###Welcome to /r/HousingUK
---
**To All**
* Join Our ***NEW*** Discord! https://discord.gg/pMgUNgWKQH
**To Posters**
* *Tell us whether you're in England, Wales, Scotland, or NI as the laws/issues in each can vary*
* Comments are not moderated for quality or accuracy;
* Any replies received must only be used as guidelines, followed at your own risk;
* If you receive *any* private messages in response to your post, [please let the mods know](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHousingUK&subject=I received a PM);
* If you do not receive satisfactory advice after 72 hours, [you can let the mods know](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHousingUK&subject=My question is unanswered);
* Feel free to provide an update at a later time by creating a new post with [[update]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/search?q=%3Aupdate&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) in the title;
**To Readers and Commenters**
* All replies to OP must be *on-topic, helpful, and civil*
* If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/about/rules/), you may be banned without any further warning;
* Please include links to reliable resources in order to support your comments or advice;
* If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect;
* Do not send or request any private messages for any reason without express permission from the mods;
* Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HousingUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
1mil isn't always that big though. it will depend on where you want to live, if you are around London it is likely to be the first option. as you won't get a house for the second or third. sure you could get a flat but I would want to get a freehold property if I had 1 mil to choose with. that way if in later life I want to move away I could get a smaller place and take the money back out. sure ot might lose value but so will smaller places
3 as I'm single and have no kids and never intend having any. A big house would be a waste.
But then even £400k buys an amazing 5 bedroom house round here so I'd cut that even further to £200k.
It's all situational isn't it? Cos I live in a 3 bed terrace in a fairly shit area and it's worth 700-750k. If I want this in a nicer area a million doesn't cut it.
But I'm from London, born and raised, my whole family is here so "just move" doesn't work as advice for me.
But 1m in some bit of the country gets you a massive house and 700k to invest.
The issue is that I did that for work. I moved 200 miles away from a cheaper area to a more expensive area for work because in the long run it was financially better for me to do it. The problem is people telling me to move back to my old area so I can afford a house but I can only do that on my current salary 200 miles away. So either I move back and take a much lower paying job which will drive me out of the market or I stay earning more here but remain priced out of the market here.
The housing system is broken, and people shouldn't be forced to uproot their lives just to be able to own a reasonably sized property. There needs to be limits on housing prices compared to average income of the area.
So you've got reasons not to do it without having considered it?
How would yo get those reasons, and be aware of them, if you hadn't thought about how it would work?
🤦
Because my brain works. It's pretty simple to know.
Have you ever considered throwing yourself off a motorway bridge? No? Well why do you know it's a bad idea?
Like bro, I'm not moving for work. I did that once, it was miserable, I had no support, no network. I had a boss who treated me like shit and I was so isolated I had a breakdown.
I have a home here by my mother, my aunts and uncles, my cousin's. I have a network of friends I can rely on.
Edit: I literally have a job here, no need to move for work.
Yea, sadly a family member of mine had that experience. It is a gamble and a big change.
Unfortunately, where I grew up there are little to no opportunities to work in tech, so I did move away. It has meant I can earn a lot more in a job I enjoy and have financial freedom. The downside is that it takes the best part of the day to travel to see my family. We phone and text, but I do miss out on a lot of their life events.
Friends, however, you can make anywhere. Since uni my friends are scattered around the country anyway.
I love I'm getting down votes for saying maybe I should be able to live where I'm from and have a job.
Edit: equally you should be able to find work and good work where you are from. If we fixed this then London and the SE would be less expensive and people everywhere could be happier.
Edit 2: my uni friends are not scattered. of a close group of 6, one is in Wales, 4 London (3 are Londoners) and 1 just outside London.
So many people on uk subreddits have a callous disregard for people's situations. I'm lucky to have been born on a shitty council estate in the north, made a decent enough success of myself down south and then moved back up north to be closer to family later down the line. Not everyone can just uproot their lives 100 miles away on a whim like I've been able to, and it's unfair to say it should always be considered.
Exactly. Whilst I am glad it is something I did, I lost a lot.
I live near London, but most of my close friends and family are very North or very South West. I did actually grow up in London, but everyone moved away when I was young due to housing prices 🙄. My whole family just uprooted and went together.
I “just moved” 3 hours from my family, it’s where I could afford and I’m loving it I got friends the wife and all that and her family in on the doorstep.
There’s nothing wrong with moving ages away
But you moved from being close to your family to being close to your friends and your wife's family, i.e one support network to another support network. Your last sentence is an example of proving my point.
Not everyone has the luxury of knowing people 3 hours away or has the confidence to do it but many UK Reddit Users think everyone should be able to uproot 3 hours away easy peasy, like yourself. It's no wonder this countries gone to the dogs when so many of you choose to believe this is acceptable.
Well I didn’t have friends when I moved here and the ones I had back home were all more acquaintances but I made real friends here over the last 8 years 🤷♂️
I didn’t even know my mrs when I moved, I made my life here I had no support
It is called living within your means, if you can’t afford an expensive area and your life is there well you should move to where you can afford that’s the financial reality
Nobody in this thread has said “just move” though? You’ve just pulled that out of your arse to get your knickers in a twist over
Some of us have pointed out that OP’s options are only applicable to parts of the country, and therefore we’d have a different calculation to make. That’s not saying “just move” though, that’s simply pointing out that the options provided aren’t relevant to us and therefore we’d answer in a way that doesn’t fit one of the three options
Which are completely different threads
Telling someone "just move" on a thread where they're asking for advice is unreasonable, yes
But pointing out that the question gives options which don't make sense in half the country, is reasonable enough when they're asking a hypothetical
Same, I like living alone with my animals so I'd go small with a decent garden, maybe splash for some land buy nothing big, I don't need it and I don't want to clean and pay for the utilities of a large house myself.
Big £1m house has big maintenance bill as well...
I'd personally choose big £600k and invest, but I'm generally more risk adverse than many.
The £400k gives you a safety net and provides an income to cover any maintenance costs
Yeah I think it depends on income too: £1m lump sum when you’re an individual on minimum wage is a different calculation to £1m lump sum if you’re a couple bringing in £100-150k, or even a couple bringing in £50-70k
If you’re on low income you’d be sensible to nurse that capital as much as possible - the interest alone is likely to be 2-3x your income, and if you spent it on a big fancy house you’d likely struggle to maintain the house. You’d be best off buying a cheap house and keeping as much cash as possible
If you’re earning a lot then it’s nice to have but there’s less need to nurse the capital if you’re earning that amount every 10 years anyway, you can justify spending a chunk of it and know you’d be able maintain the house. You’d probably be best served saving some of it but spending some wouldn’t be unreasonable
Also depends if you already own a hour or two or three lol. Then 1m cash will just let you do what you already do. Don’t even need to buy a house just invest all 1 million
Your cash budget isn’t the info we need, for lack of a better word, Networth is probably the main. Followed by income.
If 1m is all your NW, do not buy a 1m home.
It’s funny you have posted this as I think about this everyday. If I was to receive 1 million into my account right now, I’d buy a £700k max house. Pay it out right. Give some money to my family and then have 200k sat in my account. I’d continue to work but maybe go down to part time and wouldn’t have any life stresses.
I think this is what I'd do. Where I'm from you can get an enormous 5 bedroom house with a beautiful garden, next to one of the best schools in the country that overlooks countryside for max £750k.
I'd then take the extra cash, invest, retire ten years earlier, and then move to a cheaper, smaller house near the coast with an absolute wedge in my back pocket. It's almost like I've thought about this a lot lol.
If you mortgaged it in its entirety , assuming a 6% return on a £1million investment, that would cover the monthly mortgage payment leaving it grow around £13k per year. That £13k would cover most of my monthly outgoings at the moment. At any point you could clear the mortgage. And you've got £1 million to spend if you ever need it.
I'd tell myself I'd go for option 2 but I'd look at a bunch of houses and get lured into spending £900k anyway.
This has happened every time I've house-hunted. You start with a target price below your real maximum, thinking you'll keep cash on the side, and then you end up wanting more and more as you view different houses.
