‘I have to move my bike to get to the fridge’ – the UK boom in microflats. AIBU to think this type of living is awful and developers should be stopped from creating these units?

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www.theguardian.com/business/2021/nov/15/uk-boom-microflats-property-house-prices-barratts

How is it legal to sell or rent out 'homes' like this? He has to wear earplugs to drown out the noise from his boiler and fridge. There is no sink in the partitioned off loo. What kind of life is this?

@Canigooutyet

Laws for private and social housing should be the same. In social housing if the boiler is in a room it cannot be considered a bedroom. No doubt the owner has some lame excuse about be coming an accidental LL.

Sealed boilers are quite different from normal ones. They vent outside and cannot leak in to the room. Many purpose built block have these. Lots of properties that have been split into flats have sealed boilers - the ones I see every day tend to have them.

Newer properties will start to have electric boilers, in advance of the change in regulations.

Why is his fridge so noisy?

That made me think. Do I see many unsealed boilers? No, I don't think I do. I rarely see an expansion chamber any more, so the majority of boilers must be sealed these days.

www.boilerguide.co.uk/articles/is-installing-boiler-in-bedroom-a-good-idea

£900 a month I pay almost half of that for the mortgage on my lovely 3 story 3 bedroom (and 3 toilet ) townhouse up north.

My early childhood was spent living in a van, small truck or bender. I know many people who live in a van today.

I see no issue at all with living in a small space. Particularly as a single adult, but I have known 5 person + families living happily in a traditional Romany wagon. Living with minimal goods can be a wonderful and freeing thing. In this case, there is also the ease of gas, electric, a loo and running water; I vividly remember my excitement the first time we had tap running water (previously pumps or wells).

However, while, for me, the lack of space is no issue at all, the price for that space (in the article) is bloody insane! One (small) room just shouldn't cost that much. Mad London pricing though, I guess.

My plan, once my children have left home, is to sell and either buy a studio or build a tiny home. Cheap to run, minimises fuel use, no clutter - fantastic.

£900 a month for that?? The landlords rubbing his hands here.

I think the Tokyo ones are slightly better as they seem to have loft space for the bedroom area so downstairs is living /entertaining and the bedroom is still kind of private. I’ve never seen a bed sit or studio where the end of the bed in the kitchen they are normally slightly around a corner so you can see them but not cook dinner while sitting on the bed.

I lived in somewhere similar when I first moved to
London. Although the ‘kitchen’ part was smaller and I slept on sofa bed. The council eventually forced the LL to get rid of it. That LL was a cow.

I think its a good idea. Its an alternative from a house share. I would much rather live alone in a tiny bedsit, than share with others in a bigger space. Don't forget London is an expensive place to live, and that price includes utilities.

It wouldn't be my choice but it was clearly his. I'd rather live in a larger space with more flatmates or commute further in to work.

The rent is affordable??? 900 a month?? I pay less than that for a 3 bed with a massive garden in a city that has pretty much everything London has except a financial district!

Having all that kitchen stuff (oven, hob, fridge, washing machine, etc.) just next to the bed looks like a potential fire risk.

Generally speaking, microsized rooms are more likely to be cluttered, and not have enough clearance around electrical equipment. Bad idea from a safety perspective. Also if there's stuff in the way, it's harder to get out in case of emergency.

And doesn't look like there's enough room to manoeuvre a wheel chair either.

Nothing wrong with a tiny bedsit in and of itself.

Absolutely everything wrong with landlords removing regular housing stock in order to create multiple tiny bedsits, charging £900 a month for them, and knowing that many will pay it because it's their only realistic choice.

Housing in this country is insanely overpriced.

giant concrete piggy banks

Indeed. Where we used to live in London you see Victorian houses being turned into four storey blocks of flats and as a family who spent two years trying to find a house in the area and then moved elsewhere it does piss me off.

£900 a month. Disgusting.

Well all seems clean and shiny, and better than living in a tent, and everything is the dream colour of lots, in grey.

