Moving From a Flat to a House: Is It a Good Idea?

There is currently a mass exodus of people moving out of flats in the big cities in search of bigger homes with more living space and often with gardens.

For many, it will be the first time they have lived in a house and the transition from a city centre flat to a house in the suburbs or even further afield can be a huge culture shock, not to mention a shock to their bank balance.

In these uncertain times should you follow in the footsteps of others and move from a flat to a house, or does it make more sense to go against the tide and stay in a flat?

It is no easy decision to make, there are advantages and disadvantages to living in both flats and houses.

Obviously, there are a lot of unknown answers to factor into your decision and no one can second guess what will happen next, but if you are thinking of moving out of your flat and into a house, this week’s home moving blog will tell you all you need to know about this huge change to your life.

• Things to Consider When Moving From a Flat to a House
• Is it Cheaper to Live in a Flat Than in a House?
• Do Flats Go Up In Value As Much as Houses?
• Tips For Moving from a Flat into a House
• Moving From a Flat to a House Shopping List

Things to Consider When Moving From a Flat to a House

To say that we live in uncertain times would be an understatement and considerations when making life-changing decisions are very different from just a couple of years ago.

Moving from a flat to a house, which will often mean moving to the suburbs or even the countryside or coast, will see your life change in so many ways.

Before making this life-changing decision there are some things that maybe you should consider very carefully:

#1 Will Working From Home Still Apply to You?

There are question marks around whether home-based work will become the norm or employers will slowly insist the workforce returns to the office.

How will that affect where your home is? This leads to the next considerations……

#2 Commuting

• What happens if you move out of the city and then are expected to return to the office in the future?
• How realistic is it to commute back into the city every day?
• How expensive will a daily commute be?
• How long will it take you to commute daily?

You can use this tool to calculate the cost and time needed for commuting from your new home at www.zoopla.co.uk  

#3 London Weighting

If you live in London and are planning on moving to a house outside of London there is the potential loss of London Weighting.

How will that loss of income affect your ability to pay the mortgage or what impact will that have on your quality of life?

The long-term financial implications of moving out of the city could be huge, and I suspect many people will be regretting their decision to move out of the city very soon.

#4 Financial Considerations

A house is likely to take more money to run than a flat. The utility bills will be bigger, maintenance costs will be higher, and maintaining a garden is not cheap either.

A larger home will also take longer and be more expensive to clean. You will use up cleaning products quicker and you may need to invest in a more powerful vacuum cleaner for example.

You will also probably need more furniture especially if you are moving out of a rented flat.

Decorating more rooms equals more cost and time.

And many people just end up spending money to fill space with things they don’t really need. If you have no space for things people tend not to buy them.

#5 Flat Prices Have Risen Slower Than House Prices

Then there is the fact that prices of flats have not risen as dramatically as house prices recently, so is now a great time to bag yourself a larger flat in a great area?

www.zoopla.co.uk reports that house prices have risen 7.3% this year whilst flat prices have risen 4.4% in the same period.

But should your decision to move from a flat to a house solely be a financial one?

#6 Quality of Life

Quality of life is vitally important too and often a move to a larger home in nicer surroundings has a huge positive impact on both our physical and mental wellbeing.

• You will almost certainly have more living space and maybe even a garden, which in most cases will greatly improve your quality of life.
• Having a place that you can escape to for some relaxation, even having your own bedroom, will greatly improve your mental wellbeing.
• For some people just having a house rather than a flat gives them a sense of satisfaction. It is difficult to explain but moving into a house feels almost as if it is the next step on the ladder of being an adult.
• The chances are that your neighbours movements will not be so audible in a house. Although you may get some noise, you are unlikely to have the noise of an upstairs neighbour walking on wooden floors for example.

And not only will living in a house be very different from a flat, but your neighbourhood may dramatically change too, especially if you decide to move from the city to the coast or countryside.

Consider your needs and lifestyle not just now, but how the neighbourhood will fit your needs in a few years.

• Will the kids be bored and have nothing to do as they grow older?
• How long is the trip to the nearest shops? Local shops may not stock all you need and tend to be more expensive than the big stores.
• Will you get bored with just a couple of local pubs to choose from?
• If you are moving out of the city there will likely be fewer music venues or cultural events to attend.
• How accepting are the locals of outsiders, especially if you come from a very multicultural city where nobody gives you a second glance?
• How will you cope with a house to run if you or your partner suddenly have long commutes to make every day?
• Also consider that when living in a flat you may hardly know any of your neighbours. That can be a good or a bad thing. But living in a house you are likely to interact with your neighbours far more which depending on your viewpoint, can be a good or bad thing.
• If you are living on your own, or are at home for long periods of time on your own, then security will be a concern for you. Generally flats are regarded as more secure than houses which may be an important consideration to you.