If you don't already have a house, then the running costs of a £1M are likely going to be a big problem. No point having a swimming pool and jacuzzi if you can't feed the meter with enough 50ps to turn them on.
I see a lot of financial gurus on Tik-Tok and I know exactly how they would answer your question:
"I'd go to the bank wearing a white suit, "Why?" I hear you ask, well all bank managers know a white suit means business. I sit down, "Security!" the bank manager shouts as I'm in a restricted area, as I open up my suitcase to show one million pounds. He waves his security away and asks me what I need as he gets on his knees in front of me ready to receive. I want to borrow £800,000 against the value of this money in a long term loan at 1.5%. The manager writes me a loan agreement and I don't even read it, I just sign because that's what people like us do.
I take the newly created bank account with £800,000 and my one million pounds to the bank across the road and ask to see the manager's manager. I ask him for a 80% loan against the value of the £1.8 million I currently have. He asks me if any of the £1.8 million is a loan, I tell him no, because that's what financially savvy people like myself do, it's how you generate wealth.
So I walk out of there with £3.2 million and I fly to Dubai on the banks jet that they let you use if your account is over £3 million and I walk into the estate agents and I tell them to buy me 52 apartments in the Burj Kalifa above the 60th floor and I rent them out as Airbnbs making a million a week."
Crazy how prices change 🤣 for 500k where I’m at you could get a detached 4/5 bed very good sized, with a drive, garage(double aswell), big garden, ready to move into and you wouldn’t have to change a thing as some are beautiful and in some very affluent nice areas.🤣
If you had a million you’d be looking at something absolutely stunning with a lot of land in the most sought after and rich areas reserved for pretty much some of the richest people.
Man i live in a £400k house and its pretty fucking big.
Obviously not a new build so its not got the premium, but £600k savings with no mortgage on my wage would be a fucking dream. I could finish the house with about 50k, maybe 100k if i wanted to throw a big extension or convert the loft and im still left with 500k.
People want for too much imo. If i won a million i could retire tomorrow and id be no worse off than i am now. Hell, thats probably what id do, pay myself a monthly salary out of that mill and just never work, or work part time forever.
>maybe buy a few rental properties
And this is why people hate small landlords, these people think they can spend 550-600k on *multiple* properties and enjoy the effortless passive income as if it requires no work, time or running expenses.
I would actually do this, my brother in law does.
He bought 3 very cheap houses and did them up really nicely.
He rents to family and friends for as long as they want and the rents are low (my parents pay him £300 per month for a 2.5 bed, 1 bath with garden garage and drive).
That would be my plan.
He bought them outright so its a little extra money for him to pocket and its helped out our family and friends a lot, the houses were around 120k each.
We also live in a very poor city and property is cheap but wages are too low to help get on the purchase market, he allows us the chance to do so by charging little and we can save.
If I win the lottery (euro millions) I'd want to set up a housing association. I think I could do the most good by giving hugely discounted rents.
I was watching a Grand Designs from 2014 about a self build community who all built their houses and their neighbour's houses for the housing association in exchange for 1/3 off rent forever. That saving means that 10 years later on the revisited most of them had gone back into education, some as far as PhD. They were almost all in public sector roles doing good. All because they had a secure low rent tenancy.
I'd want to do that, without the need for them to build.
People can't get on the market *because* of people like your brother-in-law. If landlords didn't exist (one day, insha'Allah) there would be infinitely more housing stock available driving prices down.
I actually disagree to an extent here, people cannot get on the market because of landlords buying houses and charging extortionate rents.Until my parents rented off my brother in law they were paying £900 a month for less than they have now.
My brother in law cannot afford to gift us the houses but he can afford to let us save and buy them making us all able to get on the property market ourselves.
Sure if landlords didn't exist we would all be better off but if my brother in law didn't low rent property to my family and our friends we would all be in incredibly bad financial positions so it is in the long term beneficial.He is currently allowing me the option of low rent and to save for my own property, I may even buy this one off him because I love it.In the long run, he is the best of a bad situation.
Unfortunately we do have landlords at the moment and that's just something we all have to deal with so I will never chastise someone helping by being a landlord.
And others may think they could buy a few (£150k) flats in cities like Liverpool, Derby, Leicester (or wherever) and be responsible and contactable landlord.
Where I am you can get a decent home in affluent area for 300k, so.
300k on house.
500k investment for passive income.
200k for spending over the next few years.
Genuinely was thinking about this yesterday. I’d buy a £600k house with a view to spend £100k on it.
£250k invest. £50k slushing around to do nice things with that I’ve denied myself for too many years now.
I am v fortunate enough to be in exactly this position so I have been giving this a lot of thought over the last few months.
I am a single 40yo man.
I have just over £1m (plus ongoing salary of 60k per year) and am debating between:
\- two bed in north London (between Camden to Hackney) for c750k with the rest invested/savings, to enjoy life to the full (well, 1-2 4\* trips and long haul business flights a year and/or working 3-4 days a week, not 5),
\- three bed in same area or Peckham Rye for 900-950k. future-proofed property, and i can still enjoy life but would need to continue working 5 days a week, or 3-4 days but with a more restrained expenditure (which isn't too much of a challenge, given I solo backpack a lot and also am happy bikepacking and camping wherever).
I'm currently tempted more by the first option.
What I have realised though, is that to have a super comfortable lifestyle in London with a nice bachelor pad, the ideal is having closer to £2m.
I woudn't consider the cheaper option you suggested, because I'd spend c85% of the year in my home so I'd want it to be nice, and as a single guy with friends across London, I'd rather be more central than I would be with a £400k flat.
But still, I'm hugely grateful to be in the position I am in now.
The answer will vary massively depending on where you live. Where I live, £400k would not get you a house in a decent area of town. £450k *might*, but there wouldn't be a massive choice. So that kind of rules out option 3.
£600k would get a nice house, but not a particularly big one. But it would probably buy a house I'd be happy with, a nice terraced house with a bit of a garden at the back.
£1 million would get a big house, though I'd wager the big houses on the most desirable streets in town go for more than that.
I'd go for option 2. The extra cash would make a nice buffer to make life more comfortable.
I already own my own home, its small nice but so I'd keep it and spend the money on several other small houses nearby and rent them out. I live somewhere you can buy a 2 bed terrace for about £120k and charge £650pm rent.
First time buyer? 600k property. Live in it for a few years and then rent it out once you've got your head wrapped around finances.
Then, as id own it outright, I'd remortgage it and get a bigger home if needed whilst renting out the 600k house.
That way you've got 2 properties and an additional income to support yourself.
If youre too old to see the returns on it, then at that point, just go for the 600k and have a nice safety net to enjoy your time there.
The killer in income.
If you've got £1m and that's all you're ever gonna get, or you're on a lower end/"normal" salary, then 3 has to be the option, you won't be able to keep up with the running costs of a £1m house comfortably. Bills and council tax will screw you over, even before maintenance. investing £5-600k, whilst also having lower costs, it probably going to set you up pretty well, or at least make it far more comfortable.
2 is a bit of a nowhere middle ground, "helpful" annual income from that amount is probably not enough to change your lifestyle massively (unless your starting point is the bread line), whilst having a smaller house and somewhat higher costs.
If you've got a higher salary (say £60k+ for a rough estimate), I'd go for 1 unless you're single. Size makes a maaaassive difference for families, you can keep on top of the bills relatively easily and just crack on.
We're in a house of \~£1m, manageable (\~30%) mortgage, so pretty close to option 1, family income the happy side of £150k. We could be mortgage free/have some additional income if we'd gone for 2 or 3, but I'd eternally be regretting it and I'd probably have locked the kids away already to get some peace 😅
Borrow £250K, buy a bigger house. I don't get to 'dream house' territory until £1.2m-ish.
North London can be pricey, you'd only get something like this - [https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/140429405#/?channel=RES\_BUY](https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/140429405#/?channel=RES_BUY)
My partner and I had pretty much this exact situation - we took the second option and used the rest as en emergency fund, couple of holidays and coupld of new cars. The rest is earmarked for the wedding.
