Box rooms

[Beansonapost]

Why is it that houses in the U.K. are still being built with box rooms?

... and still being built with no laundry/utility room?

I grew up having all massive bedrooms... kitchen diner... lounge/living room... utility... garden... garage etc. This is in the Caribbean. My childhood bedroom could fit two uk sized box rooms.

I've lived in other countries almost all of them had utility rooms... except China where the washing was housed in the bathroom; which to me makes sense. Why would you want to do laundry in the kitchen?

Husband is British so is used to this way of life... but I am confused as it's 2018 and I am certain the way people use their homes has changed. Why are people still being forced to have a box room and do the washing in the kitchen? That slot could be used for extra storage.

We went to look at some new builds... while the house was nice for almost £500,000 it just didn't provide what I would want in a family home (based purely on my experience). I think when people buy a home they don't really intend to move anytime soon unless they have to... so why put a room that is useless beyond the age of 10? Then force people to either sell of "create additional space" why not just build a house people can live in for as long as they need or want?

Also where utility rooms are concerned... in a country where it rains so much, wouldn't a dedicated space for laundry be standard? Wash, dry, iron... leave clothes to dry with windows open. Clothes out of sight.

Why is this the norm in the U.K.?

Also... why are homes still built with such poor storage options? You might get an under stair cupboard, an airing cupboard but that's it?! Why aren't built in wardrobes standard in all bedrooms? Gives you back your floor space and means less furniture to buy.

It seems developers are more concerned about how many people they can cram into these developments than how people will enjoy their homes/space.

I'm with you OP. I miss my laundry and hate the lack of built in wardrobes in many houses in the UK.

We live in the SE too and see new developments going up in the villages around here - 20, 30 town houses all crammed into tiny plots with postage stamp gardens and sold for £600,000+.

CAAKE you have to look around though. My son lives in the south east (an hours commute from London) and paid a lot less than that for a 5 double bed executive home with utility, built in wardrobes, etc. It does have a small garden, but they're happy with that in exchange for what they get in the house.
Funny enough though, they moved from a standard 3 bedroomed house (one of them was a dreaded box room ) and loved that house just as much.

There are a lot of new builds where i live popping up. All crammed in. We moved to a new build last year and they're still building more on this estate. Thing that annoys me here all the gardens are on a slope. Can't put a paddling pool outside for eg

Thing that annoys me here all the gardens are on a slope. Well, I don't expect they did that deliberately! A sloped garden is good if you want to use it as a garden not a playground, easier to "landscape".

I don't think you can complain about gardens being on a slope. The ground isn't always flat.

We have a utility, all good size bedrooms. You just pay more for it.

A PP mentioned about NIMBYS, I don’t think that’s totally fair though, I wouldn’t be happy if they came to my tiny village and started to throw up housing estates of 90+ houses or more. I chose to live in the countryside, if I wanted to live in a housing estate I’d move to a town or city

Not to mention the fact that we actually need countryside for farming obviously

I have a 4 bed house, all double bedrooms, a utility room, a family bathroom, an ensuite and a downstairs loo and a garage and I live in the UK!

I would hate to have a washing machine in the bathroom because they are fugly and the vibrations would go right through the house.

On the bathroom thing, I have a friend who has bought a house and wants to extend to have five bedrooms all ensuite along with a shower room downstairs and a separate loo. Madness.

Why should you pay for something that is not a luxury?

It's a necessity in modern life. Insulation... double glazing and non draughty houses are all contributing to condensation problems... why is having a utility with a humidistat fan and windows and a door seen as a luxury?

This should be standard in all new builds.

It's a necessity in modern life. Insulation... double glazing and non draughty houses are all contributing to condensation problems... why is having a utility with a humidistat fan and windows and a door seen as a luxury?

Because lots of people don’t care about it, or simply prioritise other things.

I couldn’t care less about my washing machine being in the kitchen.

Your insistence that all houses should have enough space for everyone to live there for their entire life is madly wasteful - and under-occupation is actually a major problem in the UK, which helps, in turn, to add to over-crowding in other areas. People should be more willing to up- and downsize, not less.

Also, I'm sorry that you want a utility room and can't find one, but I think demanding the entire house market changes in response is a bit much!

I'm in my mid 40s and my current house is the first with no box room and with a utility and boot room. I'd love for houses over here to actually be built to good sized specs but developers want to cram as many properties into as small a space as possible, unfortunately. Box rooms should be the first thing to go; they're not the most practical.

It's all available - just at a cost.

It's to do with many people buying on the basis of the number of bedrooms rather than size/square footage, isn't it?

