Why are new builds teeny tiny?

[Baptiste11]

Went to view a new housing estate yesterday and had a look round the show home. Well. It was tiny. It was a 3 bed semi with parking for 2 cars but inside I could not believe the room dimensions.

The kitchen/diner had a small table and chairs in, the lounge was so tiny it only had a small two seater and an armchair. The family bathroom had no window and was tiny. The master bedroom did have a small fitted wardrobe but the other two bedrooms had no wardrobe space and were furnished with only a bedside table and dressing table - no room for a chest of drawers etc

For the price of what was obviously meant to be a family home I couldn’t believe how small it was. The thought of spending lockdown in the tiny living room made me shudder. There was also nowhere anyone could work from home - no room for a desk and chair.

How do developers get away with building such tiny properties?

Apparently most of the development is sold out & there is a waiting list for the next phase!
And you have to pay a service charge and a grounds fee every year (which they can increase whenever they want) just for the pleasure of living there!

A new estate has just gone up near me and I feel very sorry for anyone having to pay insane prices (and we are in a cheaper part of the country but it's still madness) just to be cramped up like that. I think especially first time buyers or anyone coming from a flat won't realise how quickly they will outgrow it and be miserable (namely, soon as you attempt to furnish it)

In my local area, the new builds were snapped up by buy to let landlords.

Virtually all houses have been rented out and aren't being lived in by the owners.

One house is owner occupied. They haven't stopped extending. There is always a skip or a pallet of building materials on their drive.

It baffles me that they insist on shoe horning toilets in every space possible, leaving no storage space.

A friend rented a 2 bed new build; it had a toilet that was IN the kitchen! As in a door to the living room, and to the left of that door, another door, to a toilet. Who the fuck is EVER going to use that toilet? Meanwhile there was nowhere to put coats and shoes.

Each bedroom had an en-suite shoe horned in too; there was barely enough space for a double bed and a set of drawers!

@NoNotYou In Pocklington just outside of York, we needed a big house so loved out of York, where we used to live (20 minutes away) the same developers have another site where the same house as ours is selling for 150k more!

I live in one and its spacious, literally everyone who comes in says oh its bigger than I thought, these places are often shoe boxes etc. It won new build of the year. They do exist.

@GetTaeFuck

It baffles me that they insist on shoe horning toilets in every space possible, leaving no storage space.

A friend rented a 2 bed new build; it had a toilet that was IN the kitchen! As in a door to the living room, and to the left of that door, another door, to a toilet. Who the fuck is EVER going to use that toilet? Meanwhile there was nowhere to put coats and shoes.

Each bedroom had an en-suite shoe horned in too; there was barely enough space for a double bed and a set of drawers!

I bought a 3 bed, 4 bathroom new build.

On 3 floors. An enquire, a house bathroom on top floor. Just a the toilet on the middle floor and a full bathroom on the ground floor.

Really baffled me. We did quite a bit of work and shuffled the layout, quite a bit.

I agree, it’s ridiculous. There is a price premium for new builds compared to older houses that is wholly undeserved. When we were buying we could have got a smaller house for more money and worse transport connections if we had gone for a new build. We bought a 2 bed but the new build 3 beds were the same square footage, just smaller rooms. The only reason to buy a new build is if the only way you can afford to buy is through a buying scheme IMO.

How do developers get away with building such tiny properties?

Because they can, in short. People keep buying (because they have limited choice and poor housing stock to choose from, in some cases), so developers keep throwing them up. I don’t think it’d change unless the market shifted or the gov’t instituted minimum space standards, and I don’t rate the chances of either happening in my lifetime.

When we bought our first home ten years ago we looked at a Persimmons new build 3 bed semi and couldn't get over how tiny it was. We ended up buying a 3 bed semi ex LA round the corner for 100k less than the new build, but around 1.5 times the living space and twice the garden space.

@PattyPan

I agree, it’s ridiculous. There is a price premium for new builds compared to older houses that is wholly undeserved. When we were buying we could have got a smaller house for more money and worse transport connections if we had gone for a new build. We bought a 2 bed but the new build 3 beds were the same square footage, just smaller rooms. The only reason to buy a new build is if the only way you can afford to buy is through a buying scheme IMO.

I bought new builds and looked this time for specific reasons. Mainly, the selling if the house I had.

I ensured they were markey value. But it made the process alot easier.

First time it was an empty house because I had loved areas for work so put it up for sale and stayed with friends til I found somewhere.

That housebwas sold during divorce and I bought where I am now. For several reasons I think it will take a long time to sell. But I absolutely can not move into the new builds that are available.

Split of land was sold nearby and planning permission for 3 large houses was granted. No space for a garden left for any of them.

One of the houses has been built and there is no way two more can be squeexzed onto the plot. It will look awful.

As it stands, the house that has been built would be lovely if the land to the side of it became it’s medium sized garden and drive.

Hoping the developers have a change of heart.

Does anyone know what the sound insulation is like in a new build? I imagine it’s not great…,

@VariantL1130

When we bought our first home ten years ago we looked at a Persimmons new build 3 bed semi and couldn't get over how tiny it was. We ended up buying a 3 bed semi ex LA round the corner for 100k less than the new build, but around 1.5 times the living space and twice the garden space.

We bought a ‘60s house after looking at new builds a stones throw away.

Our house is much more spacious than the ones being sold for exactly the same price.

HOWEVER, they have risen in price far more than ours over the last 18 years.
Ours approx 300k - the ‘new’ builds are now 400K.