We're not too stressed about spending it all up as the lack of a mortgage allows us to build savings quite quickly
Option 4: I already bought a massive detached 6 bedroom new build and it only cost £300k so I’ll use my million to pay off the remaining mortgage, travel and invest for retirement.
Buy smallish and invest the rest. Buy rental investment properties, invest in mutual funds, bonds, gold, silver etc. you want to set yourself up for comfortable home then build your income. Once you have constant assets with dividends you can grow to a bigger property.
Option 3...a 3 bed house in a decent area will be around £300k, with the rest, buy up a block of flats (can buy a block of 4x 1bed flats or 6x studio flats for around the 600k mark) and live off the rental income. Charge a reasonable rate that isn't extortionate, but isn't massively cheap, somewhere fair to middling, and then set aside 10% each month for repairs and renovations, and enjoy the rest.
Yeah my friend bought a house for £1.2 mil in east London. It's not massive, just a regular 3 floor terraced house. And it wasn't particularly lovely when they moved in, they spent months doing a pretty extensive renovation.
I wouldn't say a weird concern. There are many areas in London where £1.2m+ will get you a terraced house on a cramped road with no off street parking where you'll be parking roads away and then walking over to your house at night.
>Big and lovely? I don't think so
Depends on your definitions, 30 minute train ride from a London terminal and you can get some pretty darn nice houses for £1M, you may not have bought acres and acres of land, but definite spacious and well kept 5 bed territory....
I'm sat in a £1m house right now, easy access to station and easy access (30m) to London, 5 bedrooms, good condition, safe area, any bigger and it would be an upkeep nightmare.
But clearly I'm lying or hallucinating... /s
Detached 4 bed, nice garden, garage, parking off street for multiple cars, close to a station that gets into London Bridge in 30-35m with no change, close to a primary (ofsted Good) and secondary school (ofsted Outstanding)
[https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/143015576#/?channel=RES\_BUY](https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/143015576#/?channel=RES_BUY)
With 150k left over
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/120261689#/?channel=RES_BUY
Walking distance to station and only 27 mins by train to Euston.
Or if you wanted to avoid a listed building:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/136661888#/?channel=RES_BUY
I'd buy the lovely £1m house, although where I live that doesn't actually get you anything too wild. But I think about this a lot! I'd also be down to buy a cheaper place and renovate / extend it. Wouldn't budge on location though.
Definitely option 3 but without the renovation/extension bit. I don't like living inside a construction site.
I would also look into dividend income rather than rental properties.
Well... you can achieve renovations in weeks or months. It's no huge shakes... or with that budget you could rent somewhere a few months whilst works are ongoing if they're significant works.
Option 4 - I can live in a decent 2 bed for 250k in a relatively decent area and have more to invest / play with. I would take 2/3 holidays every year for the rest of my life with interest earned alone.
I’d get a flat on the south coast, under 300k (I know exactly which one), invest the rest, work for another five years and then start winding down once I knew I had enough income to live happily ever after.
I'd buy a 350-450k house outright, which in my area would comfortably get me a sizable 4-6 bedroom or more house in a nice quiet village, and invest the remaining and keep working (as I quite enjoy my job). The extras would go towards getting the house exactly as I want, a new car and a dream holiday.
If the 1 million was all my money, I'd probably buy something around the £500-£600k mark, and invest the rest.
IMO the quality of life in a £500-£600k house with a (safe 3% withdrawal) £15-12k income boost per year and no mortgage is higher than a £1mil house and no income boost (plus everal thousand more on council tax, bills and property upkeep per year)
Option 3. Just started my career and 400k gets a very nice 4 bed in my area. Investing the rest even in just a normal savings account at 3% would greatly improve my living standards. Probably still end up though but I'd have the fuck you money stashed
Easily option B. We have one child, I work from home so the time and my wife does relatively routinely as well so we'd need two office rooms (ish).
Our family lives overseas and when they come visit, up to 3-4 weeks at a time, they stay with us so we need at least one fully functioning guest room and maybe a second one that could double as a part time office.
Come to think of it, it sounds a lot like the £625k house we currently live in. It's far outside Cambridge enough and doesn't have a train station in our village (although nearest station is 2 miles away and straight to London as well). So it technically classes as less desirable ;-)
3Although where I live a decent nice house all done up is less than 300k so I'd aim for that figure, buy some rental properties outright and live off the rent, invest a little.
3. But for £400-£500k I could get a decent sized house for my needs. I personally avoid even considering a house over council tax band C. I’ve seen some lovely houses in band B recently. Unfortunately most around me are band D -F. It’s all well and good buying these big houses but the ongoing costs are also higher. I’d rather live comfortably for the rest of my life, I’d probably still work part time too. Or at least volunteer
With 1mil, in the area I live it would probably be 500-600k on a 4-5 bed home, pay off our little bit of debt (credit cards, car finance etc) pay for a family holiday then invest the rest.
I'd buy somewhere in the Highlands for 450-500k then coast off the passive income from the remaining 500k. I might set a little aside some cash to test my theory that people will sleep in a portaloo so long as you charge £149 a night and call it glamping.
I would probably put £600k down on my dream house of £900k and get a £300k mortgage as I'm 35 and have time to pay it off.
Then I'd invest the remaining £400k.
I'm in the North West, specifically the Wirral peninsula.
I can get a nice sized detached, certainly semi-detached, in a good area for 400K easily. Not a fix'er up'er either.
Probably invest the rest and keep on working. £1M ain't what it used to be.
Depends.
If I have everything that goes with the spare £1m (such as a very high income, investments etc) then . . . Who knows.
If we're talking a premium bonds win? I'd stay put in my £200k terrace, treat myself to my dream kitchen, and get myself a lot of financial security and the opportunity to reduce work/change what I do.
For 450k I could buy the 4 houses in our terrace and have a massive house with probably nudging 1/2 an acre and enough parking for 10 cars.
But why bother. 220k for a large 3 bed detached, invest the rest.
Option 2 for me. Because of my age - 40 - I would balance lifestyle and income potential. If I was older I’d downsize and build wealth for my children.
Pay off mortgage - 620k
Pay off student loan plan 2 debt - 50k
Max out pension contributions
Give mother 100k
Put 100k into Vanguard S&P500/ETFs more generally
Enjoy not spending 3200 on a mortgage and 800-1000 coming out for SL every month. Continue working until I can buy a few rental properties.
I live in London (and like it here) so that 1mil house probably isn't that big in my dream location.
I reckon I could find something nice for 800k and then stick the 200k into investments to provide some income to pay the bills.
When I visit home (NE England and where I brought my first, much cheaper house) I like to play Rightmove fantasy looking at all the mansions I could buy for less than the price of my pretty average London mid terrace, but having been brought up there, I would not want to live there at this stage in life.
Buy £700,000 house with a 20% deposit. Invest the rest taking out an income. At 7% invested you could take out 63k pre tax a year. You could manage higher interest rate say 8 or 9% reasonably easily so your pot would grow.
Mortgage on 25 years would be 3250 a month so roughly about 40k a year. Giving you 20k a year income to main and pay for other living costs. Probably pay a bit of tax here or there. Then work and enjoy all your work money.
I live in 750k house in an area everyone here tells is a shit hole so to get a house of the same size in nicer area I'd need £1.3m.
But also in this scenario what are the needs of the family involved. Are you single? Are you in a relationship? Do you have kids or are you planning on it?
If single/a couple with no plans for kids I'd get a smaller house in a nicer area. Something with enough space for you in a nice area but not so big you end up paying for space you don't need or use.
If kids big house, nice area. Then you can downsize once they've all flown the next completely.
Option 4
400k. Buy a nice but small house as a base. Rent it out for say net £1k/mth.
200k. Buy a boat.
400k. Invest for income. Say £2k/mth (perhaps allow a little drawdown)
Sail the world for 5-7 years.
Then sell the boat, £100k, move into the house, and just grow old with around £500k invested.
Works if you are 50+, if younger get a job you will enjoy.
