How a third bedroom can cost families extra £45,000

EXPANDING Scottish families are having to pay out an extra £45,000 to upgrade from a two to a three-bedroom property, new figures have shown.

The average three-bedroom property north of the Border is £45,357 – about 40 per cent higher than the equivalent two-bedroom home, according to a report by HSBC.

The survey found that 60 per cent of parents have moved house as a result of having their first or second child, with 35 per cent moving from a two to a three-bedroom property, 11 per cent from a one to a two-bed and 13 per cent from a three to a four-bed.

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And Edinburgh has been ranked as the sixth most expensive place in Britain to acquire a third bedroom – with the extra cost coming in at £89,599.

Most of the other most expensive areas were close to London and elsewhere in the south of England.

In Aberdeenshire, the cost of a third bedroom is much more affordable – at an average of just £27,047.

“There are certainly many considerations to take when planning for your first child; however the second child seems to be catalyst for many families moving to a larger home which is often the largest financial outlay they will ever undertake,” said Bruno Genovese, head of savings at HSBC.

UK-wide, the additional cost of housing a second child is £59,500, with the average three-bedroom property costing 38 per cent more than a home with two bedrooms, the report claimed.

The additional cost of a third bedroom represents 1.6 times annual household income across the UK.

Neil Harrison, marketing manager at the ESPC, said parents can combat the cost of an extra bedroom by looking at alternative areas or moving further out of town.

“If you are living in a two-bedroom flat in Stockbridge or Comely Bank, but were happy to move to a three-bed in the suburbs, you’d be looking at a very small difference in price,” he said.

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“If, on the other hand, people want to stay in the area they are in, they are looking at a much more significant jump up the price ladder.

A lot of people who have started families move out of Edinburgh to East Lothian, or even parts of Fife. You hear of people who lived in Trinity, where prices are higher, who moved across the road to cheaper Warriston to get that third bedroom.”

He added: “It is a lifestyle change – for one thing, if you have kids, you might not need to be as close to the action in the city centre as previously.”

Other measures taken by parents with two children or more include buying a larger car.

More than half of all parents surveyed did this, potentially costing an additional £17,150.

One in ten families added an extension, costing an average £21,256, and 6 per cent said they had undertaken a loft conversion, with an average cost of £17,500.