Moving from a flat into a house has many advantages, but there are also many disadvantages. Only you know your financial position and how moving to a larger home will impact that.

The location of your new house can also massively affect the positive or negative impact on your life.

You will almost certainly experience some form of culture shock, every aspect of your life will change, but having overcome that, most people would agree that the pros of moving to a house from a flat far outweigh any cons that you may initially experience.

Must read: How to Avoid Culture shock in which we find out what culture shock is, what causes it, how we can treat it, and how to avoid it. Moving from a flat to a house, often in a very different location is sure to feel very alien to you so there is lots of useful information to help you get through culture shock.

Is It Cheaper to Live in a Flat Than a House?

There are so many variables to this question that it is difficult to give an all-encompassing answer. It will depend on many factors in your personal situation, as well as factors outside your control like house prices or rental increases.

Generally, if you need to move frequently then buying a house is going to be more expensive than renting a flat. Buying a house makes more financial sense over many years when you can hopefully build up equity.

There will also be many people looking to move out of a rented flat into a rented house in which case a house is going to be more expensive to rent within the same area.

Obviously, if you change location as well, then where you are moving to will affect how much your rent or purchase price will be, but generally moving out of the city will always mean cheaper places to live.

So taking the costs of buying a house, or renting a house out of the equation, let’s just look at the day-to-day running costs of a house vs a flat.

These figures are averages and will change depending upon the area you live in, how much energy you consume in the home, who your utility providers are, and your lifestyle. You can read more about living costs at www.progressgroup.org.uk   

• A 1 Bedroom flat costs at least £647.57 per month to run
• A 2 bedroom flat costs at least £816.57 per month to run
• A 2 bedroom house costs at least £1003.82 per month to run
• A 3 bedroom house costs at least £1206.31 per month to run
• A 4 bedroom house costs at least £1399.15 per month to run

There are also things like the extra maintenance costs to take into consideration as well as the fact that the more things you have, the more things can go wrong or will need replacing at some stage.

There are also the initial costs of moving from a flat to a house to take into consideration: You will need more furniture, although there are many places to get free furniture, which will save you money now.

Council tax will likely be higher on a house than a flat but you will not have to pay service charges that some flats charge.

You can find out what the council tax band for any house you want to potentially move to at your local council’s website. You can find your local council website at www.gov.uk  

There is a really good budget planner at www.moneyhelper.org.uk which will help you work out how moving to a house will affect your budget and ultimately your lifestyle. 

Do Flats Go Up as Much in Value as Houses?

Whilst your lifestyle and quality of life will be your major consideration when deciding to move from a flat to a house, if you are looking to buy, then you will have an eye on whether it is a good investment or not.

Traditionally, the average price of a flat increased more than houses, but this year has seen a reverse of that trend as more and more people leave flats and the cities to buy houses in the suburbs or countryside.  

Depending on your financial position and how desperate you are to live in a house, it may be prudent to wait for a while until the housing market cools.

In all likelihood, people will be moving back to the cities in the next few years so the current trend may reverse to pre-pandemic trends, so the price of your flat may increase and house prices may fall as people realise that they need to be back in the cities again.

It is incredibly difficult to second guess the housing market in these uncertain times, but for now, houses are extremely expensive and flats have appreciated very little this year.

However, we are not financial experts and this is just an opinion, but an important consideration nonetheless.

Nobody wants to end up in negative equity so always seek professional financial advice if you are making such huge financial decisions.

You might like to read: House, bungalow, or flat? in which we examine why it pays to look at all the housing options available to you, with the pros and cons laid out so that you can choose the style of home that best suits your needs and lifestyle, now and in the future.

Tips for Moving From a Flat to a House

If you have taken the plunge and decided that now is the right time to move from a flat to a house then knowing how to move home is going to save you time, money, and stress.

Whilst you may think that moving out of a flat is easy as you have fewer items than moving out of a house, it is often these small moves that cause people the most stress.

It is essential that you create a floor plan of all the furniture you are planning on taking. One of the biggest problems on moving day is discovering that your sofa is too big to get out of the flat or your wardrobe won’t fit round the bend in the stairs.

Measure everything now so that you have time to decide what to do with items you no longer want or with items that it will not be possible to move to your new home.

Any move will be stressful if you are disorganised or leave everything to the last minute. Whether you are moving a 1 or a 5 bedroom home, planning your move is essential.