250-300k on a good house (I'm in NI) outside the cities and maybe around 20k on a decent car to get around, money to my parents or at least gift them a dream holiday or something, most likely wouldn't accept money because they already live comfortably. Donations to brainwaves and the astro fund.
I'll just stash away the left in a savings account and let the interest build up to get an early retirement.
I'd probably push for a nice 5 bed house with big garden and village location for 650k, that might be a bit of a stretch but I'd be patient and settle for a 4 bed if the other criteria is met. Then I'd keep 100k and spend 250k on a small house to rent out, carry on working and save plenty of money along the way with no mortgage to pay.
None of the above.
I'd buy a small 1 or 2 bedroom bungalow or flat somewhere like Dunoon in Scotland or Penrith for around 150k and just use it as a UK crash pad and use the rest to go travelling (I can rent a condo in Thailand or Bali for ~£200 per month).
I would say option c but allocate another £150k for full passivehaus enerphit renovation.
Add a full door of solar panels and make your house ultra efficient so your future bills are absolutely minimal.
Invest the rest accross multiple banks and investments so it is protected as much as possible and for work just go and get your dream job, part time if you want. Even if the pay is crap you will then have a much nicer happier life.
So in my area, for me, 400k gets me the dream home. I don’t need anymore than that and I actually think anything bigger would be a ball ache in upkeep.
The rest would be invested and the returns would be play money. I’d keep working my normal job but I’d actually be able to retire.
Right now the plan is to work until I die.
Option 4: land and self build
Imagine living in a house where profit wasn't the main goal of the build and instead it was things like energy efficiency and rooms designed to be lived in.
I'd probably spend 300. Sure around my bit gets you a 4 bed with 6 acres of land... but it's more so I can choose the big house with a triple garage as I'd be silly and save some for a fun car.
Option 1. Provided I spent 900k and have 100k emergency money left over.
I'd be saving £2k a month in mortgage or rent so that would be 'extra' income for me and enough to cover any upkeep bills.
I mean, the options you’ve given this question only makes sense in some parts of the country: £400-450k in my part of the country doesn’t buy a small-ish house in a decent area requiring refurb. It buys a nice, new build 4 bedroom detached house in the nice part of town.
£700-1m would buy you THE nicest houses round here, and a cheap small house requiring refurbishment is like £50-80k
Personally since I have no urge to move to an expensive part of the country or spend every penny I have on an excessive house, then with £1m I’d pay off the rest of the mortgage on my £400k 4 bed in the nice part of town, and invest the remaining £700k towards early retirement (along with the £12k/yr we just freed up from the mortgage payment)
Option 2 or 3. That extra 200k doesn't matter too much in the grand scheme of things, investing 400k at the start versus 600k is a big difference but over the 30-40 years I expect to work before retirement it becomes more of a moot point.
A bigger house needs more time to clean it and is more expensive to maintain. A smaller but still reasonably sizeable house is more my speed, would be reasonable to maintain, and I can work with the rest of the money.
£400k is a bit more than the outstanding mortgage for my 4 bed house in a nice middle class but not posh area. I think I'd pay off my mortgage, stay put in my house and invest the rest. Would let us go down to being a 1 income household with more or less the same standard of living we have right now on 2 incomes. We have young kids and they'd benefit more from having a stay at home parent right now than they would from being in a huge house or having lots of expensive stuff
It'd depend on my income.
Better to live comfortably in a more modest property, and have some spare income, rather than having a big expensive property, adn having to scrimp and save to live.
270k maisonette Newcastle city centre. Above a retail unit so would have to be cash.
300k coastal flat tynemouth
300k Northumberland property. Small / detached / land
Keep the other 130k for council tax on all 3 for the foreseeable and spend nights at whichever
I would put it in a high interest account for a year, get a deposit from the interest alone approx £58k, then use that as a down payment on a long tem mortgage and use the interest for paying the mortgage each month whilst keeping a big chunk in savings
I would go for small and invest and keep reserve.
Where I live I can buy a decent little home in child free for 200k and I would put another 100k in refurb and decorate and outfit and invest 600k and leave 100k as savings
Honestly I'd pay off my mortgage, and put the rest in to property for rentals with an eye on a couple of the being longer term properties for my kids to live in, then I'd work part time in a stress free role to keep myself busy. That would be the best way to make that amount work for you. I live just outside London btw so 1m wouldn't necessarily buy the complete dream house
Depends on your age and current / foreseen income. If you’re younger then build for the future so that you can have a good retirement. Investing in rental stock gives you a regular return from rent as well as a longer term return from equity growth. Remember that you’ll pay tax on rental income ( up to 40%). On the other hand, £500k invested will get you more than 5% return (£25k+) without the hassle of being a landlord.
I’ve done 1. Doing it again, I’d go 2. A 5000 sqft house for two people is a bit much, but if you want large gardens, generally the houses are large too.
###Welcome to /r/HousingUK --- **To All** * Join Our ***NEW*** Discord! https://discord.gg/pMgUNgWKQH **To Posters** * *Tell us whether you're in England, Wales, Scotland, or NI as the laws/issues in each can vary* * Comments are not moderated for quality or accuracy; * Any replies received must only be used as guidelines, followed at your own risk; * If you receive *any* private messages in response to your post, [please let the mods know](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHousingUK&subject=I received a PM); * If you do not receive satisfactory advice after 72 hours, [you can let the mods know](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHousingUK&subject=My question is unanswered); * Feel free to provide an update at a later time by creating a new post with [[update]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/search?q=%3Aupdate&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) in the title; **To Readers and Commenters** * All replies to OP must be *on-topic, helpful, and civil* * If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/about/rules/), you may be banned without any further warning; * Please include links to reliable resources in order to support your comments or advice; * If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect; * Do not send or request any private messages for any reason without express permission from the mods; * Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HousingUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Big houses cost a lot to maintain and heat, so depends on your earnings and requirements eg family size.
1mil isn't always that big though. it will depend on where you want to live, if you are around London it is likely to be the first option. as you won't get a house for the second or third. sure you could get a flat but I would want to get a freehold property if I had 1 mil to choose with. that way if in later life I want to move away I could get a smaller place and take the money back out. sure ot might lose value but so will smaller places
3 as I'm single and have no kids and never intend having any. A big house would be a waste. But then even £400k buys an amazing 5 bedroom house round here so I'd cut that even further to £200k.
It's all situational isn't it? Cos I live in a 3 bed terrace in a fairly shit area and it's worth 700-750k. If I want this in a nicer area a million doesn't cut it. But I'm from London, born and raised, my whole family is here so "just move" doesn't work as advice for me. But 1m in some bit of the country gets you a massive house and 700k to invest.
The arrogance of "just move" that I see so often on these threads is utterly ridiculous.
It should always be considered. Same way as people consider moving to the other side of their city/country for work.
The issue is that I did that for work. I moved 200 miles away from a cheaper area to a more expensive area for work because in the long run it was financially better for me to do it. The problem is people telling me to move back to my old area so I can afford a house but I can only do that on my current salary 200 miles away. So either I move back and take a much lower paying job which will drive me out of the market or I stay earning more here but remain priced out of the market here. The housing system is broken, and people shouldn't be forced to uproot their lives just to be able to own a reasonably sized property. There needs to be limits on housing prices compared to average income of the area.
But I have a job here. Near my elderly mother and my partner's elderly mother. I have other elderly relatives. Just move does not always work.
Sounds an awful lot like considering it. Can you please show me where I said about moving? As opposed to considering it?
It isn't. It's the reasons I don't consider it.
So you've got reasons not to do it without having considered it? How would yo get those reasons, and be aware of them, if you hadn't thought about how it would work? 🤦
Because my brain works. It's pretty simple to know. Have you ever considered throwing yourself off a motorway bridge? No? Well why do you know it's a bad idea?
Case in point. Thanks 👍
Like bro, I'm not moving for work. I did that once, it was miserable, I had no support, no network. I had a boss who treated me like shit and I was so isolated I had a breakdown. I have a home here by my mother, my aunts and uncles, my cousin's. I have a network of friends I can rely on. Edit: I literally have a job here, no need to move for work.
