{"id":13265,"date":"2026-04-13T16:14:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/13265\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:14:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:14:30","slug":"i-regret-buying-a-one-bed-flat-it-was-meant-to-be-a-stepping-stone-but-im-trapped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/13265\/","title":{"rendered":"I regret buying a one-bed flat. It was meant to be a stepping stone, but I’m trapped"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jo Barrie bought her one-bedroom flat in east London in 2018 through a shared ownership scheme<\/a>. Following the end of a long-term relationship \u2013 and living in a houseshare with three housemates and no living room \u2013 she decided it was time to get on the property ladder solo.<\/p>\n

Jo looked at what was on the market in her price range for a year, viewing 25 properties and putting offers in on 22 without any luck. She finally had her offer accepted on her current flat<\/a>; buying 25 per cent of the \u00a3330,000 one-bed. \u201cI was really happy \u2013 it was really exciting to have my own space.\u201d she says. But it wasn\u2019t too long before the shine wore off.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few weeks after I moved in, Grenfell happened [the fire in a west London tower block that killed 72 residents and prompted investigations into the building cladding used]\u201d. Jo then found out that her property too was covered in unsuitable cladding<\/a>. Her housing association is taking care of the cladding remediation, which they say will come at no cost to residents, and was meant to be finished by this year. But the start of the work has been delayed until 2027.<\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Jo has been facing rising costs to her service charge<\/a> which has risen from \u00a3460 to \u00a3640, and to her rent (paid to the housing association, which owns 75 per cent of her flat). As well as these costs, she says getting through to complain to the housing association is a challenge. \u201cYou can\u2019t get through on the phone. They have an online portal but when I spoke to them they said that doesn\u2019t work. So I\u2019m literally screaming into the void\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jo has long wanted to sell to escape these issues but she can\u2019t until the cladding work<\/a> is done. Prospective buyers would be unable to get a mortgage with the issue outstanding, so she would need a cash buyer. Even if she were to sell, she knows she\u2019s likely facing negative equity \u2013 a flat on the floor above, which was bought for the same amount at the same time as hers, was sold for \u00a320,000 less in January. \u201cThe risk of negative equity [at this point] feels insane,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"ONLY\u2018It was the right thing to do at the time, but not in hindsight,\u2019 says Jo (Photo: Teri Pengilley)<\/p>\n

Jo is just one of the many one-bed homeowners who have come to regret their purchase. What was meant to be a first step on the housing ladder, and even an investment in the future, has become a millstone around her neck. While stagnating house prices have affected properties across the board, the market for one beds has shrunk, particularly in major cities like London. According to Zoopla, more than 40 per cent of new homes currently on the market in the capital are one-bed flats. They make up just 33 per cent of first-time buyer demand.<\/p>\n

Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills UK, attributes this in part to changes in buyer demographics. The age of first-time buyers has been increasing (according to Halifax, the average age is 33 across the UK, two years older than a decade ago). Plus the financial barriers to buying mean that those that can afford to buy will likely be dual-income households \u2013 so two people needing space.<\/p>\n

These factors, as well as a shift to more working from home, means many buyers simply want more room than a one-bed can offer. Perhaps, as they are older than previous buyers they are also thinking more about options for family homes. \u201cWe have heard more stories of people trying to jump straight onto the second rather than the first rung of the housing ladder because they know it\u2019s more likely to meet their needs for a longer period,\u201d Cook says.<\/p>\n

\"LucianLucian Cook believes a change in buyer demographics has resulted in fewer first-time buyers looking for one-beds <\/p>\n

One beds, which are more likely to meet the needs of single-income households, were the last on-ramp available to many people like Jo who wanted to escape renting in HMO properties. <\/p>\n

Schemes like Help to Buy (active between 2013 and 2023) and stamp duty relief made available for shared-ownership buyers (introduced in 2017) made this easier in the 2010s and led to developers investing in new-builds and seeking to get the biggest return on investment by filling their buildings with smaller properties. But the market has dramatically shifted since then.<\/p>\n

There is now a glut of undesirable housing stock, leaving sellers at greater risk of negative equity. According to estate agent Hampsons, nearly 15 per cent of London homeowners were selling at a loss <\/a>in 2025. People who bought one-bed flats in the 2010s are now trapped with properties they can\u2019t shift.<\/p>\n

