To move or not to move ?

[SallyPatch]

Would love some outside perspectives from people who don't know us, just based on facts!

Mid 30's couple with 2 young kids.

Currently own a 3 bed terraced house.
£75k and 18years left on the mortgage.

However, youngest child's room is very small.
Parking is on-street and can be a pain
I WFH so would like a separate work space of some sort, even a nook under the stairs - currently in the kitchen
Our living room is an awkward layout and I cannot make it homely
Lots of steps up to our garden

So if we moved, ideally we'd have 3 big / 4 rooms
A drive
A WFH space
And a nice living space

Butttt homes like that are RARE where I am - literally 1 estate of houses like that near to me.

Dont want to move out of the area due to family nearly and kids being settled in lovely school.

So realistically the only houses we can look at are nice but expensive and lead to a busy Super School, so traffic could be annoying and it'd be a longer walk/ requirement to drive for the school run - but we can currently walk

But houses like that tick all the boxes but of course come at a premium - we'd have to add around £150k-£200k on to the mortgage.

Could crunch the numbers and make it work but would have much less of a buffer that currently.

What would you do?

Nicer house to live more comfortably, with less disposable money

Or more money in the bank but a house with issues that will only get worse (child getting bigger, street getting more crowded with cars etc)

Thanks!

At your age I would move. It doesn’t sound like your current home fits your needs. But that depends on how tight things would get with the bigger mortgage.

is there an option to extend or do a loft conversion where you are?

Thanks for your response.

Unfortunately the loft is definitely out of the question, it doesn't have the height and we wouldn't be granted planning to raise the roof.

in terms of extension, we have already done a single extension with a flat roof. We could consider making this a double but would lose the light in our kitchen that the skylight brings, plus the dimensions would make it so that there'd be 2 very long narrow rooms upstairs, probably not achieving much !

Move. Your current house is not fit for purpose.

Your mortgage payment must currently be tiny. I’d work out what the bigger house would cost in a mortgage and start overpaying by that amount. You’d get a good idea of how well you’d cope with the bigger payment and improve the equity in your own home which means you’d need less of a mortgage for the new place. You’d not be committed to the higher payment so if you found yourself struggling you could recalculate.

While your age is in your favour in terms of a bigger mortgage, it very much depends on how your finances are now, what your current and future earning capacity is and how frugal or otherwise your lifestyle is just now, so I’d want to properly trial the higher costs first.

I moved at 42 - bigger house, bigger garden, bigger mortgage! Haven’t regretted it but my savings have taken a hit and I do have less holidays now.

We were in a similar situation and have just moved and the space is amazing. I love have space to breathe and for the kids to play. We now have a big garden which is beautiful!

Definitely move if you can afford to.

I would move. It sounds like you need more space.
Best bit of advice I got was 'move for secondary schools not primary schools'

Look now for which secondary schools you want you DC to go to and move. This means you won't need to move twice, which I have known some people to do.

Which town do you live in

This is great advice! I'd add that when you do the calculations use an interest rate 2 to 3% higher than you could currently get. That'll build in a bit of contingency for likely rate rises.

Is the DC in the small bed complaining? Two of our DC had small beds in a 2 double, 2 single house, and were perfectly fine with them. I had to kick them out when they were adults (joking!).

The price of bigger homes wont be racing away from you over the next 2 or 3 years so you have time.

Only you can answer that op. Personally id not extend that much onto mortgage for any house, the col is getting worse. Life is about having the money to enjoy times with the kids, not looking to find the money for the mortgage. Any set back in life coud tip your finances into freefall. Could you not look to extend into the loft, cheaper fix but changes your lifestyle. So the best of both worlds.

Currently in your situation, I would stay put. We moved a year ago, I’m glad we did, but the housing market, the jobs market and mortgage rates are very different now. It’s a shit show out there.
I would hold fast, save as much as you can and wait for the GE.

I’d move yes, as only get worse as kids get older.