To think we need to start building upwards instead of expanding outwards.

[SeoultoSeoul]

I'm not talking about a return to hideous 60s housing blocks, but surely it would be more space effective to build some decent mid rise apartment blocks rather than continuing to destroy habitat and farmland by building new estates everywhere.

I'm lucky enough to live in a family sized house at the moment (there are 5 of us in it) but DH and I will downsize to a flat once the DC move on.

And to reform property ownership laws so that leaseholders have more control and are protected from unscrupulous freeholders

^This, also

I think we should build more three story town houses but I think developers should be forced to create adequate driveways, and gardens in relation to the size of the house.
Also think they should be forced to put proper pavements throughout new estates for safety. There should also be more bungalows but they should be on smaller plots. Never understood why bungalows get the biggest gardens as those that need them often don’t need the hassle. They also make them prime opportunities for people for people to develop which means they disappear over time anyway.

@mustlovegin

The problem is overcrowding

Have you been to Hong Kong? If you fill a city with high-rise apartments it becomes very dark, all the sun is gone. Think of what London would become, for instance.

No but I've been to South Korea and NYC and most people there live in sky scrapers. I enjoyed the buzz and the park culture in both places. I'm not suggesting supercities here, but I am dismayed that the UK building trend of ubiquitous 4 bed detached, will only end when the entire country is paved over. Contributing to more flooding. For those saying we want to grow veg in our back gardens....well quite, because we may have to once the farms have all gone.

YANBU I think we need to start building proper city apartments in towns and cities like they do on the continent. Well built, spacious w plenty of storage and an underground storage container and car parking space per apartment. Not the ratshit little twobeds that are springing up everywhere.

Where I live (HA properties) they built several 2 and 3 bedroom houses, a couple of 4 bed and a small block of 1 and 2 bed flats all on one street, and all of the flats have their own entrance door, no communal areas. Every house / flat also has it's own small garden with a shed. I don't think high rise tower blocks are the answer, but small blocks of flats can work.

There are a couple of developments of flats in my smallish town in Central Scotland.

One looks nice, it's an old Victorian building so will have loads of character.

The big development is a former mill which has a massive extension on it. The flats look slick but souless, there's not enough parking, the balconies look over a busy road, and it is ridiculously overpriced. They are making it into some kind of development with shops and other facilities but it's still not attractive enough for me to consider living in.

I live in a garden flat with a small outside space. I can hang my washing out, sit outside and have a coffee and have a few plants. I wouldn't want to live somewhere with no outside space.