To think the people who build new housing estates are on crack?

[NotYourHun]

What was wrong with roads in straight lines? And why does everyone need their own designated parking spaces with no thought for visitors? And how long does it take to include a postcode or area on bloody mapping software?!

I do community visits as a healthcare professional and am sick of not being able to find addresses because they make no sense whatsoever or aren’t on a map (including google maps/satnav), finding postcodes just show up in the middle of a field, and when I eventually do find a house, finding that there is absolutely no on street parking to be found and either having to park ‘illegally’ or walk for miles with heavy equipment.

The ones by mine all have loads of tiny, twisty little cul de sacs. Useless for parking.

I used to live on a new build estate. For two years there was a large open space opposite that we knew would eventually be built on but it was so obvious that the existing houses round the edges of this space would be miles nicer if they'd landscaped it, used it for additional parking or just making the road around it wider. But obviously they would turn down the chance to build another 12 houses at 300k each so they eventually did build them and it became another v cramped, frustrating street. To be fair though the actual houses were a pretty decent size.

The new builds round here are that small people have got their washing machines or fridge in the front room as it's one or the other. Yet they built about 120 houses there not flats houses. The road it was built on had about 20 pre fab little houses how they found the room I don't know.

The old terraced houses were built before the need for parking though...

YANBU

Completely agree. The people who plan these things need to actually try and live there. I know some planning officers try and reduce parking but don’t connect that to how people actually live their lives. Unless public transport is amazing (and even then some people still need cars), the parking alone is woeful.

And dont get me started on pedestrian access. Awful.

If people didn't buy them, developers wouldn't build them. Unfortunately, people do buy them and don't notice the fact they do not have front gardens and the doors open onto the road direct. They don't realise that when they move in as a couple with a baby that baby will grow up and then want it's own car.

It's supply and demand led, stop buying them and it's the surest guarantee they will not be built.

We recently bought a family home (big five bed detached) and went for a 25 yo with a bit of space around it.

EA’s showed us two new build equivalents and both were just so beige. No character, terrible parking, weirdly low ceilings, took us 30 minutes to find one of them. Total rabbit warrens of houses which all look the same and have approx 30cm between their outside walls and next doors, not to mention the Overlooked gardens 👍🏻

We also saw a few of the neighbours coming/going and they seemed very disgruntled. No smiles. Just terrible atmospheres.

Yes! The ones near us have 2 bed terraced housing association houses on the same street as 4 bed detached privately owned houses, no front gardens, no straight roads, if you look out of the window you can see straight into the neighbours house. Nothing against housing association houses but if I’m spending £550k on a detached 4 bed house I’d at least want a front garden and expect it to be on a street of similar looking properties, not odds and sods.

My friend's house had been there for over 30 years, and they pay council tax. When she tried to apply for a school place she discovered they were officially not on any school catchment in an oversubscribed year, so they had no space - in those days you had to apply to the school directly. No school would accept them on a waiting list as they were not catchment The head of the LEA had to allocate a school to them as catchment school.

We also heard from local friends that almost 3 thousands new builds had gone up in the town and the infrastructure was buckling. The house builders (very large companies) give zero shits about schools/GP/ essential facilities.
They were marketing the houses on the back of the ‘great’ local secondary school and not telling parents that there were zero places available so any child not following the proper year 7 intake procedure (mid year or into higher year groups) were only being offered places at the terrible secondary school 5 miles away!
😂😂😂 lots of very very unhappy families. Maybe explained the crap atmosphere.

Well I live on a new build estate and have none of these issues. Pavements are wide, road is fine, drives are okay (will say on the tight side but we get a bmw 5 series -long- and a fiesta on the drive okay. We've driven round some taylor wimpey and bellway estates that are very narrow. Only thing I wish ours did was move the houses forward Into the pointless green space and give us bigger gardens.

The lack of pavements is my worst thing about these estates. Dropped kerbs everywhere on roads too narrow to park on.

I love the title of this thread.

Some newer housing estates do seem to be built to confuse. Makes things a nightmare for delivery drivers etc.

A few years ago we originally wanted a new build but were shocked by how greedy a lot of the developers seemed to be. The main things that annoyed us were:

• every house being overlooked by at least 7-8 others when a more traditional layout would have avoided that:
• postage stamp gardens
• service charges
• flood plain building

A lot of the interiors we saw were amazing and were far better than the house we’ve got but I think it’s such a shame the council don’t force better gardens etc as part of the planning process.

Another thing is that these developments are often not welcomed by the locals, especially in small towns, and the infrastructure isn't ready for them. I know of one town where the population has gone up considerably in the last 30 years but they still have the same number of primary schools.

I live on a new build development and from looking round at others have realised how nice ours is! It is a garden village with houses inspired by the arts and craft style. As it's a garden village there are a lot of green areas. The pavements are very wide and there are wide plants beds between the pavement and the road. All the houses have a decent size front garden and there are several lovely communal areas.

The rooms in the houses are a good size with 9ft ceilings. The drive ways are between houses too so there is always at least a driveways distance between houses and often more and everything feels nicely spaced out.

Others we have seen have shocked us with no or very narrow pavements, houses opening onto the pavement, houses centimetres apart etc. We are very lucky with our one.

Oh and ours is built on an old factory site so hasn't taken over any countryside and has in fact brought greenery back onto the site.

Speaking as someone who spent years living in flats in London suburbs that were nowhere near the Tube or overground, where residents of 16 flats would fight over 4 metered parking spaces and which had no gardens or ludicrously overlooked gardens, and which were freezing cold and overrun with rodents, who now lives very happily on a 10 year old newbuild estate attached to a market town, these are not problems that only exist in newbuild estates, and developer greed is not something that only appeared in the last ten years or even the last fifty years.

@Oldraver not somewhere near Bury st Edmunds by any chance?

From the ones we have viewed and the ones my friends live in, I personally think the people buying the houses are on crack.

It's all about maximising the space and building them for as low as possible.

The Warren design is odd, you can get sooo lost!

DS dies a sports course at a local community centre, which has 12 parking spaces. The instructors need 2. Then 20-30 kids parents need to park in the remaining ones... And there is an entrance but no exit do not easy to get out with other cars trying to get in

It is chaos every time

And no public transport, so it has to be the car

Curved roads encourage slower driving and make the areas safer for children to play out. Visitor parking can be a pata if insufficient is allocated, but it does keep costs down etc.

The ones near us are also on flood plains, no shops, no buses, and the only primary school with space is 3 miles away past 6 other schools (all of which have much smaller catchment areas)

The worst thing is the fact that so many new houses are leasehold, a complete scam.

Councils should not give permission to poorly planned estates. Roads should be wide enough to allow parking, there should always be pavements wide enough for wheelchair users and prams. I would prefer to see proper room size standards too e.g. Parker Morris - some of these homes are absolutely tiny. They are advertised with undersized furniture to try and hide the fact that often the rooms are not really big enough to allow normal amounts of furniture without feeling cramped.