To ask why the Brits hate apartment-living?

[PaulaLollie]

Hi all, I have been living in the UK for a few years, but I am originally from Europe and I have lived in multiple countries before moving to the UK.

I have never understood why the Brits seem to be so into living in a house vs. living in an apartment.

Where I come from, the wealthy live in huge, renovated, fancy apartments in nice historical buildings, right in the city centre. That is "the dream" for most, if you see what I mean.

In my home country, living in a house most of the times means living in the countryside/ suburbs, which is not what most people aspire to do, if they have the means to live in the city centre. The concept of having a family = living in a house does not really exist.

For example, I come from a comfortable family background, went to private school, and grew up in an apartment. Nearly all my childhood friends did the same. It never crossed my mind that growing up in an apartment was anything less than ideal.

Here in the UK (as widely shown here on Mumsnet) it sounds like the dream is living in a house, while living in an apartment is really not that great if you have an alternative.

Please, British mumsnetters, can you shed some light on this aspect of the British society? I genuinely just don't get it!

Thank you!

flowery 😁👍

@pickachew mine doesn't look like that!! 😂

Other people's noise.

I live in a ground floor flat in a block of 4. No neighbour noise at all as they're so well insulated and I also have my own private garden

I think because it's never yours. When you own your house, however tiny, and the land it sits on, you are safe and secure.

Thinking about it further, the Brits came up with the idea of terrace housing, not only for the small houses, but in central London as a way of cramming in a number of larger houses.

So while other European countries built large 'posh' apartment blocks where the outside it looked like one big masion for "wealthy, but not wealthy enough to afford a palace in the city centre", the British built sideways, if you look at some of the rows of townhouses in Belgravia, they do sort of look like one big masion/palace as well. Both served the same purpose.

This means the UK missed out on apartment living being 'desireable' thing that the wealthy did, posh people bought a townhouse for the city house, rather than an apartment. Poorer people emulated that, so rather than building lots of smaller apartment blocks for the middle classes, smaller terrace /town houses were built, and then smaller again for the "respectable poor".

mathanxiety I think apartments are being built bigger than they used to be. When my brother bought his apartment in socodu about 18 years ago it was 700 sq foot and that was the norm. You wouldn't have expected to get a bigger 2 bed apt.

Now the builders have cottened on to the fact that people are TERRIFIED of their apartment becoming their forever home. My friend in honey park in dun laoghaire showed me her 2 bed apartment fairly recently and it is at least 1,100 sq foot. I was very impressed. I would buy an apartment like hers but NOT like my brothers.

If I won the lottery tomorrow, I'd swap my suburban semi for a large, airy flat with river views in central London. But I don't fancy the kind of poky flat I could afford further in currently (also grew up in a flat, so its not snobbery...its just nice to have space when you have a family).

I don't want to hear my neighbours, I don't want to share things with my neighbours (space, facilities), I don't want to see my neighbours often.

I like having a garden that is mine alone, I like being out of the hustle and bustle of the City centre, I like having my own front door.

I'm currently living in an apartment (in mainland Europe). Inside the apartment it's nice though the neighbours kids are noisy and I hate hearing their parents shagging above our bedroom.... I miss my house in the UK.

We have a large four bed in a city which was built in 1842. It has huge windows, fire places and no storage

My three children are growing up here and have parks and amenities on their doorstep.

We don’t have a garden but we

I live in a small maisonette and hate the noise from the upstairs neighbours. The walls are paper thin and I can hear everything, it's a nightmare. I am looking to move this year. I found a flat in a brand new block in an area I liked. On top of the purchase price, there's £135 a month service charge (I currently pay about that per year, not per month) and if I want a parking space, they want £15,000 to buy a space. So yeah, that's not happening. At least if I find a house, even if it's small, it's all mine, no having to share costs for things that I don't feel need doing, or don't affect me, and no service charges.

I don't think I agree with you OP.

I lived in many European countries and in all of them the wealthiest do live in houses.

Really interested where you are from.

Actually, the good family sized ones are under offer!
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/fullscreen/view-floorplan.html?propertyId=71971244
No utility and 3rd bedroom approaching box room size, mind!

I'm in greater London in a pokey flat and I miss a garden so much, especially now ds is here. We have two parks close but they are not the same. All washing has to be dried in the flat or in a tumble dryer. We face onto two main roads and all the windows are frosted which is great for privacy but crap for sun light. Plants come to die here.

We are desperately saving for a house, with a garden and off road parking. It's the dream.

In short "Hell is other people". I don't want to hear them.

Do have an allotment two cats and two hamsters

British people like :

1, Privacy
2, Gardens
3, Privacy
4, Pets
5, Privacy
6, Barbecues
7, Privacy
8, Sheds
9, Privacy

That is what Dsis and I would like mum to look at, Selkie.

If she could find somewhere fairly close to where she is now she would still have all her old friends, her Young At Heart group, familiar shops and the church and cemetery. She could park her car in her spot and not have a garden to bother with. But she really wants the feeling that nobody is looking at her or listening to her. I know it would be very different. She spent her first 30 years in the country and then 52 more in the suburbs with a few years in between while I was a baby in flats in the city. That is a lot of time to spend enjoying your own little bubble, or to put it another way, it's asking a lot at her age to contemplate such a big change. Otoh, her brother and SIL in London did it last year, and another brother west of Dublin might sell up and do it too if he could find a nice building with a lift.

I think there is a difference between a flat and an apartment.

What is it, Tempester?

They feel so much more luxurious than a house, if nothing else because of the communal cleaner, gardener and management company dealing with everything

Lololololol

Chardonnays I am from Northern Italy

Well I am not entirely sure!

Ah!

Never lived there, Paula. So I take your word for it.

iBiscuit what's so funny? I don't have a gardener or a company running the maintenance of my house, some people do but I can't afford it - it didn't cost that much with a flat because the cost was divided between several of us.