Our old house had a tiny room which we used as a study. You could just have squeezed a single divan bed in it, as long as you didn't want anywhere to actually put your feet or, nor to even have a door in the frame. Several EAs suggested we market the house as a 4-bed, rather than a 3-bed with study.

And when we were house-hunting, wanting our two DC to have similar-sized without being palatial bedrooms, I almost gave up searching websites for 3-bedroom houses, because the most common arrangement was Bedroom 1: largish double, Bedroom 2: small double or large single, Bedroom 3: similar dimensions as our study, so I damn well knew it couldn't actually be used as a functional bedroom.

It is very British mindset to have your own house and garden. I come from a nordic country and whilst land is cheap and house ownership is desirable, it is also very common for families to live in flat and share the outside space.

Blocks tend to be built in clusters and there's usually a play area with at least a sandpit and swings. There's also sandpit toys provided by the residents association which are free for anyone to use. They do disappear and break down eventually by use of all the children but things usually don't get vandalised by antisocial behaviour.

Bored teens are a problem there too but they don't tend to hang out in these play areas, maybe because it's surrounded by all the flats and there's many eyes on them. They tend to prefer to make a nuisance of themselves somewhere else.

I don't know why the flat living works in my home country but why they turn into no-go areas here. It's a shame though.

Here's a pic how it can possibly look.
www.google.co.uk/search?q=kerrostalon+piha&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjK9KO87tLaAhUjK8AKHfMPCvcQ_AUoAnoECAAQBA&biw=1365&bih=640#imgrc=l_kYwu12VvY1uM:

Flat living does work here...
But many people want their own garden so don't have to worry about who is in a communal area etc

We have a laundry, no box room and fitted wardrobes. I bloody hate fitted wardrobes. Really ugly and sterile.

My communal garden spaces aren’t in any way a no go area, they’re lovely. They’re just not visible from the flat so the children have to be old enough to make their own way there and be unsupervised unless I take them. It’s no different to taking them to the park. I’m not desperate to live in a house over a flat, but will need to to have a private garden, which for us means leaving London.

I can honestly say that when we get older and look towards downsizing then a flat will be top of my list. I love the new build flats/apartments we have round here. I'm longing for one with either a tiny balcony or a Juliette balcony.

I've never seen a block of flats with communal gardens - whether in dodgy or very posh areas - that was anything like well-used. I think aside from the inconvenience of not leaving children unsupervised, etc. people feel like they don't really know what the rules are - can you have a group of friends over for a barbecue? That effectively means no one else feels they can use the garden - but that ends up with no one at all using it! I live on a 60s former social housing estate, which was built with a teeny garden for each house but then with big open spaces, too - it's really nice having the open spaces, especially since they now have mature trees and are generally very pleasant, but people don't use them nearly as much or in the same way as their gardens (they're mostly used by dog walkers) and if you asked people if they'd rather have their postage-stamp sized gardens or the big communal spaces I suspect they'd pick the former.

I can honestly say that when we get older and look towards downsizing then a flat will be top of my list.

My PIL thought that, too, but it turned out that the flats they liked - while beautiful - weren't great properties for the elderly (they're in their 70s but the idea was that this was a place that would do until death/care homes); the bathrooms and kitchens were too small to be made adaptable if that was needed, if the lift broke then you'd potentially be stuck for days or weeks, and the small living space is quite a lot harder to deal with if you're going to be home a lot of the time.

I'm curious about why people are buying so many new builds, is it because they are moving to a previously unpopular area, (maybe new companies have moved in?), or is just that the population is increasing so much that there is nowhere else to live.
In London as pp said we have thousands of uninhabited luxury flats, but no affordable flats for first time buyers, and no affordable rents for people on minimum wage.

I think it's mostly that in popular areas the only way to possibly meet demand is new-build, but also quite a lot of people do have an active preference for it. I don't, but some people like them being all new and shiny, the idea of buying off-plan, etc.

I never said your entire life... I said until retirement. How can it be wasteful to want a home that will meet your needs? Needs that will change as family dynamics change.

I think overcrowding has much to do with housing as well as how the British economy is structured and very London centric. People go where the work is.

As PP have said there aren't even enough new build bungalows/flats for people to downsize to!

I don't see why a family home, unless needs must; cannot last for the entirety of the family unit living together. I'm not talking about holding onto a home until you're dead... but your family home should IMO provide all you need especially if it's a new build.

I love living in apartments. The ones we lived in in China were fantastic massive too! Don't think I could do it in this country... no lifts and two small children! Did it in glasgow and I didn't appreciate the work out every time we wanted to go outside.

I know it's available... but it's not a luxury! And shouldn't be seen as only something for those who can afford it.