Why do so many new builds have en-suites/lots of bathrooms?

[Bloodybrambles]

Just out of curiosity really. Growing up I don’t really remember them being much of a thing. Maybe large houses (4+ bedrooms) would have an en-suite off the master bedroom. I remember house hunting with my parents as a kid and a downstairs toilet was a deal breaker. Even then I don’t remember that many houses having en-suites/lots of bathrooms (I feel like we viewed hundreds of houses).

A few of my friends live in new builds and something I’ve noticed is a lot of bathrooms:bedroom/space. One friend has a five bed with five bathrooms! No wonder she has a cleaner…

My best friend has just bought his first house. It’s a cozy two bed, open plan downstairs with a WC, then the master bedroom with en suite and bedroom 2 (just about fit single bed + wardrobe) with the family bathroom opposite. He had been looking with his partner for months and just wanted something in budget, that had at least two bedrooms + parking.

It’s almost made me conscious that we’ve not future proofed with what we hope to be our family home. One family bathroom for three bedrooms (plus wc downstairs).

I have a German neighbour who thinks the idea of an ensuite is disgusting. Does not want to sleep next to a toilet. She ripped it out and had a wardrobe built instead . There is a large family bathroom and downstairs loo . At the moment her kids are youngish so don't know how it will work out as teenagers.

I'm in a 2 bed apartment - 2 bathrooms!
Main one has bath and shower, en suite is just a shower
It's been handy when shower or toilet has broken but I would rather have a utility

We have teens and our last rental meant we all had our own bathroom - can’t go back now too many arguments.

We are selling land with planning permission to build house 5 beds / 5 en-suites - because we are in bucks grammar school catchment area - we think will attract families from London who will appreciate the en-suites for teen kids / or live in nanny if young family etc.

As much as there is a lot of reverse snobbery around en-suites on MN, everyone knows house builders don't typically build something they don't have to, it would be much cheaper to leave it as a cupboard or bigger bedroom. But bathrooms sell, if people didn't want them, they wouldn't build them.

I find the bathroom/en suite obsession in new builds quite odd.
I've recently been looking at 2 bed houses on rightmove, and a lot of the newer ones have 3 toilets in the property. I find it overkill for a 2 bed house, especially when the bedrooms aren't huge either. I'd be happy to have an upstairs bathroom with a downstairs toilet though, I just don't see the need for all the bathrooms.

It's a poor compensation for a cramped house, I'd rather have bigger rooms and fewer bathrooms.

I like having more bathrooms. It means I don’t need to share with the kids😂. Mines 6 bed with 4 full bathrooms and a downstairs toilet. The kids clean their own so it’s not too much to clean.

At one point I had a 4 bed house with 3 toilets and a 2 bed London flat with 2.

People also shower more often. The 4 adults in this house shower every morning. Hard to do with one bathroom.

We bought a newish house last year and now have an embarrassment of toilets - 4. I love the house but the number of loos is nuts. I'd looked at a few new builds before buying (divorcing and just wanted somewhere that would need zero work doing for an easy fresh start) and they were all similar, at least 3 loos in all of them - one downstairs, one in main bathroom, one ensuite.

Must admit with 3 teens rattling around they are useful though.

I think it's just a 'trend'. Who wants to be cleaning multiple bathrooms? Not me anyway. I think two is sufficient for most 3/4 hed households. I also notice how little storage some new builds have and tiny bedrooms that could fit a bed and not much else. What's the point?

Can a trend last 40 years?!

The simple answer is that it's what buyers want. The builders are only catering to what they know their buyers will want - they have research, experience, etc behind them.

Personally, I'd not touch a new build with a bargepole for lots of reasons, but having too many bathrooms is way down the list of why I wouldn't want one!

But, certainly on all the new build estates around here, the builders sell them quickly, so "someone" must want to buy new builds as they are.

4 bed with smaller bathroom and en suite than our 3 bed, but we have two baths, which is nice.
A bathroom per bedroom would be lovely as family gets older.

