Have you given any thought to also apportioning 2 or 3 rooms into a self contained living space with stand alone entrance? You could then rent this area of the house and avail of rent-a-room relief. This would generate a nice income stream for years to come.
Downsizing to a bungalow
- Thread starter Sunnygirl69
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No you wouldn't be crazy. I've done it myself and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. So I'm all for downsizing based on the facts you presented, I don't see an issue with you upgrading the bungalow to bring it up to your standards, I'd focus on insulation too. At my age I want a place that takes less work, where I don't fret about empty rooms and the cost of heating them never mind cleaning them. Both my parents, individually also downsized, from very big houses, I hadn't realised that until I started writing this. It was the best decision for both of them as no children were at home. They wouldn't have been able to manage a large property. It's not when you are 60 you have to worry about it's when you're getting to 70. Also now that I think of it, both my grandmothers were the same, one went into a bungalow, the other was in a large house but neither she nor my grandfather went upstairs as they could not, so they stayed downstairs for the last 20 years and they had no bathroom, only an outside toilet on the ground floor level. When you get over 60, you are highly unlikely to want to move, so yes, move now.
The government should not incentivise the wealthy. You can well afford to downsize. What the government should do, particulary in Dublin and other large cities is encourage decent apartments for downsizers. If they built quality and I mean quality, apartments then older people rattling around in 4 bed houses would move.
Could you link us to that proposal please, I'd like to have a look at it. (it's very healthy to have people walk places, keeps them living longer, council is ridiculous)
I've gotton rid of so much stuff it's unbelievable. Stuff that I don't need and stuff the children don't need which they wanted me to keep forever. They each had to learn to only keep 'stuff' that they really cared about. Not what they wanted to keep, which was everything. Even had arguments about which pictures and paintings I would bring.
Annieindublin
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My parents thought about downsizing but didn’t. Now it has been useful to have extra rooms for us to stay over during their many illnesses, but one spare room not 3 would be fine. They have a downstairs bedroom and bathroom and made it all accessible. The garden is becoming a nightmare. Their house has 2 1970s extensions with dangerous steps but they are used to that and manage with handrails and ramps. It’s expensive to heat but they are ok financially so just pay up and grumble.
What stopped them a few years ago was the reluctance to move to a “lesser” house without getting a dividend from the move. IMO The dividend would have been a better more accessible living space and a garden they could manage a decade later. Now they are worried about bills and stressed over a garden going wild. They can throw some money at the problems of course, lucky them, so a worry about not getting a dividend years ago has now turned into chucking their savings into maintenance and bills.
I think we will be in a better place, we’ll have less cash to chuck around but won’t have the bills and wild garden to fret over.
What stopped them a few years ago was the reluctance to move to a “lesser” house without getting a dividend from the move. IMO The dividend would have been a better more accessible living space and a garden they could manage a decade later. Now they are worried about bills and stressed over a garden going wild. They can throw some money at the problems of course, lucky them, so a worry about not getting a dividend years ago has now turned into chucking their savings into maintenance and bills.
I think we will be in a better place, we’ll have less cash to chuck around but won’t have the bills and wild garden to fret over.
While possible in certain areas and for certain types of property, it's very difficult to get planning to achieve this in most areas unless the property is suitable for conversion into two stand-alone dwellings.
Yes of course you can do this. The house sounds totally unfit for your next decades and you should be aiming to be comfortable. I was sent a video of a new built 3 bed bungalow yesterday which cost 275K to build. If you are going to do this you should do it now. Where you begin is get a good builder in to give you an idea of what is possible. Based on your large size I'd aim for a 3 bed house, with a side granny flat all done with top finishes, the best insulation and heating. Your aim should be south facing and if that means putting the front door to the side of the house than do it, I don't get the Irish obsession with front doors facing the street.
The 3 bed was 3 doubles, full bathroom including stand alone shower, a full utility (not with a dreaded toilet attached), 2 en suites (we thought that was stupid) storage, guest wc, kitchen, living, dining (thought they made it a tad too small for a 3 bed, and not an L shape, so my concern there was there was no 'space' for people to get away from each other, versus an L with folding doors, so you can divide off a room.
If you do build can you start a thread now on it and show us a pen and paper plan of it. Definitely I'd put sun orientation at the top of priorities. For living areas, not bedrooms, and I'd future proof it, so wheelchair size doors and bathrooms designed for older people but done so nicely it won't be noticed. The aim of the granny flat is to give you a) tax free cash b) an option to have a live in help later c) to feel safer d) why waste the space
So : Water Ireland, Esb networks, the HSE, Transport Ireland, Fisheries Ireland, Health and Safety were all written to by the council. They tthen write back and made a comment if necessary. But there seems to be only one objection from a lay person, for a woman. And she lives next door. Objections were it's a rural area, the football pitch lights would interfere with her light, traffic increase ..............
There's a report from the Council Transport people who agree that it will cause problems for traffic, something about Vulnerable Road Users (what is that?)
The planning is for bungalows for elderly people, a football five a side pitch and a creche, which sounds lovely to me.
There are 6 grounds for refusal.
a) zoning (it's an expanding town needing housing so I didn't really understand it) but the areas is zoned community and educational.
b) location is too far away for the elderly !
c) same as b) but now it's because the creche and football pitch would be too far away from Kildare town (does this mean a football pitch should be beside the main street? Laughably the report mentions that is it a 'remote' location.
d) Kildare hates cars and wants nobody to use a car, rural location mentioned again
e) rural location, and they are very insistant on bicycle lanes and footpaths (isn't that up to the council?). I've no idea but there isn't a hell of a chance at my age I'd get on a bicycle in Kildare, Dublin maybe which has actual bicycle lanes.
f) layout is bad they say, they think the choice of finishes are low quality
So for us older people they want us all living next to the main street so we use bicycles. Anyone know where this nirvana is in Kildare town? That is less than 1.5 km from town center?
And the funny thing is it is next to a nursing home.
It is about 800m from a Central shop and there are no traffic issues at that point.
Hopefully ABP will give it the go ahead.
The changes that can be carried out to a building without the need for full planning permission are defined under Exempted Development. See here / here.
Developments like the creation of a separate unit like a granny flat or the addition of external doors are not exempted, and so a full planning application would need to be submitted in advance. In many cases where granny flats do get permission, it is based on the medical need of a family member and a condition is attached forbidding the renting out of the unit.
In terms of the Rent a Room scheme there may also be an issue around dedicated external doors into the separate unit?
Revenue rules state "The rented room or rooms can be a self-contained unit within the house, such as a basement flat or a converted garage"
What type of residence qualifies?
This page explains what properties are required to benefit from rent a room relief.
www.revenue.ie
External doors in themselves are not an issue there, just ensuring that rent a room is just that, a room and not a stand-alone, fully separate dwelling.