Downsize for job relocation or stay put?

[StalkedByACat]

Am aware I sound like an entitled brat, but basically the situation is like this:

Currently in a 4 bed house in an excellent and convenient area and feeling pretty settled in our lives, however this is in a city I don’t really like. Don’t like the house either, although have done some renovations over the years so it is quite nice downstairs but really starting to fall apart upstairs and outdoors. To get me to love the house would be ££££££££ of further work which is never going to happen. DC about to leave for uni.

DH has just been offered a job in another city which we both do love, with a moderate uplift in salary. He’s pleased to have the offer but is pretty settled in his current job. Also hopefully I’ll also be able to replicate my job (in terms of what I earn) once we move.

Unfortunately, this is a much more expensive city. As we don't want to increase our mortgage, realistically we will have to downsize if DH takes this job. We’ve looked at suitable areas that would give us a similar vibe to where we live now, and it’s going to be 2-3 bed apartments or the occasional terrace house. We’d need the spare bedroom(s) for when DC come home to visit, also for WFH.

In principle I don’t have a problem with this as we had always intended to downsize once DC left home… but having got used to the space we have now, when I look at the room measurements they seem so small! I must clarify that I don’t live in a mansion, but rather it seems to be the case that fewer rooms also means much smaller room sizes. I think I need a slap round the face with a wet haddock and to recalibrate my idea of a normal-sized room.

Anyway, this is a long-winded preamble to my questions for the thread:
Would you do it, and why (or why not)?
Have you done it, and how did it go?
Any tips for downsizing?

Do you need to live IN the city, or could you live in a commutable village outside? Just thinking about the expensive city I grew up in. The necklace villages are still very expensive, but you do get more than within the city for your money.

I think, if you want a long term wfh space, you will need at least 3 bedrooms (or an office space elsewhere, which you would be unlikely to get in a flat). Students can be home quite a lot.

Although, if you move to a new City, as they move away to University, you will most likely find your dc doesn't 'come home' much as your home won't be their home and they will have no link to the new City and won't be able to come home and hang out with friends as they would if you were still where they grew up.

"Currently in a 4 bed house ... however this is in a city I don’t really like. Don’t like the house either, although have done some renovations over the years so it is quite nice downstairs but really starting to fall apart upstairs and outdoors. To get me to love the house would be ££££££££ of further work which is never going to happen."
Why would you stay, just so you have big rooms?

You can only be in one room at a time.

I would downsize for location.

We wouldn't be staying for larger rooms, we'd be staying because we are settled here - jobs are fine, the actual neighbourhood is great, DC grew into teens here, and yes of course that includes being used to the space we have. The house is much better than it was when we bought it as a fixer-upper that never finished being fixed, so we have got used to it (despite not loving it). Plus, DH and DC quite like the city we are in, it's just me who has never taken to it. Basically, staying is the easy, meh-but-fine, option.

The other city OTOH is somewhere that we all really love, have visited many times and even love it in the gloom of a wet February... but of course being visitors is not the same as living there, so perhaps we have a rose-tinted idea of it.

With regards to where we'd live if we do relocate, we're not really village people but it could be an idea, even then I think we'd still be looking at 2-3 bed houses at best.