AIBU to wonder why new houses are so badly designed?

[StarlingMurmuration]

We're planning to move house soon and I've just spent an enjoyable though frustrating half hour on Rightmove, wondering why on earth modern houses are so poorly designed. We have been renting a small three bed new build terrace, with a WC on the ground floor, and a family bathroom and ensuite on the first floor... I liked my ensuite but at the same time thought it was ridiculous as two of the three bedrooms were significantly smaller than they needed to be to allow the ensuite to fit. But I've just seen a house that takes the biscuit. A four bed, three floor semi with five (FIVE!) toilets/bathrooms. A WC on the ground floor and one on the first floor, a family bathroom and two ensuites. Meanwhile the master bedroom and the second bedroom with ensuites are both tiny (9'5" x 8'11"), and the other bedrooms are even smaller. Why in earth do developers think people want so many bathrooms at the expense of actual room space? AIBU to find this infuriating, or does everyone else actually ant five toilets in a four bedroom house?

The rise of the en suite has always been an enigma to me. Would much rather have bigger rooms.

YANBU. British space standards are now amongst the worst in Europe

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09613218.2014.922271

Abstract: "Lack of internal space is a problem in UK homes, and is often linked to a lack of space standards for housing in the UK. Although previous studies have examined new-build housing, this paper uses a new method to study 16 000 dwellings in the English Housing Survey (EHS) 2010 to examine existing housing and compare them with a modern space standard in an attempt to quantify the extent and magnitude of the problem. Dwellings in the survey were compared against a slightly modified version of the London Housing Design Guide 2010 internal space standard. It was found that between 21% and 55% of dwellings failed to meet the standard; and that flats and small terraced houses were most commonly below the standard. Dwellings were also frequently found to be under-occupied in comparison with the number of bedrooms. This research hypothesized that this was a result of the lack of space. To illustrate the use of this new analysis method, a recent change to the Housing Benefit system (colloquially known as the ‘Bedroom Tax’) has been considered. Households receiving Housing Benefit were more likely to be undersized, suggesting that the policy to withdraw housing benefits from these households may be misguided."

Indie coverage: www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rabbithutch-britain-growing-health-concerns-as-uk-sets-record-for-smallest-properties-in-europe-9544450.html

YANBU - we currently rent a bigger version of the house you posted the link to. We don't need all the space but it was a case of renting the best of a bad bunch at the time we needed it. We certainly don't need 5 toilets! All being well we get the keys to our 50's three bedroom semi at the end of the month, which has one bathroom and one downstairs toilet - much more manageable!

The standard shape in our nearest new estate has a loo per bedroom but they're all real doubles. The house is also miraculously house shaped.

You realise once you're in it though that it appears to have been based on a smaller house converted out - eg the 5-bed is based on a decent 3-bed with a full loft conversion. Which means no attic, when you have five bedrooms. And a neat loo downstairs just where the Hoover ought to live. Attached garage with a door not wide enough to drive through so you can only keep bikes and probably the aforementioned Hoover in it. So impractical.

YANBU

Great to have extra bathrooms/toilets if space allows but ridiculous if it means having tiny bedrooms!

It's the no architects thing.

And greed.

Someone has sat there are said, we want to make a fantastic double fronted georgian look at the front. And five bedrooms. But it must be as small as physically possible...

The living space is very small too. Kitchen/dinner and two reception rooms all very narrow. Not very sociable. No fireplace either, which looks really odd in a house of that style!

It would actually work quite nicely for a selection of single adults sharing, but rubbish for a family. So depends what that exact area is like I suppose? (I don't know it!)

The thing is in a housing shortage people end up buying the houses because everything is so expensive they end up going for something that has the right number of bedrooms and they can afford, even though they know the layout is bad/rooms too small.

I bet if we were actually building as many houses as needed a lot of these cramped designs wouldn't sell and developers would have to put more effort in.

YANBU. I don't understand why each child in a family needs their own bathroom. Ridiculous waste of space. I do think a downstairs loo is useful though, but not if its in place of an understairs cupboard. Modern houses seem to have no storage space either. I agree that they shouldn't be allowed to mislead by using smaller furniture. I'm guessing the developers do their research so know what people are looking for but its not what I want. I want decent sized rooms and storage!

At least that house seems a decent size. Take a look at this. Four bedrooms, 3 en-suites, 1 family bathroom and a guest loo.

The garage of the house next door stood on that land before it was built so it is not a large house my any means. Madness!

There are so many things wrong with that house, I've had to close the link.

The first floor, in particular, is just bizarre. Also I like the way you get the lovely bonus of an "office/studio" which is their sales office.

The RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) have had various campaigns to improve the standards of British house design. But as we are rarely employed by mass house builders I'm not sure how much of an effect it will have on the majority of the market.
Here are some of their campaigns
Without Space and Light

and issues/Housing/Homewise.aspx Homewise

and issues/BuildingABetterBritain/BuildingABetterBritain.aspx Building a Better Britain

It's becauseit sounds better/ bigger on paper. It used to be only a very posh house could have more bathrooms than bedrooms or equal numbers. We viewed a show home where the study was such a small cupboard the door couldn't close when the desk chair was pulled out enough foffor someone to sit down. On paper this house had numerous bedrooms, ensuites, study, family room, play room- it sounded like a mansion. But the reality is that you couldn't fit anything in any of the rooms.

