to meet your needs/wants? If so, it sounds like a no brainer!

Presumably, you’ll increase the mortgage to move or to extend, so save the stamp duty and fees and extend. You’ll have the extra space you want in a house where you’ve built connections and community.

Extend.

There are threads on here saying what cost per square foot or metre or whatever in various areas of the country, or ask again for advice on costs and then see if you can afford it.

As someone currently in the hellish process of selling & buying…

EXTEND

If you can extend then extend! Moving is very expensive, stressful and unsettling.

Definitely extend.

If you move 10/15 mins away would your dc still get into the school?

It costs approximately £10k to move so bear that in mind. Extension definitely ( and I say that as someone just come out of the process where things did go wrong and it did take longer to build than anticipated but still worth it.

I wouldn't say definitely extend as costs mount up and it could end up compromising the garden etc. But it depends on how much the 'next step' up is in your area.
Irrelevant question, why are you on top of each other if you WFH and have a spare bedroom?

I wouldn’t sell now, the market is bonkers at best! Extend.

Do you have room for the size of extension you want and still have garden space? Why are you currently working downstairs if you have a spare bedroom? Would a garden room as an office be an option, so you can be using the house for one less purpose and free up space?

It would seem a shame to shell out for all the moving costs to move somewhere you like less.

Just an update to a few points raised - dc would go to different school if we moved but is same council area and its schools are all excellent. She is in nursery currently so wouldn't be disrupting her schooling. It is still a "good area" but bigger, more suburban and spread out whereas our currently area is more villagey.

Work - I work in smallest bedroom as an office / spare room but we still feel all on top of each other in evenings and weekends due to layout of downstairs - it is an L shape of sorts with living room and dining kitchen all in one room essentially. Tiny hallway by front door. The kitchen is also poorly laid out with not enough surface space - no peninsula which it's crying out for and which would give more options for us as a family. An issue we would be looking to reconfigure if extending.

If extending we would be financing it from the mortgage. We would lose a dead space bit of the garden we don't care about as it doesn't get much light. It's also on a slope though which complicates things (possibly) and would mean some new landscaping to make it work - not a simple flat garden. So garden room not an alternative.

Do you think you might want a 4th bedroom or extra bathroom at some point, for instance if you have another child? The risk with extending is you do it, but after a few years you find that there are other needs it can't fulfil.

I think it comes down to the footprint of the plot. If it's a big plot and a wide enough house and going into the garden would make it feel spacious enough with two teenagers then go for it.

But if you want just a roomier family home and could maybe get a bigger downstairs space, an extra bedroom and a bigger garden by moving, I reckon just do that. Otherwise you may find yourself considering it again in a few years.

If you want another child, you'll probably end up moving anyway as you'll want another bedroom.