Owning your own home

Interesting Guardian article. Always slightly worrying when your area is used to illustrate a potential property bubble :/

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/14/britain-housing-bubble-house-prices?commentpage=1

Does it make more financial sense to buy a one bed with a small mortgage, or buy a two bed with a maxed out mortgage and rent out the spare room?

It depends. If you're definitely fine with having a lodger it can make sense, but bear in mind there is a big premium for two beds when what you should primarily be thinking about is square feet/metres.

Pokey two beds with the same square footage as big one beds always go for more, which doesn't really make any sense.

You could always do what we did: buy a one bed with potential for extension (via the cellar in our case) to a two bed.

Of course you may not be able to afford that on your own, in which case the lodger scenario makes more sense.

We know a couple who are buying a three bed which needs a lot of work, they're going to do it up then rent out the other two rooms. I wouldn't do that personally, but financially at least you can't fault their logic.

It seems that an identical flat to mine, but on the ground floor (I'm on third) had just been advertised at 15pc above what I've paid - and I haven't even moved in yet. I highly doubt they'll get that much, and it may just be a fishing attempt, but things feel like they're going a bit silly at the moment.

You say that but if you're in a hot spot it's quite possible, see the comment at the bottom of that article!

Yes in my case. I think it varies place to place.

Yup. Some just have the garden to themselves, sometimes it will be a shared freehold (so you share access to the garden with another flat, but there is no 'dividing line' - ours is like this), sometimes the garden will be split in two with an often imaginary line. A private garden is best, obviously, but as with everything you've got to look at the bigger picture.