I would have hated being squashed into one over the last 18 years but financially the new build would have been a better investment 😡

I agree.
and the furniture is sometimes a lot smaller than standard furniture. we saw a place where the 'single' bedroom only fitted a toddler bed (160cm) but was made up to look like a standard single with adult looking bedding.
take a tape measure!

I also don't understand why in 3 bedroom places the bedrooms are such dirfferent sizes. so unfair for whoever ends up with the smallest room.

Because the more you fit in, the more you sell. It's just pure greed. Many years ago we visited a newish housing estate to view a house to buy. It was so tiny...if I stood in front of it and held out my arms, that was virtually the width of it. It was like a doll's house. People are drawn in by new builds...it's all modern and shiny and clean but I'd never buy one.

I generally agree and think the problem is getting worse in certain areas. We bought new back in 2009 on a very small development and feel rather lucky compared to most new builds we see today. We have a town house and all rooms have built in war robes enough space for king sized beds if needed. The other issue is the smaller gardens but space is obviously a premium and so I understand that you’re only going to get a massive garden with an older house.

What I always find is the hallway is huge compared to the other rooms.
Went into a showroom once with a friend and found myself thinking if you just removed that wall and pushed that wall back 18” I find myself reorganising the layout to get rid of the wasted space and make the most of what’s there.
When the sales woman asked what I thought of the show house, I replied it needed too much work.
My friend was trying not too laugh and the woman’s face was a picture 😀

I also find there is no storage, no wardrobes and nowhere to put your stuff.

Did stay for 1 night in a new build Airbnb. Quite a big house that you could tell they had paid extra for the built in wardrobes

Problem was there was supposed to be a tv aerial in all of the bedrooms but you couldn’t plug an aerial in as they had fixed the wardrobes over the aerial plug hole and in some rooms you could see plug holes but they were 3/4 covered by these fitted wardrobes.
It was a 5 bed town house. My friend has a similar size and layout in her house except ground floor in hers is a kitchen diner.
Lounge bathroom and 1 bedroom on the first floor and 2 further bedrooms and bathroom on the 2nd floor.
This had a kitchen dining, and living room on the ground floor where only a 2 seater sofa and small table could fit (this was potentially for 10 people. More than 2 was a squeeze) and then divided what would have made a good size living room on the first floor to make 3 bedrooms on the first floor.

You could find snagging points all over and we were supposedly the first guests.

Don’t get me started on where they put the radiators

I love my ex council 40s built house. Only one toilet but the room sizes! And a huge huge back garden, driveway and front garden. Plus it's solid as a rock - all the internal walls are brick or breeze block so the sound insulation is great.

It's nowhere near as pretty as a new build but it's so much better to live in. When we extend on a few years time we'll be able to put a 4m extension across the whole of the back of the house, have a downstairs loo, the downstairs will be enormous, and we'll still have twice as big a garden as most new builds.

If we had more money we could go into the loft as well, but that's unlikely to happen due to funds.

Would never look at a new build.

Such a shame.
There’s a 1920s/1930s estate near us, council originally. Such lovely wide roads abs big verges, decent gardens. It’s got a real feeling of space.
And in America the wide streets and generous plots of their new developments.
But of course land there is so much more available.

I love my ex council 40s built house. Only one toilet but the room sizes! And a huge huge back garden, driveway and front garden.

There was a thread on here re. New builds and their obsession with toilets, en suites and bathrooms.

Tiny little bedrooms and only one medium sized living space BUT they have 3 en suites, a bathroom, a downstairs shower room and a cloakroom!!

At least everyone can poo at the same time!

It has always been this way and eventually the new builds won't be new anymore.

Our house was a new build in 1989 (we weren't first to live in it) but my Dad lives in the same model and I remember everyone complaining at the time that "new builds were too small"

However our 1989 "new build" is palatial compared with current new builds!

Show homes always have mini furniture and imaginary residents who are minimalists!

Having said that I love the tiny house movement (built with the environment and living costs in mind) but that's an entire lifestyle and people get into it deliberately with the aim of cutting everything back.

So perhaps those people moving into modern new builds need to embrace the tiny house movement?

To be fair I imagine that when our DD's are teens the one small bathroom will be more of an issue. But by then we will have extended downstairs so there will at least be a downstairs loo!

I'm definitely not willing to exchange living space for crapping space!

Does anyone know what the sound insulation is like in a new build? I imagine it’s not great…,

Does anyone know what sound insulation is like in the 250,000+ houses built a year? I'm going to hazard a guess that some are good and some are bad, thankfully ours have always been the former.

As for the price premium, where I am, the new build prices are fair and in line with the fact everything is new; boiler, electrics, carpet, kitchen, bathrooms etc, I expect you'd be happy to pay more for a refurbished Victorian vs a dilapidated one so not sure why people suddenly think new builds should be the same price as old houses.

I've had to have my new build valued already due to ported mortgage and it's increased over 10% in 12 months, no doubt due to the crazy market, but if the premium was so supposedly high you wouldn't expect it to have risen so well with the market.

There should be laws about sizes of rooms you can call bedrooms.
We had a three bed and the third bedroom should have been called a cupboard.
A bedroom should be able to fit a full size single bed and a wardrobe at least!

Does anyone know what the sound insulation is like in a new build? I imagine it’s not great…,

In mine it's great. The only time I hear my neighbours is if they're using a drill on the wall. Other than that I don't hear a peep.