When buying a house, what factors are important (e.g. off-road parking, character, a large kitchen)?

[mumma24]

Obviously all are good but which are the main gor you when looking to buy a house

1. off road parking
2. property with character
3. garage
4. not overlooked
5. quiet road
6. spacious rooms
7. good size garden

snd which would you rule out?
for example you wouldn’t consider a bungalow, something with no kerb appeal, it was overlooked or had no off road parking?
Would love to know your thoughts on this

Bought last year, had rented for 7 years following divorce. It's not my dream home but I wanted the dc to be able to walk to school and be near their friends. Off street parking was a must, 3 bedrooms and a decent garden. Ideally would have liked 2 toilets, but I didn't want to stretch myself so compromised with a cheaper property that ticked most of the boxes!

Location - clean, quiet, no noisy neighbours, schools, public transport, local shops

Property - whatever was on our list at the time

So many people want South facing, then spend loads of money on blinds, umbrellas, canopys, and complain the house gets too hot, as they also tend to have big windows at the back too.

If your garden is long enough, it makes no difference.

I just want room... Room in the house, room in the garden, room around me. I don't really love our house or our village. It's a bit ugly, and a bit meh, but...... We are not overlooked, we have a large garden, we front fields and hills.

We have no facilities, no schools, no shops, no pub.

Must be detached, energy efficient, have a large south-facing garden with a non-integrated double garage, downstairs bathroom, must have kerb appeal and not be located on an endless road of identical houses

I moved last year. Our list of must-haves (beyond location) was:

3 bedrooms for adults and 2 kids plus a second living area that is away from the bedrooms to occasionally be used as a spare room for family who stay 2 weeks / up to 2 months (from overseas)

2 toilets

character features - must haves were high ceilings and wooden floors throughout

decent size kitchen - we like to cook and entertain

decent size back garden

a pool or room (and budget left) to install one

good air con system (or budget left to install)

We live in a hot climate (which I don't love) so pool was super important to me.

I compromised on nearly all of that list for location! Property has a bit of character I guess (Victorian semi with the original windows and fireplaces) and the rooms are pretty spacious.

But it's a busy road, overlooked, tiny garden, no off street parking.

My parents and in laws are agog that we spent a million pounds on it. But the schools are great, I can walk to everything I need (shops, theatres, cinemas, restaurants, library, lots of gym options).

As my kids get older I just love the choice more, they have all their friends in walking distance and loads of things to do.

Depends on what you need and like! We moved last year, out of the town and into the countryside. So not many shops and cafes (there are a short drive away) but a great community with lots of beautiful walks, parks and pubs.

Our priorities were location, short drive to schools, not overlooked, sociable community, at least 2 toilets, big kitchen, medium sized garden and off-road parking.

We found and brought the house of our dreams.

We compromised by not having a garage. The garage has been converted into an extra reception room and 2nd bathroom. But there's a large cabin in the garden, so it's fine. We also have a north facing garden, but it doesn't seem to matter as it's long so it still gets lots of sun.

Mine are:

Essential -

1. Large living room (spend most of our time there)
2. Bath as opposed to shower, or room to replace shower with bath
3. At least one reasonable space additional to living room that is not (or not used as) a bedroom or the kitchen.
4. Easy parking - on-street is fine if not permits or hard to find a space.
5. Some outside space - enough to stick a couple of garden chairs in even if only a tiny yard.
6. Convenient location to get to work from

Desirable -

1. Kitchen-diner
2. Spacious hallway and landing
3. Utility room
4. Conservatory or large porch that can be sat in
5. En-suite bathroom
6. Downstairs loo
7. Nice view
8. Cellar
9. Stone built
10. Cottage vibe - low ceilings etc.
11. South or west-facing garden
12. Built in storage spaces
13. Usable attic - boarded

Do not want -

1. Large garden or land, I hate gardening
2. Garage - just fills up with crap
3. New build or very modern house
4. Any shared spaces - e.g. communal driveway or garden
5. Shower rooms - hate showering so won't get used

'Dream house' would have

1. Galleried landing
2. Split levels
3. Mezzanine area
4. View of railway line and pylons
5. Lots of beams and exposed stonework
6. At least one bit so low you were liable to bump your head on it
7. Walled outside space with little or no grass but lots of different levels and interest
8. Elevated frontage with steps up to front door

Location, short walking distance to good public transport (5 mins to zone 2 tube not 20 mins to zone 5), short walk to desirable schools (and within recent last distance offered), walking distance to work and high street including supermarkets, banks and post office, freehold, enough bedrooms for a bedroom per child, interesting and diverse area, big park, good activities for adults and children nearby, not a doer upper. Not interested in garage, off street parking, big garden, character. I never go to cafes much locally either (seems a waste of money when I can make my own coffee at home) but it's good to have them as an indicator of a desirable neighbourhood.

We don't like moving and it's expensive with London prices for stamp duty so it wasn't enough to buy somewhere that suited our family for a few years. We bought our house planning to stay here for 20+ years (youngest was a baby when we moved).

Our current house suits us, but I would prefer the street to be a bit quieter, have less dog poo, the house is too open plan, the garden is overlooked, it's a bit less desirable architecturally than some local houses (mainly an issue for resale value), and there are too many stairs (5 floor townhouse!) for us to stay here through retirement.