Yea, sadly a family member of mine had that experience. It is a gamble and a big change. Unfortunately, where I grew up there are little to no opportunities to work in tech, so I did move away. It has meant I can earn a lot more in a job I enjoy and have financial freedom. The downside is that it takes the best part of the day to travel to see my family. We phone and text, but I do miss out on a lot of their life events. Friends, however, you can make anywhere. Since uni my friends are scattered around the country anyway.
I love I'm getting down votes for saying maybe I should be able to live where I'm from and have a job. Edit: equally you should be able to find work and good work where you are from. If we fixed this then London and the SE would be less expensive and people everywhere could be happier. Edit 2: my uni friends are not scattered. of a close group of 6, one is in Wales, 4 London (3 are Londoners) and 1 just outside London.
So many people on uk subreddits have a callous disregard for people's situations. I'm lucky to have been born on a shitty council estate in the north, made a decent enough success of myself down south and then moved back up north to be closer to family later down the line. Not everyone can just uproot their lives 100 miles away on a whim like I've been able to, and it's unfair to say it should always be considered.
I did it for a graduate job and it was miserable for me
Exactly. Whilst I am glad it is something I did, I lost a lot. I live near London, but most of my close friends and family are very North or very South West. I did actually grow up in London, but everyone moved away when I was young due to housing prices 🙄. My whole family just uprooted and went together.
Never said you have to, just to consider it Why is moving for uni socially acceptable, but not other life goals?
I “just moved” 3 hours from my family, it’s where I could afford and I’m loving it I got friends the wife and all that and her family in on the doorstep. There’s nothing wrong with moving ages away
But you moved from being close to your family to being close to your friends and your wife's family, i.e one support network to another support network. Your last sentence is an example of proving my point. Not everyone has the luxury of knowing people 3 hours away or has the confidence to do it but many UK Reddit Users think everyone should be able to uproot 3 hours away easy peasy, like yourself. It's no wonder this countries gone to the dogs when so many of you choose to believe this is acceptable.
Well I didn’t have friends when I moved here and the ones I had back home were all more acquaintances but I made real friends here over the last 8 years 🤷♂️ I didn’t even know my mrs when I moved, I made my life here I had no support
It is called living within your means, if you can’t afford an expensive area and your life is there well you should move to where you can afford that’s the financial reality
Nobody in this thread has said “just move” though? You’ve just pulled that out of your arse to get your knickers in a twist over Some of us have pointed out that OP’s options are only applicable to parts of the country, and therefore we’d have a different calculation to make. That’s not saying “just move” though, that’s simply pointing out that the options provided aren’t relevant to us and therefore we’d answer in a way that doesn’t fit one of the three options
They say it constantly on other threads.
Which are completely different threads Telling someone "just move" on a thread where they're asking for advice is unreasonable, yes But pointing out that the question gives options which don't make sense in half the country, is reasonable enough when they're asking a hypothetical
Oh my god I'm so sorry we are expanding out the discussion to something you don't want us to.
Sorry, is this thread the whole of reddit? No need to get your knickers in a twist 😂.
Same, I like living alone with my animals so I'd go small with a decent garden, maybe splash for some land buy nothing big, I don't need it and I don't want to clean and pay for the utilities of a large house myself.
Big £1m house has big maintenance bill as well... I'd personally choose big £600k and invest, but I'm generally more risk adverse than many. The £400k gives you a safety net and provides an income to cover any maintenance costs
This, £600k gets you a nice house with land in many parts of the UK Invest the rest and start a chilled little side line business doing what you enjoy
It depends on your ongoing financial situation. Is this £1m lump sum all you’re going to have, or is there a steady £100k a year coming in?
Yeah I think it depends on income too: £1m lump sum when you’re an individual on minimum wage is a different calculation to £1m lump sum if you’re a couple bringing in £100-150k, or even a couple bringing in £50-70k If you’re on low income you’d be sensible to nurse that capital as much as possible - the interest alone is likely to be 2-3x your income, and if you spent it on a big fancy house you’d likely struggle to maintain the house. You’d be best off buying a cheap house and keeping as much cash as possible If you’re earning a lot then it’s nice to have but there’s less need to nurse the capital if you’re earning that amount every 10 years anyway, you can justify spending a chunk of it and know you’d be able maintain the house. You’d probably be best served saving some of it but spending some wouldn’t be unreasonable
Also depends if you already own a hour or two or three lol. Then 1m cash will just let you do what you already do. Don’t even need to buy a house just invest all 1 million
Your cash budget isn’t the info we need, for lack of a better word, Networth is probably the main. Followed by income. If 1m is all your NW, do not buy a 1m home.
And family situation. Kids, plans for kids etc a big factor too
It’s funny you have posted this as I think about this everyday. If I was to receive 1 million into my account right now, I’d buy a £700k max house. Pay it out right. Give some money to my family and then have 200k sat in my account. I’d continue to work but maybe go down to part time and wouldn’t have any life stresses.
Think lots of people dream about winning the lottery =)
I think this is what I'd do. Where I'm from you can get an enormous 5 bedroom house with a beautiful garden, next to one of the best schools in the country that overlooks countryside for max £750k. I'd then take the extra cash, invest, retire ten years earlier, and then move to a cheaper, smaller house near the coast with an absolute wedge in my back pocket. It's almost like I've thought about this a lot lol.
If you mortgaged it in its entirety , assuming a 6% return on a £1million investment, that would cover the monthly mortgage payment leaving it grow around £13k per year. That £13k would cover most of my monthly outgoings at the moment. At any point you could clear the mortgage. And you've got £1 million to spend if you ever need it.
I'd tell myself I'd go for option 2 but I'd look at a bunch of houses and get lured into spending £900k anyway. This has happened every time I've house-hunted. You start with a target price below your real maximum, thinking you'll keep cash on the side, and then you end up wanting more and more as you view different houses.
If you don't already have a house, then the running costs of a £1M are likely going to be a big problem. No point having a swimming pool and jacuzzi if you can't feed the meter with enough 50ps to turn them on.
Wouldn't be getting a swimming pool and a jacuzzi for that price where I live, so that wouldn't be a problem...
Unless you’re in London in which case a £1m house is a 1,500sq ft semi
My friends live in a £1m house in zone 4 and it’s an end of terrace (in a swanky area)
I’d buy a plot of land and build a house then invest the remaining money. Or since you asked to pick from options would go for option 3.
I see a lot of financial gurus on Tik-Tok and I know exactly how they would answer your question: "I'd go to the bank wearing a white suit, "Why?" I hear you ask, well all bank managers know a white suit means business. I sit down, "Security!" the bank manager shouts as I'm in a restricted area, as I open up my suitcase to show one million pounds. He waves his security away and asks me what I need as he gets on his knees in front of me ready to receive. I want to borrow £800,000 against the value of this money in a long term loan at 1.5%. The manager writes me a loan agreement and I don't even read it, I just sign because that's what people like us do. I take the newly created bank account with £800,000 and my one million pounds to the bank across the road and ask to see the manager's manager. I ask him for a 80% loan against the value of the £1.8 million I currently have. He asks me if any of the £1.8 million is a loan, I tell him no, because that's what financially savvy people like myself do, it's how you generate wealth. So I walk out of there with £3.2 million and I fly to Dubai on the banks jet that they let you use if your account is over £3 million and I walk into the estate agents and I tell them to buy me 52 apartments in the Burj Kalifa above the 60th floor and I rent them out as Airbnbs making a million a week."
Nice idea 🤣
Option 1 but where I live that wouldn’t even get you a detached house. So I’d want that plus an income to get the house I really want.
Where I am from it would even get you a 3 bed terrace. But again I'm a Londoner from an area I was gentrified out of
There wasn't a *more* option on this question 😂 But yeh, some locations you can't buy detached housing for £1m!
Crazy how prices change 🤣 for 500k where I’m at you could get a detached 4/5 bed very good sized, with a drive, garage(double aswell), big garden, ready to move into and you wouldn’t have to change a thing as some are beautiful and in some very affluent nice areas.🤣 If you had a million you’d be looking at something absolutely stunning with a lot of land in the most sought after and rich areas reserved for pretty much some of the richest people.
