Would you move for an extra bedroom or stay for lower rent?

[MakingDoNicely]

Currently renting a beautiful estate cottage where we intended to stay until at least retirement if not forever. We could never afford to buy somewhere like this, rent is well below market value and worth it for the lifestyle if gives us and our children. We have been here for about 10 years. The biggest down side of this property is it is has one less bedroom than we need, which means when my step child is here me and my husband move out of our bedroom and sleep in the living room on a sofa bed. It’s a sacrifice we were willing to make to stay here.

The opportunity has come up to rent a National trust property in a location close by. It is down a quiet lane so would be quieter than here, is in an even more beautiful location with acres of land to explore and crucially has an extra bedroom. It is still below market rent for a property like that but significantly more expensive than this property. We are really torn about what to do. Would you move for the extra bedroom and slightly better location? Or stay for the cheaper rent in a house you already love?

I think it depends on the age of your step child and how many more years you have to live with being a bedroom short. Will your step child ever want to live with you now or as an adult? Are they close to university age?

They are 15. There is a possibility they might want to live with us while at college yes, or at least spend more time here than they do at the moment.

How much more are we talking and how affordable is that? If the step child then decides not to live with you, or other children grow up and move out, would you be able to move back to a similar smaller property?

I think it depends how old all of the children are and their sexes, how much more is the larger place and can you afford it?
If both properties are well below average market value, I’d be worried (for both properties) that the rent could raise hugely at some point.
How often does the step child stay? I can’t say I’d like to give up my bedroom regularly, especially with my personal possessions in there.

In that situation I personally would be deeply worried about whether I'd be able to afford the rent after retirement. With no security of paying off a mortgage, you are making yourself very vulnerable financially after you retire, the state pension isn't really calculated to cover both accommodation and living costs and I cannot imagine someone having a substantial private/work pension who hasn't bought a house at this point in their lives (please clarify if you do). So I'd choose to stay put for the least amount of financial risk going into the future rather than financially stretch, then rents catch up with market rates, then you can't go back to a cheaper property when you retire because someone else is renting this one you're currently in, and others of the same size just cost more.

The new house is £500 more expensive but cheaper in some ways such as council tax plus our rent is due a review in a few months which will make the gap more like £350 overall. We can afford it but we would have to be more conscious about our spending and cut back on a couple of luxuries. The children are older teens and one under ten. All likely to be home for many years yet. Husband has been paying into a good pension all his working life. We are aware we are more vulnerable renting though and it is something we definite need to take into account.

I wouldn’t make my finances weaker for possibilities when you can clearly make things work now

Life is for now. With the ages of your family I would trade up just as much for the younger two, as for the eldest. It’s very likely your DC may live with you as young adults while they find their way so into their mid 20s.. Maybe in 10-15 yrs there maybe a possibility to move back just as has happened now? Essentially neither option is a bad option. Both are good decisions but the next decade is definitely when the space will be beneficial.
If any of your adult children do live with you, they likely will contribute household income.

If you can afford that much extra per month you can afford to save a deposit to buy a house and put your family on a much more secure footing.

Thanks for the replies.

We could afford to save for a deposit if we wanted to but we would not be able to afford to live anywhere like we do now. We have chosen to give our children and our selves this lifestyle over buying which I know wouldn’t be everyone’s choice.

I do think to an extent life is for now. Especially when living with children with additional needs and you have no idea how the future will look anyway. It makes planning for the future a lot of guess work. Plus life is hard enough for us as a family so if we can make it a little easier I’m tempted to jump at it. At the same time it’s a lot more money to throw at rent.

we could move back to a smaller property on either estate if one came up and we had to. Realistically though they would be not much less than the potential new house anyway. But if we move it would be with the intention of staying long term. Two of our children in particular will find one move hard enough.

My other thought is, if the estate decide to increase our rent by more than usual this time to bring it in line with market rent, will we be kicking ourselves that we could be living in a four bed for the same or almost the same money. I know they did jump someone else’s rent up significantly fairly recently so it’s definitely a possibility.

In that case I’d move. I have two Sen kids and honestly anything you can do to make life easier is going to be worthwhile! And if your current landlord has decided to bring properties up to market rent you’d be much better off moving.