As the article says, for short term living, renting is fine. If these properties are owned and the market dips, imagine being in negative equity when you want to start a family. Also these places must have been horrendous during that first lockdown, especially for the family with a 2 year old, doesn't bear thinking about.

I rented something similar in my early 20s when I moved for work. It was a little bigger I think. It had a mezzanine bed (banged my head every morning for the first few days), with a two seater sofa and TV underneath. A small kitchen on the other wall (about four cupboards long), microwave but no cooker,, a talk storage cupboard/wardrobe and then tiny bathroom (tiniest sink ever) but it was perfect for me. I’d have had to have a room in a shared house otherwise. At a certain stage of life I think it’s practical.

London prices, are another matter entirely and the system is broken. The whole system. Foreign wealthy folk buying as investments and leaving empty properties, social inequality and not valuing key workers (shop workers and carers compared with bankers for example - two much of a gap) - we need protected properties for key workers. We learned how important they are during the pandemic. We rely on shop workers, refuse collectors, carers etc, yet don’t pay them enough to afford a decent home.

£900 for a bedsit 😂🥴🥴

Was in small small studio room in past. Different from when student. Had small student halls of residence room but was fun exciting cos young, new living away from home first time, out lots.

Was nightmare hell when older especially cos was ill and home lots. Got suicidal cos was like prison and had valium from doctor cos of it. Is one reason trapped in violent abusive relationship cos not allowed safe home in London unless good advocacy support but support very bad in London is lottery and is closed waiting lists. Rather be dead than trapped in prison room again.

Cos ok when young and healthy and out all time but hell when disabilities and indoors all the time. Don't need palace mansion but wish before died could've had own safe home just bathroom, kitchen, and bedroom separate. Living room be nice especially if disability and home most of time but just proper studio would have been nice but my life is killing me now worn out broken down so will die without ever having safe home.

It wouldn't be my choice - I would prefer a share - but I don't see that developers should be stopped from offering people something they like just because they don't appeal to some of us.

@Ghoulette

The rent is affordable??? 900 a month?? I pay less than that for a 3 bed with a massive garden in a city that has pretty much everything London has except a financial district!

Don't give shit about finances district but London is cos when you not young and disabilities injuries and trauma need familiar place cos only thing you have left.

Tried leaving but refuge was far and too much. Isolated cut off from everything ever known and some of them hated people not from there and I'm not being paranoid cos things were said.

Was suicidal again cos felt so alone and unwanted and made to feel like was stealing local woman's place and was so far away from what I know was too much in situation of disability and trauma. Is different if young and healthy.

£900 not affordable anyway not for if on benefits and even if you manage to afford it the landlords don't let you rent their places even slum prison rooms like these box room places. So is why domestic violence happens so much cos victims trapped without long term safe homes to flee to.

How depressing

Life is easier if youre a couple because for less than double that, you can rent somewhere decent

There is a really good YouTube channel called Never Too Small. They look at well-designed small homes and most of them I would be very happy to live in, although I would have to give up most of my stuff and my DC. There is a lot to be said for downsizing and many of the places featured are in areas where space is expensive like Hong Kong.

The micro home in this article though is terribly badly designed. For instance, why does he even need a boiler, a place that small could be heated with a plug-in radiator and the shower could be electric. As a PP said, it's basically a bed in a kitchen. A single person doesn't need a full-sized kitchen and the bed could have been a Murphy bed to give some living space.

That's the crazy situation in London I guess.

But developer greed is an issue. I think there do need to be legal minimum space standards for new builds and for commercial to residential conversions. Right now it's completely unregulated.

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar this is what I was thinking! I stayed in a tiny flat once and it was great as very well designed and all the white goods were about 1/3 smaller than usual. This was in Paris. I’ve also had a bed in a kitchen situation before but it was just a much better organised space. That looks bloody awful.

And surely the least a development like that could provide is a communal laundry space so you don’t have to have a washing machine. I feel like we are not good in the UK at sharing but I think we’ll have to get better if this is the future of housing.