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?

Yes I think pre-pandemic we were able to buy our house at a fairly decent price because it hadn't been converted to an open plan layout and also it had four big bedrooms and then one smaller bedroom. But now the smaller bedroom and the second sitting room both make really decent studies and we are so glad that we didn't go for a more open plan layout.

I remember on a visit to a mid-western USA town, the host apologising for driving us home through the poor area of town as the other road was closed.
These "slummy" houses were huge. Big detached houses on big plots of land, that would cost £££££ in the UK. But they were falling apart; rotten wood, flaking paint, etc. and unkempt front gardens.
Land is cheap, so wide roads and big houses, but they were not buildings you would want to live in.

Property taxes vary greatly, even within the same county or town. They are calculated based on the estimated value of the property. There is a formula that is used by the assessors. The assessor periodically reviews taxes, rotating through different parts of a county.

In the suburb where I live, property taxes can be as high as $40k a year, but the average is about $15k. On top of property taxes, you pay utility charges - water (metered plus basic delivery charge), sewage, garbage and recycling pickup. You get what you pay for though, in terms of public goods.

I know. I'm not daft.

I grew up in NYC in an extremely spacious pre-war apartment. When we first moved to the UK, I was surprised by how small apartments are in London. In NY most families don't live in houses but in larger apartments. Here, the flats seem to be mainly for singles or couples with the understanding they're not really feasible once you have children, which I think isn't ideal for the housing market.

And the brownstones in NY and other east coast cities, like @Ruthietuthie's tend to be wider and more spacious than most UK terraces, unless they've been cut up into a lot of teeny tiny flats. Pre-kids we had the top half of a 4 story brownstone in Brooklyn Heights and it was huge. I've also never been in a NY (or Boston or Philadelphia) brownstone or brick row house where you could hear the neighbours through the wall, which seems to be a common complaint here.

Our house in London is 3600 square feet, which doesn't seem enormous to me, even now, which I guess is the last vestige of Americanism left in me. With the two of us, 3 DCs and 2 dogs we manage to utilise it all, but it's certainly more spacious than a lot of UK houses.

I thought this was a joke thread…. Yes houses are tiny here (and somewhat claustrophobic).

Exactly 🙄 Not difficult to realise! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Good goodness our house is around 900 square foot. Anything over 1000 is big to me !!!

Its a combination of factors:

• uk is more densely populated, land is more expensive
• we are more energy conscious & energy is more expensive, large homes cost a lot to heat.
• we have stricter labour laws & a shortage of tradespeople so building costs are higher
• we have a massive amount of regulation over what/where is built. This all adds to cost and limits how much housing is built. It also means large building firms make as much simply holding landbanks as building and selling homes.
• we build from brick & stone, many US homes are primarily wood which is cheaper.

Relativity.

The people who live in slums probably class a two up two down as big. When you’re used to more, it becomes the new normal.

Same reason why we now consider a £400k mortgage as normal, when four decades ago, that would seem monstrous.