To ask if a 90 square metre 3 bedroom home is small?

[CapaldiL]

DH and I have been looking at houses and have seen a plan of one which hasn't been built yet. It's 90 square metres in total inside and three floors. The ground floor is open plan kitchen and living, first floor two bedrooms and a bathroom and second floor master bedroom and en suite. It's cheap for the area and I'm wondering if that's a particularly small house?

We haven't been to view anything yet and I don't know the square footage of where we live now (rented).

Wait. Is it 30sq meter per floor? So the whole thing is 90sqm?

crazycatmamma

Where on earth do 3 bed terraces come with a 28sqm living room?

In the south east a typical 3 bed period terrace living room would be maybe 4 x4, 4x5 at best.

Ps OP, 3 floor new builds always have a tiny living area footprint. Essentially they take a small 2 bedroomed house with no dining room, small living room & galley kitchen and stick a 3rd storey bedroom & ensuite on the top.

Avoid!

I am in a 2 bed terrace with a 44sqft living room so maybe someone mistook meters for feet?

Oh I’m mistaken mine is meters

44sqm

It doesn’t feel huge but is enough for a large sofa and arm chair and additional seating area for music / games

Sorry nemo but i don't believe your 2 bed terrace has a forty four square metre living room.

That's like 6.5 x 6.5m. My large 4 bed detached house has a living room about 5 x 5 at most

1950s terrace in Scotland - 7m x 4m living room. Why would I make it up? 🤷🏼‍♀️

90sq m over 3 floors sounds bad tbh. 2 floors? Fine. That's standard 30-40s terrace. Spliting it over 3 will create very small rooms imo

Yes mines 11x4, it has the same footprint upstairs with 2 bed rooms above, each around 5x4 and then a small galley kitchen extension on the rear

Crazycat

Unheard of in the south east!

Ps 7 x 4 is not 44.

It's 28. I thought i was going mad there.

I can believe the 28, I don't believe the 44

Sound like a cheeky builder squeezing rooms in to call it a 3-bed.

The bedrooms will probably be a small double and 2 singles.only one living space. I’m in an area with very generous flats and 3-bed flats tend to be bigger than that house.

Ah memo I'm guessing originally 2 rooms that have been knocked together.

I think people in Scotland and the North are used to much bigger spaces due to the cheaper land values.

In London and the South East, a good 2 bedroom flat is typically 65 -75sqm, 2 bed houses around 80- 85. New 3 bed houses are rarely much over 100sqm.

NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

I said 28 - not sure where you got 44.

Also - it wasn’t cheap, but doesn’t feel like a big house.

Our 3 bed semi (two good size doubles and a fair single or tight double with room for little else) is 145sqm and is a fairly average house, it isn't a new build though , so that seems pretty small, or depends what your needs are

South East, London commuter belt

That is very similar in size to some of the new build 3 beds we looked at last time we moved. I remember looking around and thinking 'hmm, this isn't that tiny' and 'but also, somehow it looks funny'.

It took us a moment to realise they'd equipped it all with 3/4 size utilities (so extra-slim fridge; extra-slim dishwasher, etc.), so if you didn't stand really close and just glanced into the kitchen, you thought it was normal size because a normal amount of stuff fitted in.

Might be worth watching out for that if you do end up going to see a show home off the same development!

It does seem small , though does meet minimum standards for a 4p 3 storey house, however as previously mentioned the footprint is still similar that of a 2 bed so less room downstairs.

There is also minimum standards for storage.

Of all EU countries, England has the smallest homes by floor area. A study by Find Me A Floor in 2017 found that homes in England have an average floorspace of 71.2 sq. m.

I’m in London and the properties are big. The ones that got built in the 60’s and 70’s were big so developers now build them decent too as they’d struggle to sell a half size property.

I live in a 90sqm 3 bed, its just DP and I for now.

It can feel squishy - mostly because we have too much stuff but also the layout, its an older house and was probably fine for a family 50 years ago but its not ideal for the way we live.

Some easy fixes in our case and we've got room to extend if we ever wanted to which might also be an option for you down the track?

Do they have a show home/model you can look through?

Or you could use the floor plans and some tape at a local park to map out the house.
Or go a step further and tape of areas in your current house (i.e. if the new bedroom will be 4m x 3m tape off a 4m x 3m area of your current bedroom, move the furniture into the zone and see how it feels)