Sorry the last 2 links are wrong try
Homewise and issues/Housing/Homewise.aspx

Build a better Britain www.architecture.com/Explore/BuildabetterBritain/BuildaBetterBritain.aspx

YANBU. The other thing you always notice about new builds is how tiny and out of proportion the windows are.

YADNBU. I have the 'newest' house in my family (also the smallest ...) and we have the most toilets and are the only one with an en suite. Tbh, I would prefer a walk-in wardrobe than an en-suite but once we hit the teenage years I may be glad of the extra shower There is a large double wardrobe in the master bedroom and a hall cupboard - that's it for built-in storage. Craptacular.

I prefer older houses, our first two were built between the wars and in the 50/60's. Much better layout IMO, although they both had a downstairs WC put in by previous owners.

YADNBU we are renting a 3 bed, new build terrace and I've been looking at new houses to buy. A plethora of bathrooms - more toilets than bums in the house but cupboards? Somewhere to store your vacuum/ironing board/coat? Nope. No cupboards. Admittedly I have a cupboard fetish and far too much stuff, but it's all essential. Ish.

Also piddly little bedrooms. A 9ft by 9ft room cannot be described as a master suite. It should be against the trades description act. I remember going into one house and the sales lady saying about it being spacious, because you could fit a double bed and some bedside tables and what more did you need? Um, somewhere to store my clothes perhaps? If by bedroom, you mean a room filled wall to wall with bed, then yes, you are fulfilling the brief. We have to shimmy down the 18 inches between the foot of our bed and the wall and it's not a particularly big bed and it drives me nuts.

It seems as though that's hit a sore spot for me! New houses. Grrrr!

YANBU - we are currently renting a 6 year old new build and it has made us vow never to buy one. Despite being built by a supposedly 'quality' housebuilder we have had the following problems:

• water tank has leaked down the stairs
• garage leaks badly
• boiler is playing up
• potential leak from ensuite which is being looked at atm

Oh and the landlord had to have rewiring done on the upper landing before we moved in. So glad i'm not him, its a constant headache.

The level of finish is shoddy, particulaly with the plastering which has cracked in at least one place in every room. And despite being a 4 bed it is only effectively a 3 bed becuase there is zero storage, not even an airing cupboard. Therfore all the linen/towels/hoover etc ends up having to be stored in the 4th room. The sound insulation is non-existant, the roof sounds like it is about to come off in even a small amount of wind and the loft hatch is too small for my H to even get through, let alone use for storage.

That's it, rant over

Horrible! They are all now building 5 beds as three storey so you don't get the floor space downstair - rip off.

I have just sold my 5 year old 3 bed detached and I love it - I shall be sad to go

The design of it was what sold me on it - it's got a huge bright hall way, kitchen diner huge airy light living room - duel aspect and at the back so quiet

3 good sized doubles and 2 bathrooms plus a down stairs loo

the house I am buying is 50 years old and has no hall way at all :(

but it has 4 beds which I need - only one bog though!

Old houses aren't much better. We have a 1930s semi built in the traditional way with a small bedroom over the stairs and a minute kitchen. Most people seem to extend the kitchen into the dining room but I wanted separate living rooms.

The kitchen is so small there is nowhere to put anything, and also suffers from having 2 doors and a window, further reducing the wall space. We can only fit a 50cm cooker and a slimline dishwasher, and if you get 2 people in there at the same time you are falling over eachother.

The cupboard under the stairs has a small door (on the waist height piece of the wall) so you can't use it for coats/ ironing board/ vac, and the gas and electric meters each have their own cupboard on either side of the front door. There is nowhere to put anything .

I desperately want a second toilet (having moved from a house with cloakroom, bathroom and ensuite) but there is nowhere to put one .

What do they have against storage?! Storage is my weakness, love a good walk in cupboard the sort you find in Glasgow tenements.

I dunno. I always hated the fact that 1 family bathroom and (if you were lucky) a grotty downstairs loo was considered adequate for the average family. We have 1 bathroom, an ensuite and a downstairs loo for 4 bedrooms. I can just about cope with that. In Spain pretty much all flats have 2 bathrooms so, to me, that's normal. I long for bidets to become standard too.

does it make people feel richer d'you think? having a million loos?

our second townhouse had this issue. The master suite was huge, along with a mahoosive ensuite with dual sinks etc etc that was nice but we barely spent any time in. But, the two kids' bedrooms had just enough room for a single bed and a tiny bedside table - there was no space to play. But they had their own bathroom! downstairs was another loo.

It's crazy.

Yeah if I were designing that space I would take out both ensuites, or perhaps just the master ensuite. Move the closet to where the ensuite was in the master... have it the full length of the wall and a decent size. Take out the A/C and make that bathroom an ensuite shower room. Then I would put cupboards all along the back wall of reception room 2 to make up for lack of storage and now lack of A/C. It would be a reasonable amount of storage without taking up too much room. If you took the second ensuite and closet out you could either make it a box room for storage or a laundry room with storage/airing cupboard. Unless you have an elderly relative living with you and need the second ensuite I would think that both would be better use of that space.

My parents have a new build and they had it rearranged before they moved in so it was more practical for them.