To get organised and make your home move as easy as possible you will need these tools:

• A Week-By-Week Moving Checklist will help you plan your move. Each task is laid out in chronological order so that you do not forget to do any important tasks.
• Change of Address Checklist – This will ensure that you do not forget to notify people of your home move. This will help prevent identity theft and ensure that you do not miss any important letters.
• A Home Moving Binder will help you keep all your important paperwork organised as well as help you create a household manual for the people moving into your old home. This folder also contains a list of questions about your new home that you will want answers to before moving in.

Moving out of a flat often involves multiple trips up and down-stairs, or in the lift if you are lucky enough to have one.

It is extremely tiring moving out of a flat as the distance from your front door to the removal van is usually much longer than when moving out of a house.

There is also the problem of moving heavy and large furniture either down tight stairways or into tight lifts.

Often furniture must be dismantled and even window frames removed to allow furniture to be moved.

This is all extra work for you to do and many people find it all too much to do on their own.

So to start your new life in your new house with the least amount of drama and stress, it makes sense to hire a good removal company to help you move.

They will have all the right equipment to move your things safely as well as knowing how to maneuver your furniture down those tight stairwells.

You can get a no-obligation, quick and free estimate for your flat move in just a few minutes by completing this easy online form or by calling 0800 086 9039.

Moving From a Flat to a House Shopping List

If this is the first time you have lived in a house then you may be wondering just what do I need to buy when moving into a house?

You may be taking the furniture from your flat, getting new, or seeing what you can find on freecycle so I have not included furniture.

Moving out of a flat you will likely have all the essentials anyway, unless it was a rental and they belonged to the landlord, so many of the things in the following list you may already have, but we have included them so that the list is as comprehensive as possible.

Insurance

• Buildings Insurance
• Contents Insurance
• Car Insurance
• Pet Insurance

Utilities

• Water
• Gas
• Electricity
• Internet / telephone / TV
• Coal / fire wood

Safety

• New locks for every external door
• Fire extinguishers
• Fire blankets
• Smoke detectors
• Carbon monoxide alarms
• Torches and new batteries
• Spare bulbs for internal and external lights
• Spare batteries for alarms and detectors
• First Aid Kit

Basic Tools

• Hammer
• Screwdrivers
• Adjustable wrench
• Pliers
• Allen Keys
• Radiator key
• Duct tape
• Zip Ties
• Electrical tape
• Glue
• Selection of screws and nails
• Selection of fuses for plugs and mains board
• Extension cables
• Step ladder

Cleaning Products

• Heavy duty rubber gloves – several pairs
• Heavy duty rubbish sacks
• Vacuum cleaner bags (buy extra as you have a bigger area to hoover now)
• Bleach
• Disinfectant
• Window cleaner
• Toilet cleaner
• Floor cleaner
• Crème cleaner
• Scrubbing brushes
• Broom
• Mop and bucket (with spare mop heads)
• Sponges
• Dusters / wipes

Kitchen

• Kettle
• Toaster
• Microwave
• Crockery
• Cutlery
• Pots and pans
• Baking tray
• Colander
• Cooking utensils
• Bottle opener
• Tin opener
• Oven gloves
• Washing up liquid
• Cleaning cloths
• Tea towels
• Waste bin
• Window blind

Bathroom

• Shower curtain
• Toilet rolls
• Toilet brush
• Soap
• Shampoo
• Toothpaste and brushes
• Towels
• Cleaning products
• Waste bin
• Window blind

Bedrooms

• Pillows
• Duvets
• Bed linen
• Curtains
• Table lamp

Living Room

• Sofa
• Coffee table
• Lamps
• TV unit or wall bracket
• Cushions
• Curtains

Misc. Essentials

• More rooms equal more windows, so you will need extra sets of curtains
• Extension leads – always worth having a few sets spare
• Table lamps / night lights – especially if your kids each have their own room now

These are just the essentials and as time goes on you will add things to make the house feel like your home. Many household items can be gotten from free ad and recycling websites so it need not cost you a fortune to set up your new home.

Essential reading:

Where to Get Free Stuff For Your New Home where you can find all the best places with listings of items for free to furnish and equip your new home.

How to Deep Clean a House gives you a room-by-room guide on cleaning techniques as well as useful recipes for eco-friendly cleaning products which will save you a ton of money.

Top Tips for Securing Your New Home in which we go through your home highlighting things that need attention so that you, your family, and your property are kept safe.

You will find many useful guides on moving home created to make your home move easier, cheaper, and quicker in our home moving blog so be sure to visit it.

And finally, just a reminder that it costs nothing to get a quote from a reputable removal firm for your move. It will make moving day so much easier and more enjoyable, as well as safer and far less hard work for you.

Good luck with your move into a house and we hope it is everything you hoped it would be.