Why is housing in the U.K. so shit?

In most other countries, people live in well designed flats. Here a lot of people believe you NEED a house with a garden.

I live in a flat and I wish I had more storage. It's badly designed

If only the older houses weren't so hideously ugly. I mean the cookie cutter new builds are certainly ugly as well but I have spotted a few here and there that are actually architected well and look nice. Very, very hard to find though.

I'd happily live in a flat if I didn't have to hear other people. I'm autistic and just cannot cope with the noise in most flats.
I lived in a lovely little flat for years with very quiet neighbours. It was perfect for me. (I was lucky that I had use of the loft as I was on the top so storage was good. Plus had a detached garage round the side).
I would happily have lived there forever. But new neighbours moved in who were unbelievable. The kids would scream all hours of the day and night. Bounce balls on their wooden floors for hours. Pound up and down. It felt like my whole flat was vibrating with noise. Obviously I understand this is normal household noise so I never complained. But my autism means I just can't live with it. I was becoming almost suicidal at times. I would have to go out walking alone in the middle of the night when the noise got too much. (And in the area I lived that wasn't particularly safe).
So in the end I had to save and buy a detached house. It's far too big for what I need. And as many people on MN point out would be much more useful for a family. But what can I do? Unless they build flats with amazing soundproofing I just cannot cope in one.
I also now need to use my car much more whereas in my flat I was closer to public transport which I would prefer.
So building more flats would in theory be good. But they need to be decent. Soundproofed. With storage. Throwing up thousands of terribly built tiny flats with no storage and paper thin walls will help no one.

We bought our first house last year (1950s build). New builds were a big no no for both of us. The builders/property developers are trying to throw up as many houses on a plot of land as possible and as fast as possible. In other countries, they let the foundations settle for a few years before they start the build. Here they just chuck them up and then you get the problems.
When we were looking, I was in a Facebook group and someone had asked peoples opinions on 2 houses, one an older
house and the other was a new build. The amount of builders that work on new builds told her to stay clear of the new build and admitted that they would never buy one.

@HandsDown84 I find that the damp/mould thing is another one of those weird UK housing issues. Love a basement but I wouldn't trust one in this country to not be wet and a bit shit. In 20 years living in Germany, I had not one flat or house that has damp or mould. Not in the basement, or elsewhere. I have lived in the UK for 15 years now and I haven't had a single house that doesn't have a damp and mould issue. I heat and air out regularly, just like I did in Germany. Houses are just shit quality here.

You need to go a lot deeper for a basement and then it requires tanking, which is expensive. People also worry about damp/mould.

Much cheaper to whack on a third floor like in my townhouse!

Try New Zealand. Minimal insulation, no central heating, double glazing is just two sheets of glass with no thermal break and if you want to live near civilisation you're looking at at least half a million in English money. Oh and add the leaky buildings debacle from the 2000s. 😱 UK buildings look positively robust to us these days.

Why don't UK houses have basements? The builder has to dig down 4 or 5 feet for footings and foundations, and then either use poured concrete or breeze blocks up to ground level. Most of the work is already done to create a basement.

It would add so much utility to a house, even if it wasn't full height (our basement is only 6' 8" high) We use it for a furnace/hot water tank, workshop, utility room, and a big "living room" with a TV.

(Note, I am not a builder, maybe I'm missing something.)

British people care too much about the number of bedrooms rather than the overall square footage.
the amount of times I’ve heard people say they “created” another bedroom by dividing the biggest room, ending up with 2 small to tiny ones…. But thinking their house should be worth more now….

The trouble is that so many blocks of flats here are just plain awful. They're ugly, cramped and never have enough parking. Moreover, the local amenities are never taken into consideration - are there enough schools, doctors, dentists etc to service all these extra people? Can the road infrastructure cope? It's usually just a mess.

There are lots of brownfield sites in the city where I live that could be used for lots of housing. I suspect the problem is that it’s more expensive to build on, not always in the locations that are most attractive to buyers. It’s great to see some being used though, and Victorian industrial buildings being converted back into use as places to live.

There's an awful lot of areas which are unsuitable for growing food, but could be adapted to sustain property with a bit of effort.

If they built houses right then they would be sustainable.
Many 2 bed new builds have just one living space. With kitchens are too small for a table. The expectation is four people have to share that space regardless of the fact work, eating, relaxing and watching tv , can't all be shared easily in one small room.
Anyone that visits also has to spare that space. I remember friends dropping by unexpectedly when I had family over for lunch. They came straight in the back gate and there we all were. There was no where to seat them, we were halfway through lunch and it was really sad that they just had to leave again. Decent housing and I could taken them into the kitchen for a cup of tea and let the rest finish lunch.
Its pathetic design given the cost of architects.

Affordable and sustainable.! That's what kills modern housing.

And we need those thousands of acres to grow food!

And no we are not going to carve up the one thing that makes this country incredible. Seriously!

It’s called the green belt.

There are millions of acres in the UK on which to build. Huge swathes of it. Have a look at Google maps satellite . . .

Later?
Meant better eg solar grants & must haves in new builds etc

1. Greed
2. Greed
3. Government making greed the priority not building enough of every type and not putting in place regulations that would help the country as a whole later because.....greed.

Because we don’t want lots of neighbours and everybody wants outdoor space, it’s the English man’s castle idea!

Poor noise insulation. People like to have a garden of their own. And leasehold, leasehold, leasehold. Pretty much all flats in England are leasehold, I think. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-68904124

I agree with everyone. It's as much design as it is space.

The problem with this is that whilst you are a couple new builds are doable and possibly with small kids. And then they grow and new build 2 or even 3 beds are just not workable. And a whole glut of people needing older properties that they can make forever homes.
New builds end up being rented out by investors because no one actually wants to buy them to live in themselves. Renters have no choice - it's what ever is available whilst they save enough to buy.

Government policy should reflect what a pp said And perhaps an attitude of a house is a home not a financial investment.

Unfortunately true, most newer houses have been built on a small plot of land with little space inbetween. With that comes small, boring square gardens and what should be larger rooms partitioned to make extra toilets. There is no comparison between older houses and new ones. Xx

This