Nice house, bad kitchen - should I buy it?

[Bananavibez]

Ive found a house I really like, but its 3 bedrooms with a terrible kitchen. Im a FTB with very minimal cash once the deposit is paid... Should I stay away?

You know you can replace it yeah?

There's literally nothing in the kitchen: theres a tiny sink and a chest of drawers and thats it. Heres what it looks like on the floorplan

How terrible?

are we talking not your taste terrible?
bad layout terrible?
absolutely riddled with rot/on the verge of collapse/ancient and beyond repair?

the first two can be lived with and money saved to do the job.

the last would be a necessity but not unmanageable if you’re pretty good at roughing it and doing DIY

It all depends on what you’re willing to live with and how long for.

I lived with a terrible, fucking awful, rotten the lot kitchen for 10 years. I ripped out cupboards and temporarily replaced them with free finds. Nothing matched, the worktop was a bit wonky and no tiles but it functioned. Then I redid the lot when funding was available.

If it otherwise ticks the boxes then it will be fine
put in a nice side board, an air fryer and make do for a while
look on local facebook marketplace and eBay for kitchen appliances and units- cabinet doors can be painted easily and look quite good.

If it doesn’t have a proper kitchen then you’ll struggle to find a mortgage lender that will lend on it.

Could you live with it until you can save the money to relocate it to the dining room? If you like the house it seems like an option?

Im going to attach a pic here for you! Im not being a diva, its just im worried about two things:

• money is really really tight for me atm, I dont have a big budget once my deposit is paid
• I'm worried that this kitchen will always be very small for a 3 bed house and that even though thats fine by me, it will cause me issues later down the line if I want to sell

You can move the kitchen into the dining room later on and use the kitchen as a utility/pantry.

If you cant find anything better i would consider making the dining room into a kitchen in due course and use the kitchen as a utility/store room.

has the current kitchen got an oven/hob as i cant see it?

It doesnt have an oven/hob, no

Well that’s not quite a sink and chest of drawers is it? It has worktops and cupboards too. Assume it has space for a cooker and washing machine too?

Yes it a bit small and the units could probably do with updating at some point, but it’s livable for now.

This is what it’s like as a FTB. Make comprmises, buy what you can afford for now. Then extend kitchen / buy new units at some stage in the future when you can afford it.

It all depends how it compares to other houses you can afford now.

I agree, I could easily make do. But going forward, it wont be possible to extend. Im just wondering whether that will be a problem later dowb the line when selling on

A kitchen diner with a pantry/utility makes more sense with that layout. Expensive to do though as youll have to run plumbing through.
If it suits you now, and you can live with the kitchen as it is go for it.

depends how much you use the cooker how much h youll miss it. i’d buy an air fryer microwave grill unit. and a portable plug in induction hob. i’d be fine. but i’m no chef… 😂

It looks like there is no room even for a cooker/oven or fridge in that kitchen. I'd buy the house, and use the dining room as your kitchen and the "kitchen" as your pantry for now. When you get some funds, do a proper refitting to make it a kitchen/dining area, perhaps having your fridge, freezer, dishwasher, whatever in the "kitchen area) and cupboards and worktop/eating counter in the "dining" area (or whatever).

Kitchen is 4 feet 5 inches wide? Am I reading that right?

you can get an induction hob with 2 rings that sits on the worktop. and an air-fryer. that will be enough to live there for the first year, while you decide how to make things work how you want and save up for something else.

you can also fit a washing machine in the space between sink and door to dining room. so you'll be fine.

Is it just you? How many bedrooms do you need? If it’s not just you….. that kitchen won’t be nice to live with. If it is just you…. I would buy a one or two bed with an actual kitchen

Whilst it's a lot smaller than the cottage we purchased in 2024 (downsizing, not FTB), that kitchen is considerably better than ours was! Ours hadn't been touched since the last renovation in 1965 - oven didn't work, taps had seized but had obviously been leaking for years as the floor beneath was literally mush and it was floor-to-ceiling chick tiles...nice!

It was also 14' x 6', so very long and fairly narrow. We immediately took the decision to relocate the kitchen into the main reception room which was semi open plan with the dining room (and enlarge the old kitchen by opening it into the utility and lobby to make a square snug).

We are doing virtually everything ourselves on a tiny budget and have been cooking on two plug-in induction hobs, a microwave and airfryer for 18 months, with no kitchen tap or proper worktops. The end is in sight now as the iroko worktops are going in and it'll be so worth it!

Our 'new' kitchen was an ebay find - £300 for painted solid wood in-frame units (plus van hire to collect) to which we've added other bits as we've sourced them. We splurged on deVol brass knobs etc to give a high end finish.

If you're going to buy this house @Bananavibez that kitchen is too small for the way most people live today. I'd definitely relocate it into the dining room and utilise the current kitchen as utility/larder. It could be lovely with a bit of vision!

Nope wouldn't buy that kitchen is ridiculous for a 3 bedroom house. Keep looking

Unless you can afford to knock through and make a kitchen diner I wouldnt buy it. It will be hard to sell

I wouldn’t buy it. The allocated kitchen space is too small to be useful and the layout of the dining room would make it tricky to relocate the kitchen function into that space.

As a pp said you may struggle to find a mortgage. Don’t underestimate this

That ground floor is tiny for a 3 bedroom.house. Is it really a 2 bed that someone has divided a room to make a 3 ?

Id keep looking OP, you'd struggle to resell it later.

The kitchen has a slight look of an amateur built extension with the narrow width, surface mounted electrics and lack of units. You'd want to get it checked out if you're serious about buying it.

It might work if you use the dining room as part of the kitchen, like a kitchen in two (awkward) parts. Large dresser/pantry in there etc. Does the price reflect that it wouldn't work for many people?