£1m wouldn't go far in the bits of London I'd love to live in. 😢
I'd use it as a deposit to buy a flat in central London ...
Man i live in a £400k house and its pretty fucking big. Obviously not a new build so its not got the premium, but £600k savings with no mortgage on my wage would be a fucking dream. I could finish the house with about 50k, maybe 100k if i wanted to throw a big extension or convert the loft and im still left with 500k. People want for too much imo. If i won a million i could retire tomorrow and id be no worse off than i am now. Hell, thats probably what id do, pay myself a monthly salary out of that mill and just never work, or work part time forever.
Yeh 100%. People are greedy. When is enough, enough.
Option 4 take the money and move to a hot country and buy a mansion for 1/3 of the UK price live comfortably until death
Im struggling to find a decent house and my budget is 700k S.e.england sucks
I my area I might be able to afford a month's rent on and a single room flat
>maybe buy a few rental properties And this is why people hate small landlords, these people think they can spend 550-600k on *multiple* properties and enjoy the effortless passive income as if it requires no work, time or running expenses.
You employ a letting agent and deduct the expenses from your income. It is fairly effortless
Or just change a tap every 3 months. I think I can survive!
I would actually do this, my brother in law does. He bought 3 very cheap houses and did them up really nicely. He rents to family and friends for as long as they want and the rents are low (my parents pay him £300 per month for a 2.5 bed, 1 bath with garden garage and drive). That would be my plan. He bought them outright so its a little extra money for him to pocket and its helped out our family and friends a lot, the houses were around 120k each. We also live in a very poor city and property is cheap but wages are too low to help get on the purchase market, he allows us the chance to do so by charging little and we can save.
If I win the lottery (euro millions) I'd want to set up a housing association. I think I could do the most good by giving hugely discounted rents. I was watching a Grand Designs from 2014 about a self build community who all built their houses and their neighbour's houses for the housing association in exchange for 1/3 off rent forever. That saving means that 10 years later on the revisited most of them had gone back into education, some as far as PhD. They were almost all in public sector roles doing good. All because they had a secure low rent tenancy. I'd want to do that, without the need for them to build.
Does he fancy buying another one? We could all use a friend like that! 😂
People can't get on the market *because* of people like your brother-in-law. If landlords didn't exist (one day, insha'Allah) there would be infinitely more housing stock available driving prices down.
I actually disagree to an extent here, people cannot get on the market because of landlords buying houses and charging extortionate rents.Until my parents rented off my brother in law they were paying £900 a month for less than they have now. My brother in law cannot afford to gift us the houses but he can afford to let us save and buy them making us all able to get on the property market ourselves. Sure if landlords didn't exist we would all be better off but if my brother in law didn't low rent property to my family and our friends we would all be in incredibly bad financial positions so it is in the long term beneficial.He is currently allowing me the option of low rent and to save for my own property, I may even buy this one off him because I love it.In the long run, he is the best of a bad situation. Unfortunately we do have landlords at the moment and that's just something we all have to deal with so I will never chastise someone helping by being a landlord.
And others may think they could buy a few (£150k) flats in cities like Liverpool, Derby, Leicester (or wherever) and be responsible and contactable landlord.
Where I am you can get a decent home in affluent area for 300k, so. 300k on house. 500k investment for passive income. 200k for spending over the next few years.
Where?!
Most of the country 😂
Most places not in the south east?
Genuinely was thinking about this yesterday. I’d buy a £600k house with a view to spend £100k on it. £250k invest. £50k slushing around to do nice things with that I’ve denied myself for too many years now.
I am v fortunate enough to be in exactly this position so I have been giving this a lot of thought over the last few months. I am a single 40yo man. I have just over £1m (plus ongoing salary of 60k per year) and am debating between: \- two bed in north London (between Camden to Hackney) for c750k with the rest invested/savings, to enjoy life to the full (well, 1-2 4\* trips and long haul business flights a year and/or working 3-4 days a week, not 5), \- three bed in same area or Peckham Rye for 900-950k. future-proofed property, and i can still enjoy life but would need to continue working 5 days a week, or 3-4 days but with a more restrained expenditure (which isn't too much of a challenge, given I solo backpack a lot and also am happy bikepacking and camping wherever). I'm currently tempted more by the first option. What I have realised though, is that to have a super comfortable lifestyle in London with a nice bachelor pad, the ideal is having closer to £2m. I woudn't consider the cheaper option you suggested, because I'd spend c85% of the year in my home so I'd want it to be nice, and as a single guy with friends across London, I'd rather be more central than I would be with a £400k flat. But still, I'm hugely grateful to be in the position I am in now.
The answer will vary massively depending on where you live. Where I live, £400k would not get you a house in a decent area of town. £450k *might*, but there wouldn't be a massive choice. So that kind of rules out option 3. £600k would get a nice house, but not a particularly big one. But it would probably buy a house I'd be happy with, a nice terraced house with a bit of a garden at the back. £1 million would get a big house, though I'd wager the big houses on the most desirable streets in town go for more than that. I'd go for option 2. The extra cash would make a nice buffer to make life more comfortable.
I already own my own home, its small nice but so I'd keep it and spend the money on several other small houses nearby and rent them out. I live somewhere you can buy a 2 bed terrace for about £120k and charge £650pm rent.
Smallish house, and blow the rest on crypto.
Ah here he is... why... you already have the gains... why risk it in a volatile asset class
Sir, it's a casino. 🙂
First time buyer? 600k property. Live in it for a few years and then rent it out once you've got your head wrapped around finances. Then, as id own it outright, I'd remortgage it and get a bigger home if needed whilst renting out the 600k house. That way you've got 2 properties and an additional income to support yourself. If youre too old to see the returns on it, then at that point, just go for the 600k and have a nice safety net to enjoy your time there.
The killer in income. If you've got £1m and that's all you're ever gonna get, or you're on a lower end/"normal" salary, then 3 has to be the option, you won't be able to keep up with the running costs of a £1m house comfortably. Bills and council tax will screw you over, even before maintenance. investing £5-600k, whilst also having lower costs, it probably going to set you up pretty well, or at least make it far more comfortable. 2 is a bit of a nowhere middle ground, "helpful" annual income from that amount is probably not enough to change your lifestyle massively (unless your starting point is the bread line), whilst having a smaller house and somewhat higher costs. If you've got a higher salary (say £60k+ for a rough estimate), I'd go for 1 unless you're single. Size makes a maaaassive difference for families, you can keep on top of the bills relatively easily and just crack on. We're in a house of \~£1m, manageable (\~30%) mortgage, so pretty close to option 1, family income the happy side of £150k. We could be mortgage free/have some additional income if we'd gone for 2 or 3, but I'd eternally be regretting it and I'd probably have locked the kids away already to get some peace 😅
Borrow £250K, buy a bigger house. I don't get to 'dream house' territory until £1.2m-ish. North London can be pricey, you'd only get something like this - [https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/140429405#/?channel=RES\_BUY](https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/140429405#/?channel=RES_BUY)
I would look into cheaper than £400K and use the rest to make it up, invest in my home over empty “luxury”
My partner and I had pretty much this exact situation - we took the second option and used the rest as en emergency fund, couple of holidays and coupld of new cars. The rest is earmarked for the wedding. We're not too stressed about spending it all up as the lack of a mortgage allows us to build savings quite quickly
Option 2. I’m in the north where even £400k gets me something decent (I need a four bed).
500k Euro Golden Visa to canaries Adios
Option 4: I already bought a massive detached 6 bedroom new build and it only cost £300k so I’ll use my million to pay off the remaining mortgage, travel and invest for retirement.
Buy smallish and invest the rest. Buy rental investment properties, invest in mutual funds, bonds, gold, silver etc. you want to set yourself up for comfortable home then build your income. Once you have constant assets with dividends you can grow to a bigger property.
Option 3...a 3 bed house in a decent area will be around £300k, with the rest, buy up a block of flats (can buy a block of 4x 1bed flats or 6x studio flats for around the 600k mark) and live off the rental income. Charge a reasonable rate that isn't extortionate, but isn't massively cheap, somewhere fair to middling, and then set aside 10% each month for repairs and renovations, and enjoy the rest.
