Reacting to UK house prices

I would love to own a historic British house. I would also love somewhere to put my winter coats. Browsing homes in Deal gave me plenty of character to admire, but a three-bedroom property with no built-in wardrobe anywhere was a reminder that those two wishes don’t always come together.

When my house-hunting video was published in May 2024, I’d lived in the UK for eight years and still wasn’t sure whether buying was possible. I’d lived in four places in Kent, where my partner is from, and I might have wanted to stay. This was an online browse of individual listings, though, and all the prices below belong to that browse. I wasn’t conducting a property survey or discovering today’s market prices.

Deal had the character

I started in Deal because I’d visited before and liked the cute homes on the coast. A two-bedroom Grade II listed cottage was advertised at offers over £375,000. I hate “offers over”. Just put the house price and let me move on. The little gate appealed to me immediately, and then I started looking at the ceilings, the tiny rooms and the owners’ many little statues.

Part of the attraction was the chance to live in a historic property, something different from the homes I knew in Canada. I wanted those unusual details. In older places I’d viewed, though, I’d often found small rooms and fewer windows, which could make them quite dark. This cottage sent me straight back to that tension between loving the character and wanting more space.

The next Deal house was £475,000, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. I liked the colourful exterior, small back garden, fireplaces and newly renovated bathroom. The kitchen wasn’t too narrow either, and its larger fridge was exciting. I’ve found fridges here tend to be smaller than what I’m used to.

Then there was storage. By a closet, I mean a wardrobe built into the structure of the house, the sort of thing I was accustomed to finding in Canadian bedrooms. This listing had clothes rails instead. I couldn’t find a coat closet by the door, a bedroom closet, a basement or a loft. I could imagine building something, but I’d have to get creative about where everything went. Living close to the sea sounded fun. £475,000 was still a lot to consider.

Manchester offered more rooms, then less room

A £275,000 Manchester terrace had four bedrooms and two bathrooms. The outside didn’t excite me much, but the interior had an open-plan layout, a decent-sized kitchen and another big American-style fridge. Some bedrooms had fitted-looking wardrobes, although that wasn’t quite the structural closet I meant. There was an en suite too. For what appeared to be included, the price sounded reasonable to me.

That judgement had a large qualification: I didn’t know the area. Looking at the map, it seemed some way out from the centre. I was enjoying snooping through people’s homes, as I used to enjoy watching House Hunters with my mum, but liking photographs wasn’t the same as knowing where I’d want to live.

The more central two-bedroom flat I looked at was £180,000 and only 577 square feet. It had a small kitchen, a dining table squeezed into a corner and two bathrooms, which felt like a lot of bathroom space in somewhere so tight. I liked the historical entrance, and I could imagine a single person using the second bedroom as an office.

Both my partner and I work from home, so office space was part of what we’d need. That made the room layout relevant in a way that an attractive entrance couldn’t fix. The flat might work for someone else, but I couldn’t ignore how tight it looked.

A laundry room was unexpectedly exciting

A detached three-bedroom property in Northallerton, advertised around £385,000, had something I hadn’t expected to get so excited about: a separate laundry room. There was a sink, storage and somewhere to fold things. I was used to laundry rooms in Canada, but hadn’t seen many among the British properties I’d looked at. Maybe that was simply where I’d been looking.

The pink carpet wasn’t my style, but the big garden and detached house appealed. Later, a one-bedroom York flat at £264,950 looked brighter and airier than the Manchester flat, with a balcony by the river, although it cost more for fewer rooms. I loved York from a rainy girls’ weekend, probably in 2018. After all the browsing, I wasn’t any closer to buying. I was just more confused, and still interested in lesser-known places with reasonable prices and decent internet.

Watch my online house hunt in Deal, Manchester, Northallerton and beyond.