Thinking of upsizing? Here’s what you need to know

When things get a little too cramped at home, it can lead to stress. If you’re stepping on each other’s toes, you clearly need more space. Building out isn’t always an option with a young family because it takes time and can even make your living quarters more cramped temporarily.

That’s when upsizing becomes attractive. A bigger home, more room to grow into, and a fresh place to live proves change isn’t all bad! Here’s what you need to consider about upsizing before you make the move to buy a larger home on the Gold Coast:

More space could lead to more spending

Your current furniture fits into your space perfectly right now, but what if you had 100 square metres more floor area to fill? You can’t just spread your lounge suite out a lot and you shouldn’t put large pieces of furniture like the dining table in the middle of a room where it really doesn’t suit. You need to fill the space with new furniture or art or decorations to make it feel less like a deserted expanse, and that can lead to shopping sprees.

These aren’t a negative thing (especially if you know what you want to buy before you head out) but they can be expensive. Plus, if you don’t have a clear image in mind about what you want for your new, larger home, you could end up buying a whole lot of furniture that doesn’t work well together, or that doesn’t fit with your existing style.

After likely spending more on your larger home, you don’t want to be forced into purchasing a huge amount of extra furniture to fill a space. Be careful that you don’t buy too big or that you don’t blow your budget on expensive extras when there are much more affordable options on the market!

Avoiding overspending is the key, and it can help you to make your new home your own without the stress of going over budget.

Utilities bills will increase

When you’re heating, cooling or lighting a larger space, you will use more electricity. That’s just a fact. There’s more area to heat up in the winter and cool down in the summer, plus you’ll have more lights in each room. You won’t necessarily use more water or gas for cooking, but a dramatic increase in electricity usage could hurt your budget.

Living on the Gold Coast is brilliant, but it has a unique climate you need to deal with – especially if you have kids. They might be more sensitive to heat or cold than you are, so a central air-conditioning unit is a must. You might only use it on the hottest days in the summer or the coldest days in the winter, but in a larger area it needs to be more powerful.

The upside is that your home will feel lighter and cooler because you have more room to spread out – upsizing takes some financial consideration, but if you can make it work it can significantly improve your lifestyle.

Bring on the maintenance

It’s only fitting that more home means more maintenance. You’ll have more light bulbs to change, wall scratches to paint over, plumbing to sort out and maybe even a larger outdoor area to control. When you upsize your Gold Coast home, you’ll have more room to not be in everyone’s hair, but you may also have less time to relax because you’ll have to be outside sorting the weeds or trimming back all the bushes in spring.

As much as there will be more work to do, you might have more young family members to help you get those pesky weeds out of the vege patch. Make gardening and maybe even pool cleaning a family chore and it won’t take nearly as long, you’ll teach your kids about maintaining their own home, and it’s a good family bonding time.

It might be time for your family to upsize into a new home. For more information about the process and for help selling your existing property, contact Ray White Surfers Paradise today.