What was the craze for bungalows all about? and now, do they still build swathes of estates with bungalows?

[EleanorReally]

because now you tend to assume they house older people.
i lived in a bungalow as a child
do they only build occasional bungalows now?

I grew up in a bungalow, my mum is still there and now she has mobility issues it’s a godsend
It’s on a street of them, 70s estate, there’s a few other full streets of bungalows on the estate, she’s always getting letters through the door of people wanting a bungalow

Many older people can't deal with stairs but don't want to move into a flat with no garden. Bungalows are few and far between in many areas and tend to be snapped up very quickly when they do come onto the market.
They are expensive to build in terms of land though, as the plot is relatively big compared to a terraced house or even a block of flats. That's why we don't see many new build bungalows today.
In many places "ugly" 1960s bungalows are being converted into (or replaced by) a much larger house.

It’s down to land prices. A bungalow takes up a larger footprint than s three storey house. You’ll notice that there are a lot of three storey houses being built as well. Builders never used to build three storey houses because building regs for more than two floors made it unviable. If you wanted to build a four bedroom house it was cheaper to make a bigger footprint than go up. As land price increased the third floor became more viable.

Coincidentally we went to look at a house yesterday, built by a local company with a reputation for beautiful high quality houses. It was a lovely house in a desirable area and had the same amount of bedrooms as the one currently have. It was built on three floors and the all the bedrooms other than the master were a bit smaller than the ones we have now but there is no front porch, no landing space, no storage. The kitchen was the same size but looked a lot smaller and we have a second room of our kitchen we call the office but is actually the dogs room and it’s huge. The garden was a postage stamp.

Our house was built in 2001 and the council had Tree protection orders for all the trees and consequently there is tons of green space around the houses. The new space has the same tpo’s in place but the houses go as close to the trees as they possibly can and there’s a £500 a year maintenance fee for the estate.

Loved the house but it was at least £125k more than ours. To chop ten minutes off the drive to work and be in walking distance of a decent pub then it isn’t worth it.

so they built them in the 1950s'/60's as they were easy to build, only one level.?
bung a low roof on it?

I assume so; the relative cost of land versus construction has changed since then.

In New Zealand , where I live now, family homes were usually built on one level , so ‘ bungalows’ and most people I know don’t have any stairs.

I'd guess land is cheaper in NZ but also perhaps the greater tendency for earthquakes is a consideration?

There are lots in parts of Scotland. Where we visit they are almost the norm.

You find them dotted all over rural Ireland.
They are mainly self builds (inherited land causing lots of family fall outs 😪)
I believe it is easy to get planning permission for the build because they don't spoil the landscape view.
I grew up in a two story house but almost all my friends lived in bungalows.

I live on a new estate and both maisonettes and bungalows were built. There aren’t many of either, maybe 5 bungalows and 3 maisonette buildings but they are all located directly next to the primary school. I know that some of the bungalows are lived in by people who aren’t pensioners.

My parents have lived in a bungalow for 30 years. Very spacious,huge plot. My sister has bought one nearby. They've renovated the interior beautifully and are loving the large garden and toddler friendly living.

I have a bungalow due to mobility needs and my parents had mobility needs and needed to live with us to. How hard it was to find a bungalow for a family of six. We managed to find a five bedroom one with a two bedroom granny annex. All the other were one or two beds.

I love bungalows and would opt for one every time. I've lived in all sorts of houses from terraced "2 up 2 down" to a huge house with multiple reception rooms, pantries, laundry room and formal dining hall (dining 'room' doesn't cut it. It was massive) and my favourites have always been the bungalows. My last was a single level cottage where DH and I had our children. No worries about stairs and no kids thundering around above our heads making a racket either. I much prefer a bungalow than a house.
My friend lives in a new build bungalow but not a developer one. It's on a big plot and is very, very large. Something which developers don't like. The less square foot per house the better. I dislike many new builds because the rooms are quite often tiny and the drives are so tight that passengers have to disembark so the driver can pull fully into the drive against the house. Of course not the case for all but when we were looking the vast majority of reasonably priced ones were like that.

Very difficult to find bungalows nowadays.

They used to be popular as they tended to have bigger plot sizes. One of the reasons they aren't built by developers is it is a very inefficient use of land and with land prices as high as they are it doesn't pay to build them.

It's really difficult for those with disabilities. We'd love a bungalow but there just aren't any available.

There are lots in parts of Scotland. Where we visit they are almost the norm.

Which parts? "Scotland" is a big place, bungalows are not the norm in any of the many areas of Scotland I've lived in.

I live in a rural part of Scotland and we're in the process of moving into a bungalow. Our area has quite a few around the place. We're on the west coast.

I live in a bungalow and I love it. The kitchen / diner / lounge is open plan, so easy with young children as I could pretty much always see them.

They got used to noise fairly quickly too, so now they sleep through anything.

I drove through the outskirts of Cambridge the other say, whole villages of bungalow. T'was very odd!

Am trying to sell a three bedroom ungalow in the West Midlands if anyone's interested! I think the perception that they are for old people only puts a lot of people off.

I would love to live in a bungalow, esp a chalet/dorma (is there a difference?) bungalow. They tend to go for lots around here, plus only 3 beds and we need a 4 bed at least. Some of them have good sized gardens but a lot have tiny ones.

Love my bungalow.. lived in it for over 40 years.
My daughter had one till her family got too big and she needed a larger home.
Love the space in mine, especially since I put all pale laminate throughout..looks twice as big now

There’s plenty in my town in ne and in Sunderland there are swathes and swathes of streets that are all bungalows built for the ship building workers

We love living in a bungalow. Plenty of room downstairs and a decent garden, although not as big as I would like. At one stage someone put in one upstairs bed room with ensuite. I wouldn't want a "town house" on three floors, all that walking up and down, and if you're on the ground floor and you've left something on the top floor - what a faff!

Yes, it’s land values.
I think more bungalows were built after the war and for the next couple of decades in relatively urban environments, because there was a lot of land released by bomb damage, a housing shortage, and not a lot of money for expensive redevelopment. In my city, there were “temporary” post-war prefab semi-detached bungalows that survived into the 90s and beyond. Clearly much loved as there all had tiny front gardens with ornaments and pot plants and windmills and the like.

A small new estate near us has a row of bungalows

Also there has been quite a flurry of old ones on the market.

I love the idea of living in a proper bungalow, but couldn’t afford one

I’ve just checked Rightmove & there are 19 bungalows currently on the market (& another 6 SSTC) - some new-build, some old, some dormer style & some true.

There are at least 3 new estates offering bungalows 😮

what is wrong with flats for accessible living?
surely that would give the benefit of single story living without using much floorprint?
lifts are a great invention.

I love bungalows/ flats when it comes to cleaning! No lugging the hoover up and down the stairs! I think if I lived in a townhouse/3 story I would get lazy with cleaning. Not many bungalows around me though!