To think designing a flat with the shower in the living room is taking the piss?

[StudioFlat]

Disclaimer: This doesn't affect me personally, just looking for a discussion.

Some friends are trying to make some extra money by converting part of their garage (not even the whole thing) into a studio flat. It's absolutely tiny, you could touch the bed and the hob at the same time. They've included a teeny little second room for a toilet, but the shower is in the living room / bedroom / kitchen. The whole space is about 16 square metres, which I think 9 times out of 10 is going to be a pretty depressing living space but the design is also rubbish.

Sadly the rental situation where we live is such that some poor sap will almost certainly be willing to pay an obscene amount to live there but I think it looks like an absolute shithole. It's clean and new so that's not the issue, but sooo cramped and yeah, shower in the living room.

AIBU to think they are taking unfair advantage of desperate people in a terrible rental market? Or are there people who wouldn't mind having their shower in their living room? Are they simply resourceful entrepreneurs and everything's OK as long as someone is willing to pay to live there (as long as you comply with relevant regulations of course)?

It's not Dublin, or indeed Sydney. I don't want to be too specific but it's a European city. But obviously this social problem is widespread and the same sort of shenanigans are going on in lots of different places.

My Granny had a counter top in her kitchen which was removed to reveal... a full size bath.

I stayed in a shithole hotel in Ramsgate once with the shower in the bedroom.

I don't think it is a major problem for a pied a terre.

And it's actually in a suburb of the city, a very popular area for families. It's not really a place where a student, for example, would choose to live. Though obviously no family is going to live there as that really would be slum conditions.

AIBU to think they are taking unfair advantage of desperate people in a terrible rental market? Or are there people who wouldn't mind having their shower in their living room?

They are scumbags leeching off an immoral system, and yes, there are people who will put up with having a shower in their "living room", because they are desperate and at the mercy of said scumbags.

Let me guess....Dublin?

Check out this dudes blog

There are some proper shitholes on there.

This one is my favourite of all shitholes

Barcelona perhaps?

Not Barcelona. You can all keep guessing the city if you like but I'll be ignoring any further suggestions .

OMG Tali That is SHOCKING !

Is there a reason they won’t put the shower in with the toilet and make it a slightly less horrible studio flat? Seems a bit odd.

I rented a 'bedsit' once, many moons ago. It was a house where all the rooms except the toilets were turned into rooms like mine. It had a kitchen counter, kitchen sink, fridge & a baby belling. With a shower next to it. The toilet was out in the hall. There were, at least, 2 toilets, one upstairs and one downstairs.

I didn't mind it but I was young, single and didn't have a houseful of furniture etc.

@TaliZorahVasNormandy - Ahahaha. Maybe I should forward them a link to that.

Is there a reason they won’t put the shower in with the toilet and make it a slightly less horrible studio flat?

Christ knows, it looks like they designed it using The Sims 2.

This reminds me of the Friends episode where Ross views a flat that has a “kitchen/bathroom”

Sounds grim, though.

Reminds me of the episode of Gavin & Stacey when they're flat hunting and the kitchen/living room has a shower in!

When there is such an enormous imbalance between supply and demand the door is wide open for some people to profit off other people's desperation and I feel they've gone through that door

Or, if rental prices are high / unaffordable, perhaps they are meeting a need by offering accommodation which is small and not an ideal layout, but that's presumably reflected in the price?

When we were house hunting we saw several houses were the master bedroom contained a shower, one of those white plastic cubicles, just casually installed in a random corner.

It isn't that uncommon in tiny bedsit/studios, but I do think it's unnecessary. I'd rather a caravan sized shower than one in my living room I think: all clothes and books steamy? Bleurch

I've lived for 18months in a space 10foot x 12foot, with my DH and our Ddog. It's actually been ok, although can't wait to move into a 'real' house.

Ours has been through choice though - my parents usually run air b&b in this, and we've stolen it whilst we save for a mortgage. See diagram of it's layout! Surprising what you adapt to. Most annoying thing we've found has been putting the bed away every morning and out every eve.

I viewed a rental in East London once that had a bathtub in the middle of the kitchen.

It was definitely a no from me!

Oi, I'll have you know I designed some pretty amazing studios in the Sims 2 without resorting to a shower in the living room. Thankyouverymuch.

But no, YANBU.

The whole space is about 16 square metres,
I think that is half the minimum space for 1 person accommodation in the U.K

I couldn't find any official info, but according to this, new regs come in from October 2018 enforcing a minimum of 6.51 square metres for single occupancy www.purplefrogproperty.com/blog/minimum-bedroom-sizes-hmos/, so actually 16 square metres is pretty spacious .

I do get the downside of this and the property market is obviously shit for renters and anyone under about 50, but just to put a different viewpoint...I lived in several bedsits in my 20s, including a couple with showers in the corner of the room. I think the smallest was probably around 10 square metres. I was moving around a lot for work and preferred to live on my own rather than moving into a shared house with strangers. I didn't mind the showers. What made some bedsits awful was lack of maintenance, dirt, shoddy furniture, peeling paint, holes in the wall/floor/window, damp, noisy neighbours and landlords whose only interest was rent. What made the best ones good was being well decorated and furnished, well managed, and landlords who cared about being decent human beings.

So, I don't think your friends are doing a bad (or good) thing OP. Tiny rooms and showers in bedsits are not bad in themselves and can suit some people (though not with ridiculously high rents). But it really depends on the landlord, how they maintain the property and, most importantly, how they treat their tenants.

I have stayed in a hotel in Belgium, where the loos were next to the bed with just a shower curtain around the loo!

That was funny (and horrible and explained why it was so cheap)

About the flat: Someone will want to live there I guess, it does not sound great though

Will it be like those spaces you see set up in ikea? Or smaller?

Do you know the ones I mean? It's a full on
Studio but all really well designed and lots of hidd n storage etc?