Nowhere near estates because you’re more likely to experience shit neighbours. So, the most expensive location you can afford even if it means a tiny house. No new build because of the social housing aspect.

When we were buying ours it was:

off road parking for at least one car
Garden
Dishwasher or space for dishwasher

Then obviously enough bedrooms etc

For next house we’ll be adding

Study/4th bedroom to use as study
Two living areas
Detached
Downstairs toilet

We decided on how much to spend , looked at the available properties in our price range and preferred location and picked the one we liked best. When the sale fell through we had a slightly wider pool and just picked again. Top priorities were quiet road and privacy .

Location is the most important factor for most people. They filter for a specific area and only consider houses within that area.

for me next is size and layout - good side bedrooms, kitchen, living space. Downstairs WC.

Then aesthetics

then garden.

It's a daft question to make the answers meaningful unless you know someone's circumstances. A single gay middle-aged man on a good salary has different needs from a woman with low income & 3 teenagers. Someone who doesn't mind driving everywhere will have different perception of what "Location" means compared to someone who wants their teenagers on a bus route to college, etc.

We wouldn’t consider a house without off road parking or a downstairs toilet, or a house that only had a downstairs bathroom. And the area needed to be safe with decent schools, but not necessarily the best. Other than that, everything else was a nice to have.

I don’t necessarily think location should be is a non-negotiable for most people. People always say “it’s the one thing you can’t change”, but that’s untrue for many properties. We went for location with our first house and compromised on size. We quickly outgrew it and there was nothing we could change about the house to fix that. In hindsight, compromising a bit on location would have been wise for us.

I see. Not on my radar then as I despise being in full sun 😄 I thought it was about plants, but different plants like all different conditions so didn’t make sense to me.

It is going to depend entirely on your life stage, and life style, and then of course be limited by your budget.

When we last moved, everything was about what we needed in a house as a couple with small dc - so school catchment was important, enough bedrooms, a reasonable garden, and location being close to everything we needed
When we next move, it will just be us as a couple, and thinking about what we will be able to manage in the next 20 years. Virtually everything we were looking for 25 years ago, will be the things we are looking to not have in our next home.

To me:

Sunny garden in the evenings
Downstairs loo (or room to add)
Character/period features

I’d love bigger bedrooms and an extra bathroom, but not enough to move. Never had a drive or lived in a detached, have never considered either when looking.

I think its amazing how things change, 13 years ago we bought this house, slightly remote village which I was in love with, loads of room for my kids (youngest was 7), I'm never leaving, 18th century house full of character and panelling and quirks.
I've now exchanged on a 30 year old house, with all mod cons and fully renovated. Kids are both at Uni, I want deliveroo and easy access to a city multiple restaurants and theatres.

I have fallen out of love with the village and the house is a moneypit.

Agree with other posters that these things change with your life, and also with your location and budget. No point making off road parking a deal breaker if you are looking for a flat in central London!

For me, with my most recent move I was moving to get location and views. But I was only prepared to do that because the house came with off-road parking and spacious rooms. I'd always prefer a character property, but let that go in favour of views. Quiet road is a bit of a "as long as a piece of string" question. I definitely wouldn't want a place on a main road, but wouldn't specifically look for a super quiet cul-de-sac type of location. Good size garden would be an offputting thing for me - I prefer not to have to do a lot of gardening. However, I'd want plenty of green space around outside the garden so not an inner city yard.

The big no-nos for me would be ugly house, middle terrace, loft conversion and no parking.

These are our personal mandatories

Detached
Door to back at the rear
Level Street
Location - Near High Street
Location - Near Station
Location - Near Supermarkets
Multiple toilets
No flood zone
Not requiring much work
Proper Ceiling Height
Separate Lounge and Kitchen
Single level
Storage

We were downsizing on our most recent move (2024) and wanted -

Coastal location in the south of England (had been living in rural Wales for six years and were missing our family/the sea)

Period house with character features and kerb appeal

Decent sized rooms including two receptions

Downstairs toilet

Off road parking for 1+ cars (we only have one)

Not a major project (we wouldn't want something done up to someone else's taste, but have done several massive projects so ideally somewhere that needed eg new kitchen, but no walls down/reconfiguring)

Good sized, not overlooked garden (we knew we weren't going to get anything like the 0.5 acre we'd sold)

Village-y feel, but not too rural

We ended up buying -

a Georgian semi-detached cottage with no period features remaining

it needs everything done inc moving kitchen and walls

1.5 reception rooms (second one was miniscule - but there's an integral garage that used to be a room, so ripe for conversion),

downstairs toilet

smallish - very grey - paved courtyard garden but not overlooked

a tiny drive that can fit one car

two minutes walk from the beach

It's in a Conservation Area with lots of far prettier cottages/houses - ours is in the least nice part of the CA, imo - but it will have kerb appeal once we've finished with it. The town itself isn't great, but we're right on the outskirts in a part with its own village-y feel.

Our problem was that - having sold in a fairly expensive area in 2007 (and where we couldn't afford to buy now) - we spent the intervening years doing up rather lovely houses in much cheaper locations. So we've had a few large, detached/semi-detached 'dream houses' with stunning gardens, amazing architectural/period features and great sized rooms. So we knew we'd be making compromises on those aspects when we came 'home' to the south coast and we've told ourselves it's just a stepping stone to something better!