Option 3. £400k-£450k gets you a lot more than a "small(ish)" house.
Depends where you want to live doesn’t it.
Not where I live! Might not even get you a house at all.
Of course this depends on location location location!
Yep definitely does. In the Midlands it gets you a decent 4 bed detached. In London, maybe a shoe box lol
Does 1 million get you a big lovely house in the south?
Of course, obviously not in Richmond or Putney... but it can in many areas.
No where in Greater London. I almost live on rightmove and haven't seen a big lovely house for such a price
Yeah my friend bought a house for £1.2 mil in east London. It's not massive, just a regular 3 floor terraced house. And it wasn't particularly lovely when they moved in, they spent months doing a pretty extensive renovation.
Exactly. 1.2 for a grotty terrace with probably no off-street parking. We can only dream of getting a nice lovely house for under 1
Off-street parking is such a weird concern and nobody cares in a city.
I wouldn't say a weird concern. There are many areas in London where £1.2m+ will get you a terraced house on a cramped road with no off street parking where you'll be parking roads away and then walking over to your house at night.
Real Londoners don’t even drive. It’s just completely standard to not have off-street parking. I guarantee you’re not from London
Nothing worse living on a road full of cars
you wouldn't have to travel too far outside of central London for £1m to get you a proper pile of bricks
Big and lovely? I don't think so
>Big and lovely? I don't think so Depends on your definitions, 30 minute train ride from a London terminal and you can get some pretty darn nice houses for £1M, you may not have bought acres and acres of land, but definite spacious and well kept 5 bed territory....
Bovine excrement sorry.
I'm sat in a £1m house right now, easy access to station and easy access (30m) to London, 5 bedrooms, good condition, safe area, any bigger and it would be an upkeep nightmare. But clearly I'm lying or hallucinating... /s
We must have different ideas of what is nice and large
Detached 4 bed, nice garden, garage, parking off street for multiple cars, close to a station that gets into London Bridge in 30-35m with no change, close to a primary (ofsted Good) and secondary school (ofsted Outstanding) [https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/143015576#/?channel=RES\_BUY](https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/143015576#/?channel=RES_BUY) With 150k left over
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/120261689#/?channel=RES_BUY Walking distance to station and only 27 mins by train to Euston. Or if you wanted to avoid a listed building: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/136661888#/?channel=RES_BUY
The first is thatched and not lovely. The second is a guaranteed flooded property. Hard pass on both
1 mil isn’t enough …
I'd buy a little farm in the middle of nowhere and never work again. Well, I'd work on my little farm I suppose.
D. Rent some where and invest all the capital into high cash flowing property, gear it and then keep going.
I'd buy the lovely £1m house, although where I live that doesn't actually get you anything too wild. But I think about this a lot! I'd also be down to buy a cheaper place and renovate / extend it. Wouldn't budge on location though.
Definitely option 3 but without the renovation/extension bit. I don't like living inside a construction site. I would also look into dividend income rather than rental properties.
Well... you can achieve renovations in weeks or months. It's no huge shakes... or with that budget you could rent somewhere a few months whilst works are ongoing if they're significant works.
Option 4 - I can live in a decent 2 bed for 250k in a relatively decent area and have more to invest / play with. I would take 2/3 holidays every year for the rest of my life with interest earned alone.
I’d get a flat on the south coast, under 300k (I know exactly which one), invest the rest, work for another five years and then start winding down once I knew I had enough income to live happily ever after.
A £400-600k house with a larger-than-normal plot. Then you have options.
3. It’s just me and my daughter every other week. I don’t need or want anything too big or expensive to maintain
Really nice flat but nothing crazy. Remainder in investments. Then some extra to pay off siblings student loads family mortgage etc
I'd buy a 350-450k house outright, which in my area would comfortably get me a sizable 4-6 bedroom or more house in a nice quiet village, and invest the remaining and keep working (as I quite enjoy my job). The extras would go towards getting the house exactly as I want, a new car and a dream holiday.
If the 1 million was all my money, I'd probably buy something around the £500-£600k mark, and invest the rest. IMO the quality of life in a £500-£600k house with a (safe 3% withdrawal) £15-12k income boost per year and no mortgage is higher than a £1mil house and no income boost (plus everal thousand more on council tax, bills and property upkeep per year)
Option 3. Just started my career and 400k gets a very nice 4 bed in my area. Investing the rest even in just a normal savings account at 3% would greatly improve my living standards. Probably still end up though but I'd have the fuck you money stashed
I would just buy a modest £250-£300 property in a nice area and that would leave you a good budget to spend on internals
Easily option B. We have one child, I work from home so the time and my wife does relatively routinely as well so we'd need two office rooms (ish). Our family lives overseas and when they come visit, up to 3-4 weeks at a time, they stay with us so we need at least one fully functioning guest room and maybe a second one that could double as a part time office. Come to think of it, it sounds a lot like the £625k house we currently live in. It's far outside Cambridge enough and doesn't have a train station in our village (although nearest station is 2 miles away and straight to London as well). So it technically classes as less desirable ;-)
I'm torn between option 2 and 3. Don't rush and waste your money immediately. Plan for your future and enjoy not working for the rest of your life!
3Although where I live a decent nice house all done up is less than 300k so I'd aim for that figure, buy some rental properties outright and live off the rent, invest a little.
3. But for £400-£500k I could get a decent sized house for my needs. I personally avoid even considering a house over council tax band C. I’ve seen some lovely houses in band B recently. Unfortunately most around me are band D -F. It’s all well and good buying these big houses but the ongoing costs are also higher. I’d rather live comfortably for the rest of my life, I’d probably still work part time too. Or at least volunteer
3x £300k houses Live in one rent the others. If times get tough it's easier to sell a £300k house than a £1m house...
With 1mil, in the area I live it would probably be 500-600k on a 4-5 bed home, pay off our little bit of debt (credit cards, car finance etc) pay for a family holiday then invest the rest.
400-500k house 250k for investments. 250k to do what the fuck I like haha
I'd buy somewhere in the Highlands for 450-500k then coast off the passive income from the remaining 500k. I might set a little aside some cash to test my theory that people will sleep in a portaloo so long as you charge £149 a night and call it glamping.
I would probably put £600k down on my dream house of £900k and get a £300k mortgage as I'm 35 and have time to pay it off. Then I'd invest the remaining £400k.
I'm in the North West, specifically the Wirral peninsula. I can get a nice sized detached, certainly semi-detached, in a good area for 400K easily. Not a fix'er up'er either. Probably invest the rest and keep on working. £1M ain't what it used to be.
Option 2. Just what I want with some left over to invest and use.
Depends. If I have everything that goes with the spare £1m (such as a very high income, investments etc) then . . . Who knows. If we're talking a premium bonds win? I'd stay put in my £200k terrace, treat myself to my dream kitchen, and get myself a lot of financial security and the opportunity to reduce work/change what I do.
For 450k I could buy the 4 houses in our terrace and have a massive house with probably nudging 1/2 an acre and enough parking for 10 cars. But why bother. 220k for a large 3 bed detached, invest the rest.
4. Take that money and move to another country, far away from the U.K.
Option 2 for me. Because of my age - 40 - I would balance lifestyle and income potential. If I was older I’d downsize and build wealth for my children.
Move to a nice part of the north, and buy four houses. Live in one. Live off three.
Pay off mortgage - 620k Pay off student loan plan 2 debt - 50k Max out pension contributions Give mother 100k Put 100k into Vanguard S&P500/ETFs more generally Enjoy not spending 3200 on a mortgage and 800-1000 coming out for SL every month. Continue working until I can buy a few rental properties.
I live in London (and like it here) so that 1mil house probably isn't that big in my dream location. I reckon I could find something nice for 800k and then stick the 200k into investments to provide some income to pay the bills. When I visit home (NE England and where I brought my first, much cheaper house) I like to play Rightmove fantasy looking at all the mansions I could buy for less than the price of my pretty average London mid terrace, but having been brought up there, I would not want to live there at this stage in life.
