Why is this the case with house size in U.K.?

[febgate16]

On social media, why are there some Americans and Australians who went talking about the size of properties refer to houses that are like 1500 ft.² as “small” or “average”, when in U.K. that would be considered large and nobody would say such a thing?

Is this entitlement or just because they are accustomed to large houses?

I wonder are British people just accustomed to living in small houses.

Like if you have a British person who raised children in America or Australia, would those children in America or Australia compared to their cousins who grew up in the UK consider an average semi-detached house in the UK to be so small whereas their cousins in the UK would not?

@Soonenough, that's true. Although we live in a reasonably well-priced east coast city, rather than New York or Boston. But even friends who live out in the suburbs in new builds have considerably more space than people I know in the UK. My UK family were reasonably middle-class, but still lived in a damp, cramped house.
But yes, it isn't a direct comparison by any means.

Given that Great Britain could fit snugly into the US state of Georgia, which is just ONE of the 50+ United States, its not too difficult to understand why their houses are larger.
Its not "entitlement " its just a huge nation with lots of room 🤣

I want a basement. A big basement, to escape to, a sofa, TV, a craft nook, a reading nook, a separate area for washing and drying clothes, and a table tennis set up. And storage for suitcases and other detritus. Oh and gym equipment. And, and, I can close the door on it and forget about it.

As I've already said, I'm so envious. All houses should have them where possible. 😊

Thanks to the removal of Parker Morris standards in 1980. This is why room sizes in new builds from the 1980s onwards were much smaller and that ‘3rd bedroom’ is really a cupboard.

I’ve been in a studio flat of a PR person in manhattan where she kept all her non perishable food supplies in the oven as there was simply no storeage or room - it was totally minute - the whole thing about like an average hotel bedroom

I consider an average semi detached in the UK to be small and I was raised in the UK. They ARE small!

Apart from the fact it had a bit of damp I had an amazing basement in the house we rented in Copenhagen. It had a laundry room much bigger than an average bedroom - with hung up lines, a room for separate chest freezer and a stand up one too and a massive storage room, size of a single garage !! You couldn’t use as bedrooms or snugs etc Asa bit cold ‘slightly ‘ damp ( although the laundry room wasn’t) and concrete floors , but it was huge

My house is 1880 ft. I’ve been looking on line at new 4 bed detached houses and they are 978 ft . They are getting smaller.

No it isn't. A 4-bedroomed house might be the same size in square feet as one with 3 bedrooms, but if you need 4 bedrooms, that's the information you need.

Incidentally, in many places in the UK, the land your house stands on is worth more than the actual house cost to build. That's why developers cram as many houses as possible on the smallest area. Why build one house on a plot of land when you can build two?

Land cost £300k, cost to build 1 house £200k, cost, £500k,
selling price £700k, profit £200k.

Land cost £300k, cost to build 2 houses same size as before £400k, cost £700k,
selling price £600k each as have smaller gardens £1.2m, profit £500k.

Developers make much higher profits by building more houses with smaller gardens, and chances are that in order to cram them into the space, the houses themselves are smaller too.

To be fair a lot of US TV shows are wildly unrealistic. You will have someone who works at a struggling cafe living in a palatial flat in NY. It's hard to judge exactly what's realistic or not.
America has more space leading to a culture of urban sprawl/very spread out suburbs. It means the houses and gardens are larger but also has downsides as everywhere is so spread out. You can feel quite trapped without a car. Obviously that isn't true of everywhere in America. But I think a lot of the very large suburban houses you see on TV fall.into that pattern.

Hi - American here who has lived in the UK for 20 years.

It's not about entitlement it's about availability and space.

Houses in the suburbs of the US are very large. My house in the US before I moved was on a 5500 square foot lot and the house had 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a utility room, 3 car garage, formal dining room, eat in Kitchen and a large lounge area.

I paid £230K for it in 2000.

There are smaller houses - in bigger cities where the population is more dense. They are still bigger than a flat in the UK though.

When I moved to the UK in 2005 and I went to see houses it was like walking into a shoe box and it was something which took some time to get used to.

The house and land I have now is still small by American suburb standards - but it's large for UK standards.

"Buy land, they've stopped making it".

Mark Twain

Victorian houses are cramped and super small. Majority have very small entry you can’t even put a wardrobe for clothes and shoes, narrow stairs, very narrow rooms. Even with the same footage of a property in an US city you get much less as the way they are designed just waste a lot of space. And apart from cities, all US houses are huge, two car garage, laundry room, pantry, 4-5 large bedrooms with inbuilt wardrobes and en suite. The speculation on houses that happened in the UK is second to none, as it become a financial vehicle prizes are crazy for the very low quality of housing.

Well of course many Americans and Australians would see British houses on the whole as smaller than American of Australian houses on average.

American and Australian houses are often a good deal bigger than the average British house.

Why would you think there was "entitlement" there?

Especially in London, people are squished in here.

Also, the chance of a better lifestyle was why many Americans and Australians left these shores. And they got it, in large part because there is space.

I do love those American houses you often see in the TV dramas with the porches and swing seat.

Supply vs demand.
In big cities everywhere people live in apartments because houses are not a viable option. The US has 5 times as many people as the UK but is 40 times bigger so the average price of land is a lot less than in densely populated countries like the UK and the rest of Europe.

I agree, mine is just under 1600 square feet and not big.

I worked registering planning applications in Australia. People regularly built garages and sheds with more floorspace than average 3 bed homes in the UK.
Where I worked they had maximum density standards, whereas in the UK we have minimum density standards.
More land, bigger plots. Most new builds are either self-build, or buy a plot and then choose the house to go on it from a catalogue of pre-designed houses (they had a name I don't recall now) so more freedom to decide what goes on the plot.

Of course it is because it's what they are - generally - accustomed to. When you've lived elsewhere, it's a massive shock how tiny (and poorly built) the housing generally is in the UK. And that's not just when comparing UK housing to those in America and Australia - housing in the UK is amongst the smallest in Europe.

You can’t go up, that’s also restricted beyond a certain point.

Population of Denmark is similar to that of Scotland but think average house size in a Denmark is something like 3rd largest in the world after America and Australia

I thought this was common knowledge, other than highly expensive cities like New York, in the US and Australia you generally get bigger housing, even on holidays our apartments have been absolutely giant with walk in wardrobes, massive kitchens, huge bathrooms and tons of bathrooms. Even from watching films it's pretty clear that American houses are massive (as are American fridges, roads, cars, portions.....) there's just more space so stuff is big and land is more plentiful and therfore cheaper. Cities are slightly different as land and proximity to the centre of the city is then at a premium. Also, I do think that 1500 sq ft isn't massive for a family home, I'd describe that as modest even in the UK. We have a nice home but still only a 4 bed and it's 2800sq ft. It feels a nice size, we don't want for space but it isn't what I'd call a large house. It's certainly not a mansion.

Assessing by number of bedrooms makes no sense. Surely you could have e three tiny bedrooms or three huge ones?

I think people in Britain do indeed measure by square feet, judging by the number of posters on this thread who know the square footage of their homes.