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

I would rather have more living/storage space than more bathrooms. Our three bed 1930’s semi has two bedrooms that swallow a king size bed and have plenty of room for other furniture and one has built in cupboards. The third bedroom will easily fit a single bed and a corner wardrobe. In terms of storage there is a large airing cupboard in the bathroom and another huge cupboard on the landing. We also have an under stairs coat and shoe cupboard and another cupboard beside it. Downstairs we have three big rooms - we replaced the manky old conservatory that was there with a proper garden room. I can see that in a larger family home an additional shower room might be handy but I loathe en-suites.

The point is that it shouldn’t need to be a choice. Times have moved on from families sharing bathrooms.

One bathroom for inhabitants of three bedrooms is simply not enough. Unless you are still living in the 40. At the same time, storage is a must.

For a property to be "affordable" someone has to take a hit. None of the parties profiting from the venture are willing to take a hit. They're used to a certain level of profit & they want to hang onto it.

We looked at newbuilds last year, after years of pouring money into an old house. They were all tiny, squashed in, with outrageous uncapped and unregulated 'service charges' which is a massive scam. Fortunately we found a house in a development of just 7, on the edge of a village, built by a local builder who lives in one of them. The house is spacious and well built, with low energy bills. This is how it should be, not the huge soulless estates with crappy houses and everyone on top of each other. We were lucky. Re flats, agree it makes more sense but for me the noise issue is the problem, would have to have extremely good sound insulation which I guess would eat into scumbag developers' profits.

Because so much time and effort is spent just trying to get the bloody houses built that there's no resourcing left to advocate for the people who will live in them to make sure they're the best possible homes.

I'm not sure why there needs to be a downstairs toilet, a family bathroom and an ensuite in a tiny 2/3 bed new build. We manage with one bathroom and toilet in our 3 bed council house. I'd much rather have storage or extra space in the rooms.

Also the houses marketed s 'affordable really aren't for those on a single min wage income.

Hear hear.👍

Of course, you are not meant to say that, it goes against the grain.😉

My best place was an ex council house
Porch with tiled floor for wet feet, with two huge storage cupboards
Storage space under stairs
Kitchen to dining room open plan, separate lounge and downstairs toilet
Upstairs had 2 solid sized bedrooms and a smaller box room, good size bathroom
One huge storage cupboard on the landing and an airing cupboard fitted out with racks and clothing rails. Plus a loft

The estate agent said it was a tardis!

I hear you 🫡

Everything in the UK is shit.

Back in 2013 we rented a flat in one of those shiny, brand new developments for the grand price of £1000 pcm (excluding all bills and utilities). It wasn't even on a big city, a medium one I'd say. We needed to move ASAP and this was the best of the worst. The flat had one massive bedroom, with ensuite, another enormous bathroom, a tiny (and I mean tiny) bedroom and an open space kitchen/living room. No balcony and lovely views to... a car park. Very minimal storage, so we ended using the small spare room. The flat was unbearably hot even in winter. We moved out 2 years later.

Now I live in Norway in one the big(ish) cities and we pay the equivalent of £1600 for a house with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a balcony, a woodburner, a big garden, big kitchen, garage for storage and a basement with another bedroom and storage space. And all bills included! All! Walking/cycling distance to everything and plenty, of public transport around. The difference is abysmal.

I don't think people understand how onerous and expensive the planning system is. Councils make it as difficult and as expensive as possible to build houses. Whilst the land building companies hold may be worth £££ the profit per sq ft is actually very low.

I don't agree with cutting corners but any new build will have been inspected and signed off by the council.

Great news, @Arewealljustloosingtheplot . I’m not against new builds. It’s nice to move it to fresh, newly done house.

It’s both. Land “owned” by aristocrats kept useless in order to shoot living creatures on is feudal.

Land purchased and held deliberately to raise its value before carving it into the smallest possible units, building the shittest possible housing on and selling at the maximum possible price is capitalist.

Treating land and housing as an investment rather than a place for people to find sanctuary is a dogshit way to run a country.

My new build house ( 2 years old) is absolutely glorious. We looked at tonnes of houses of all ages and it’s the best and biggest by miles for the money.

i have no idea why Mn hates new builds, so many people here complaining they are cold in the winter, they can’t afford the refurbs etc. None of that in a new build - something broken in the first two years? Not your problem -‘the developers problem. 10 years structural? Not your problem.

cheap to heat, easy to maintain. It’s a joy.

I thought the problem with land was feudalism not capitalism..?

Its also trend driven our house is relatively recent but of a time where multiple small rooms were better than open plan. We will be opening it up. With new builds the instagram trend is for dressing rooms hence the tiny 4th/5th/6th bedroom it is meant to be a dressing room.

I would never buy a house without a garden so flats are out for us.

We rent a 1930s bungalow and there is zero storage in the bedrooms also

It’s also the planning regs. I live in a bungalow built on a brownfield site in the countryside. It was a one off build and had to be on the same footprint and the wooden building it replaced. If it could have been a bit wider in places it would have been great. The layout is just wrong and there’s no storage and not enough toilets!
im putting storage in but can’t do much about the layout or toilets without rebuilding the inside.

My grandparents lived in a flat in Switzerland. 2 flats per floor and in the corridor in between the flats was a huge lockable cupboard for storage. They had attic and cellar space, as pp's have said. And those spaces were a good size in that you could go in and walk around. So while the flat itself didn't have huge amounts of storage, it was fine. It used to feel like a bit of an adventure when my grandmother would send me to fetch something!

I think one of the problems here with that concept is that people would just break in and take things. That's the sad reality. So anything you stored would have to be stuff you weren't too fussed about losing if it came to it. Plus it would probably cost more to insure things kept in communal areas.

You should see the new builds in Finland, they are just chefs kiss

Too much nervousness about service charges, cladding, leases.

This. People want a freehold so would rather have a pokey 2 bed right on the street than a spacious 3 bed flat. I look at flats on rightmove quite a lot because we will be downsizing in a couple of years, then I panic about dodgy leases and astronomical service charges and end up looking at houses.

We could do with a ton of investment in brownfield sites in towns to make desirable, family friendly flats that you could actually raise your kids in without tripping over your stuff.

Most European houses have. UK flats, and houses, really lack storage and people have to use their garage if they have one.

But I disagree about bathrooms we have a full bathroom plus en-suite and downstairs loo, the minimum I would consider for a house sleeping 4-6 people

We have a fairly new house (15 years) and it's very well built and designed, plenty of space for storage etc but it's 3 floors, ideal for older kids but not for younger ones. They do exist but not cheap, ours is to higher eco standards as a demonstration project we were told by solicitor.