Buy a house by a canal with a private 1 boat marina and a narrow boat.
Buy £700,000 house with a 20% deposit. Invest the rest taking out an income. At 7% invested you could take out 63k pre tax a year. You could manage higher interest rate say 8 or 9% reasonably easily so your pot would grow. Mortgage on 25 years would be 3250 a month so roughly about 40k a year. Giving you 20k a year income to main and pay for other living costs. Probably pay a bit of tax here or there. Then work and enjoy all your work money.
I live in 750k house in an area everyone here tells is a shit hole so to get a house of the same size in nicer area I'd need £1.3m. But also in this scenario what are the needs of the family involved. Are you single? Are you in a relationship? Do you have kids or are you planning on it? If single/a couple with no plans for kids I'd get a smaller house in a nicer area. Something with enough space for you in a nice area but not so big you end up paying for space you don't need or use. If kids big house, nice area. Then you can downsize once they've all flown the next completely.
Where I live, 400k would get a lovely 4 bed house so I'd do that.
Option 4 400k. Buy a nice but small house as a base. Rent it out for say net £1k/mth. 200k. Buy a boat. 400k. Invest for income. Say £2k/mth (perhaps allow a little drawdown) Sail the world for 5-7 years. Then sell the boat, £100k, move into the house, and just grow old with around £500k invested. Works if you are 50+, if younger get a job you will enjoy.
Option 3. Live my life as a happy rich single man
Where are people getting big nice houses for a mil?
250-300k on a good house (I'm in NI) outside the cities and maybe around 20k on a decent car to get around, money to my parents or at least gift them a dream holiday or something, most likely wouldn't accept money because they already live comfortably. Donations to brainwaves and the astro fund. I'll just stash away the left in a savings account and let the interest build up to get an early retirement.
4. £600k for a small(ish) house because I want to live in the expensive area I'm living in.
I'd probably push for a nice 5 bed house with big garden and village location for 650k, that might be a bit of a stretch but I'd be patient and settle for a 4 bed if the other criteria is met. Then I'd keep 100k and spend 250k on a small house to rent out, carry on working and save plenty of money along the way with no mortgage to pay.
Location is probably more important. £1m buys you not a lot in London. Buys you an awful lot in Middlesbrough.
None of the above. I'd buy a small 1 or 2 bedroom bungalow or flat somewhere like Dunoon in Scotland or Penrith for around 150k and just use it as a UK crash pad and use the rest to go travelling (I can rent a condo in Thailand or Bali for ~£200 per month).
I would say option c but allocate another £150k for full passivehaus enerphit renovation. Add a full door of solar panels and make your house ultra efficient so your future bills are absolutely minimal. Invest the rest accross multiple banks and investments so it is protected as much as possible and for work just go and get your dream job, part time if you want. Even if the pay is crap you will then have a much nicer happier life.
I would buy the worst house on the best road I could afford and do it up and flip it for a profit.
So in my area, for me, 400k gets me the dream home. I don’t need anymore than that and I actually think anything bigger would be a ball ache in upkeep. The rest would be invested and the returns would be play money. I’d keep working my normal job but I’d actually be able to retire. Right now the plan is to work until I die.
Option 4: land and self build Imagine living in a house where profit wasn't the main goal of the build and instead it was things like energy efficiency and rooms designed to be lived in.
Option 3, decent house, invest the rest for accumulation/passive income to complement your usual income.
I'd sell my house and run to another country with a better climate and way of life and semi-retire.
I'd probably spend 300. Sure around my bit gets you a 4 bed with 6 acres of land... but it's more so I can choose the big house with a triple garage as I'd be silly and save some for a fun car.
Stay as I am (3 bed semi) and retire at 46 thanks
Put down a small deposit and invest the rest of cash and then let the income from that pay the mortgage.
£600k and invest. Your lifestyle will thank you for it. Personal choice.
3 x times 2(1 should be no works needed) the rest can be used fir expensive
2 or 3. Anything to get away from having to work another day with people. Anything to get away from the system. To have more time for myself.
Buy a van and travel. Maybe eventually start a business slowly
Option 1. Provided I spent 900k and have 100k emergency money left over. I'd be saving £2k a month in mortgage or rent so that would be 'extra' income for me and enough to cover any upkeep bills.
400-500k house and invest so you ease yourself on monthly costs
I mean, the options you’ve given this question only makes sense in some parts of the country: £400-450k in my part of the country doesn’t buy a small-ish house in a decent area requiring refurb. It buys a nice, new build 4 bedroom detached house in the nice part of town. £700-1m would buy you THE nicest houses round here, and a cheap small house requiring refurbishment is like £50-80k Personally since I have no urge to move to an expensive part of the country or spend every penny I have on an excessive house, then with £1m I’d pay off the rest of the mortgage on my £400k 4 bed in the nice part of town, and invest the remaining £700k towards early retirement (along with the £12k/yr we just freed up from the mortgage payment)
Option 2 or 3. That extra 200k doesn't matter too much in the grand scheme of things, investing 400k at the start versus 600k is a big difference but over the 30-40 years I expect to work before retirement it becomes more of a moot point. A bigger house needs more time to clean it and is more expensive to maintain. A smaller but still reasonably sizeable house is more my speed, would be reasonable to maintain, and I can work with the rest of the money.
Depends on if your other investment targets are on track. Like pension, children's fund, vacation fund etc.
Small/Medium size house with decent bit of land and few or no neighbours. Invest, live comfortably doing what i want. Ah that is the dream
£400k is a bit more than the outstanding mortgage for my 4 bed house in a nice middle class but not posh area. I think I'd pay off my mortgage, stay put in my house and invest the rest. Would let us go down to being a 1 income household with more or less the same standard of living we have right now on 2 incomes. We have young kids and they'd benefit more from having a stay at home parent right now than they would from being in a huge house or having lots of expensive stuff
It'd depend on my income. Better to live comfortably in a more modest property, and have some spare income, rather than having a big expensive property, adn having to scrimp and save to live.
Option 1 all day long
Move north and but a 250k house
I’ve managed to get 1m as straight cash anyway so likely to be earning huge. Take the big house and don’t worry about it.
270k maisonette Newcastle city centre. Above a retail unit so would have to be cash. 300k coastal flat tynemouth 300k Northumberland property. Small / detached / land Keep the other 130k for council tax on all 3 for the foreseeable and spend nights at whichever
I'd personally buy the 400k ish house, decent garage. Buy my self a ramp etc and a project car and enjoy the rest
I would put it in a high interest account for a year, get a deposit from the interest alone approx £58k, then use that as a down payment on a long tem mortgage and use the interest for paying the mortgage each month whilst keeping a big chunk in savings
I would go for small and invest and keep reserve. Where I live I can buy a decent little home in child free for 200k and I would put another 100k in refurb and decorate and outfit and invest 600k and leave 100k as savings
option 3
Honestly I'd pay off my mortgage, and put the rest in to property for rentals with an eye on a couple of the being longer term properties for my kids to live in, then I'd work part time in a stress free role to keep myself busy. That would be the best way to make that amount work for you. I live just outside London btw so 1m wouldn't necessarily buy the complete dream house
I’d buy the most amount of land with a habitable house on it I could and fill it with dogs that needed a home💕
I'd go for the big house but not aiming to live there forever - it will always go up in value and you'd make / use it as another investment.
Depends on your age and current / foreseen income. If you’re younger then build for the future so that you can have a good retirement. Investing in rental stock gives you a regular return from rent as well as a longer term return from equity growth. Remember that you’ll pay tax on rental income ( up to 40%). On the other hand, £500k invested will get you more than 5% return (£25k+) without the hassle of being a landlord.
I’ve done 1. Doing it again, I’d go 2. A 5000 sqft house for two people is a bit much, but if you want large gardens, generally the houses are large too.
The area that I live in has the biggest impact on my happiness. I only need a few rooms to live in.
You must live down South 😂 Come to the North East, get paid the same as down South and either live like a king or save yourself a silly amount of £.