My parents new build has an en suite, family bathroom and downstairs toilet. My house is 30 years old and only has one bathroom. Ad did out childhood home

And they have much smaller bedrooms to accommodate the extra toilets? I viewed a 4 bed recently and it had a downstairs toilet, and a family bathroom and 2 en-suites but the bedrooms were so small that I couldn’t even entertain an offer as it would barely fit a double bed in!

I think some people see a new build as status symbol. (Not everyone before someone jumps on me).

As I understand it, all new build houses are required to have a downstairs wc for inclusivity reasons. They also have lower placed light switches and consumer units.

I have two teens and one bathroom and a downstairs loo. It is hell on earth.

I grew up in a house with bathroom downstairs loo and en-suite and it was so much nicer.

Clearly there is demand or builders wouldn't bother!

I have a downstairs toilet, then upstairs a family bath off the hall and then our room has an en suite. We have 3 kids so yes I very much like having them. 4 bedroom house.

some American new builds seem to have a bathroom for every bedroom, I do think that's a bit silly. What I have noticed here (USA), though, is that in older homes the hall bath is the larger one and the main bedroom en-suite is smaller. At some point, maybe the 1990s, it reversed. The parents get the big luxury bath, and the hall bathroom is smaller.

I have a 5 double bedroom house with 4 bath/shower rooms and a separate downstairs loo. We added two of the bathrooms ourselves. Having a 5 bed house and a queue for the bathroom would be daft. If you have a bigger house, it is probably because you have enough people to need the space.

My parent's house is 6 bed and has 3 bathrooms, but also has 2 downstairs loos and a separate upstairs one. That has never really made sense to me, having 3 separate loos like that, as it is so unlikely they are all in use at the same time. Two of them haven't even got sinks, but most of the bedrooms do. 🤷‍♀️

Nail on the head. In "ye olde days", people would bath once a week so there was less need for multiple bathrooms, and of course, go back a bit further and people didn't even have a bathroom in the house - it was a tin bath in front of the living room fire! And we're not going back centuries here. I think it was the 1920s when we started seeing loads of semi's being built with an inside bathroom, and people were still living in terraced housing with outside loos right into the mid 20th Century (and beyond!).

When you have 2, 3 or 4 (or more) people living in a house all wanting a shower in the morning, then a single bathroom just doesn't cut it at all!

I don't mind extra bathrooms - for a 4 bed house, I'd be expecting downstairs WC, family bathroom and a separate smaller shower room.

BUT... I am perhaps in the minority, but I HATE ensuites. I would want an extra smaller shower room that's not attached to my bedroom, but is basically available to everyone from entry on the landing. IME ensuites tend to make the main bedroom all steamy (e.g., the condensation from after a shower, once the door is left open), and I hate that. Plus we found that others wanted to use the ensuite when the family bathroom was in use (understandably) which then means having other family members traipsing through the bedroom!

So, I'm all for extra bathrooms but prefer them not as an ensuite.

I think some people see a new build as status symbol.

Very much doubt it, I love new builds and have always chosen them, but people are very quick to tell me what they hate about them and how they "wouldn't touch them with a barge pole" I suspect I would be considered rude if I said that about other people's homes!

D/S loo is essential for potty training, and for those who have difficulty climbing stairs several times a day, and for visitors. Lots of brilliant advantages. En suite is good if you have lots of visitors to stay or you share your house with teenagers/young adults. No question about that! But most muddle along without.

I'm in my sixties now and have an older house which always had just the one bathroom upstairs. I am on my own now and last year decided I was staying here until carried out in a box so I futureproofed for downstairs living if it ever proved necessary. Got the downstairs refigured (no extension needed) and put in a shower room + tiny utility, amongst other refurbishments. TBH I don't use the shower at all (yet!) but it's there if needed and handy for overnight guests as the upstairs bathroom is MINE and MINE only lol.