Why on earth is their not a compulsory minimum bedroom size for new build properties?

[Skinnywhippet]

I recently looked around a show home in which one of the bedrooms couldn't actually fit an adult sized single bed. It me that is bizarre! Why was this house allowed to be marketed as 3 beds when it was clearly only really 2. I understand that new houses have small plots and gardens, but really, the stupid bedrooms really annoy me. There are so many different regulations on new houses, why not something simple like this to prevent a generation of matchbox sized houses.

[niceguy2]

I think there's enough building regs already. If the bedroom is too small then don't buy the house. You have a choice.

[HollyBerryBush]

Nothing new, my M&Ds 3 bed 1930's semi had 2 double bedrooms and a thing that in reality took a cot

[BikeRunSki]

That ^.

[BikeRunSki]

Meaning what niceguy2 said.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Why does a bedroom need to fit an adult-sized bed, though?

Surely it is useful for people who can't afford a big home, to be able to buy something that fits a couple of bunks.

[CloudsAndTrees]

There isn't a compulsory minimum size because there doesn't need to be. No one is forced into buying a house they don't like or that isn't suitable. Developers do it because they are in it for profit, and they can make more profit on a three bed house than they can on a two bed with a generous cupboard.

[Meglet]

There used to be didn't there? Parker-Morris standard or something (I remember mum talking about it recently). Not sure why it was scrapped.

[HollyBerryBush]

LDR not everyone wants to move hosue as children get older.

we chose this house because it had everything we needed. Why would I have bought a house that could only fit a 'couple of bunk beds' when my children are going to grow into young adults, need their own space and so forth?

I'm certainly not going to keep weighing out stamp duty and solicitors fees more than I have to because children happen to have a habit of growing.

You buy wisely and you buy once, is my motto.

[orangepudding]

I would expect a bedroom to at least fit a single bed in other wise it should be marketed as a nursery.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

I'm sure they don't, holly, but as someone who can't afford a house right now, the idea of cheap small houses being built doesn't seem all bad.

If you have the money to help everyone else buy once, feel free, of course.

[ditavonteesed]

well I have a victorian house and you would struggle to get a full sze adult bed into the 3rd bedroom so its not new, 3 bed has always meant 2 beds and a boxroom, youngest child gets the box room and you have t hope they dont get too tall

[unebagpipe]

Parker Morris standards no longer used- not sure why. Social housing has new build minimum house sizes, plus a criteria of furniture that must fit into each room. Without these the development is not eligible for government funding.

Private newbuilds different kettle of fish. Potential purchasers will vote with their feet I suppose!

[ReallyTired]

If you are buying house then you have a choice. However a certain percentage of new builds have to be put aside as social housing on sites in our area. I imagine that some poor family may well be told to put two teenage children in the cupboard box room because they are the same sex.

[wonkylegs]

There are compulsory standards for the public sector (housing associations) but the private sector is free to build whatever suits them.
Parker Morris Standards (60's) were originally for public housing it was then extended to housing in New towns and all council housing. Local Authorities did use them for guidance and many did adopt them as a minimum for all housing but they were scrapped in a bid to reduce housing costs and encourage private sector building.
It did get the housing industry going but it had consequences.

[MuddlingMackem]

Meglet Fri 05-Apr-13 21:19:05

There used to be didn't there? Parker-Morris standard or something (I remember mum talking about it recently). Not sure why it was scrapped.

[Itsjustafleshwound]

But then most of the new build places are so well staged that things that look obvious and able to fit don't.

I am always staggered at how little effort/thought actually goes into a major purchase like a house .... So many are reeled in by clever staging.

Unless you are a numbers and someone who is able to visualise and have "3d" thought, unless I actually saw a bare room, I wouldn't be able to tell the size even if there was a minimum ...

[HorryIsUpduffed]

People buy off-plan though and it is tricky.

There is a new development near us where the 4-bed houses can fit one double, one single, and two ... cots? What earthly use is that? Why not three actual bedrooms?!

If you can't fit a normal single and one other item of furniture in the room (wardrobe or cupboard of some description) then it shouldn't be able to be marketed as a bedroom.

On the other hand it is mad how many loft conversions can't be called bedrooms on a technicality.

It all makes RightMove porn more difficult

[zwischenzug]

Unfortunately in this country it isn't common practice to market properties based on floor space in m2 the way most other countries do, so builders can simply build an extra wall (actually making the place even smaller) and put £30k on the price for an extra 'bedroom'. It baffles me but there does seem to be a large supply of mugs who will pay the premium.

I used to live on a new build development, there were 5 bed houses there the same size and the 3 bed ex council house I live in now, with much smaller gardens (but 3x the price).

New builds in general are very small and cramped due to John Prescott deciding that all new developments must have a minimum number of dwellings per hectare, you'll also notice new builds have almost no storage space, and show homes often have specially chosen smaller furniture to make the place look bigger than it really is.

[EndoplasmicReticulum]

Houses do seem to be getting smaller again. Having said that my house was built in 1980 and one of our 'bedrooms' just about fits a single bed and nothing else.

My uncle lives in a house built in about 1700 and most of my family cannot stand up in his living room without hitting our heads on the beams.

[zwischenzug]

The UK actually builds the smallest new homes in Europe.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8201900.stm

And we still don't manage to build enough of these shoeboxes to alleviate the housing shortage (or even keep up with the deteriorating situation).

[toboldlygo]

My gripe with new builds is parking - every single one that's sprung up around here in the last five years doesn't allow for individual driveways, only communal parking areas with 1 to 1.5 spaces per house.

Aside from the rage inducing problems allocated parking spaces can bring, in my experience the vast majority of households with two working adults (and let's face it, without two working adults you can't get a mortgage) have a car each. Then when the kids grow up they have cars too, and stay at home for longer and longer because they can't buy a house of their own, and then you end up like all the small estates round here with cars blocking every road on both sides and people frothing with rage over parking disputes...

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Same or worse with plenty of older buildings, though. Our new place is Victorian terrace and has no parking, double yellow lines outside. I'd say shite public transport is an issue too - if you build a new, dense estate it should have bus links factored in as part of the planning permission.

[Tenacity]

The reason they do it is greed...Rip-off Britain

[catsmother]

I've always thought of a "boxroom" as being typically 6 feet square so at least you can get a single bed in - just. Many 1930s 3 bed semis had these. However, many newbuilds have rooms which you couldn't even get a single bed into ... I've seen them staged as some sort of study - where a small desk and chair was about all you could fit in apart from a bin, yet these places still claimed that room was a bedroom and charged accordingly.