According to Santander in 2025, homeowners on average spend 4.5 years in their first property before moving up the housing ladder. This progression has been stymied by the housing market<\/a>, Cook explains. \u201cFirst-time buyers have had a period where there hasn\u2019t been very much house price growth, in some cases not seeing any in that typical five to seven years before you make the next move up the housing ladder,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

This is even harder for one-bed homeowners due to the nature of their property. \u201cGiven the one-bedroom product is typically going to be a flat or similar, you tend to find those are leasehold in nature and a lot are part of the new-build market,\u201d Cook explains. \u201cThat probably compounds some of the issues facing people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah* bought a one-bed in an 11-storey tower block in east London in 2022 and assumed it was only her first stop on the property ladder, but has faced an influx of fees for \u201cessential works\u201d since she moved in. \u201cI love the flat but there have been an awful lot of problems,\u201d she says. \u201cThe service charge<\/a> is expensive, which is particularly annoying because we bought brand new, you\u2019d think there\u2019s nothing to maintain.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the maintenance of everything has been very poor\u2026our lift has broken down over 100 times. The fire brigade has been out five or six times to extract people.\u201d<\/p>\n

She currently has a case with the Housing Ombudsman about her service charge, because they were given out-of-date affordability figures prior to purchase, meaning the charge jumped from \u00a3130 a month to \u00a3200 a month. \u201cAfter months of arguing with the council, they eventually confessed the figures were out-of-date and gave us a rebate of \u00a390.\u201d According to Hamptons, service charges jumped from an average of \u00a32,633 in 2024 to more than \u00a32,800 last year.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the stamp duty holiday and the low mortgage interest rate she secured, Sarah can afford (but begrudges) these unexpected charges. But she doesn\u2019t have high hopes about her ability to sell \u2013 a recent valuation suggested she might sell for \u00a350,000 more \u2013 but others in her estate are selling at the same price they bought their flats in 2022.<\/p>\n

\"AThe fire at Grenfell tower block in west London in 2017 shone a light on the issue of unsuitable cladding \u2013 used on many properties across London and the rest of the UK (Photo: James Manning\/PA)<\/p>\n

Jess Masters who bought a one-bed flat in Colchester, Essex, has also been bombarded with bill after bill for works in her building. \u201cI was a few months late paying my fees because I effectively didn\u2019t have the money. They were chasing me endlessly for payment via post.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt got to the point where they raised a CCJ [County Court Judgement] against me.\u201d As a chartered accountant, this meant she was under threat of losing her qualification. She had to borrow money from her dad and new partner to pay the sum of \u00a33,000.<\/p>\n

After the CCJ was dropped, she did whatever she could to get the property off her hands. \u201cAs well as costing me money, the amount of PTSD and stress it caused meant I was determined to sell,\u201d she says. Jess sold at a loss in 2022 (she bought for \u00a3138,000 in 2017 and sold for \u00a3131,000 in 2021) and says she has no plans to buy again. <\/p>\n

Jo, Sarah and Jess all regret their purchase but in different ways. \u201cI\u2019ve got lots of friends who say buying their first house was the best thing ever. For me, it was, without a doubt, the biggest mistake of my life. I do not want to own again,\u201d says Jess.<\/p>\n

Sarah, whose five-year fixed mortgage (at 2.8 per cent) expires next year, is considering returning to renting when the time comes, or even going on an interest-only mortgage to invest her money elsewhere. \u201c[If] I\u2019m not making loads of money on the flat, [I\u2019ll feel] better putting that money into a stocks and shares ISA,\u201d she says. \u201cI regret seeing this flat as an investment, I saw it as my starter home and then next is a two-bed \u2013 I\u2019m not really sure how possible anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jo is taking a different approach. \u201cWhen I was looking for this flat originally I would have bought anywhere, I just wanted to be out of the shared house,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was the right thing to do at the time, but not in hindsight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jo Barrie bought her one-bedroom flat in east London in 2018 through a shared ownership scheme. Following the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1416,6201,154,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-13265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-features","9":"tag-home-ownership","10":"tag-housing","11":"tag-london"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116398290517572729","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}