‘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?

The Japanses ones are much better designed and have the mezzanine type floors which at least gives you the option if taking the bed out of the living space

Is not ok bed in kitchen prison room for disabilities housebound people.

The bike could be wall mounted.

The main issue is the boiler by the bed. I hope it's not a gas one.

A home like this could be ok if properly thought out, but that one isn't.

@SW1amp I don't think there is a door. Article just says there is a partition and the kitchen sink does double duty for a handbasin.

This is an alternative for a flat share. In Japan and Korea residents of these types of places get really creative and share a lot activities. For example one owner is responsible for cooking, another for hosting, one for washing clothes so you don’t need to clutter each individual flat with lots of things. It can work quite well.

Looked at a room in a shared house in London which literally had a shower cubical in the middle of the room that was nearly 20 years ago.

Land and property in London are expensive not sure what the solution is some people need to live in London for their chosen career but many not make a huge amount in wages so these properties work for them.

@almahart

It's the toilets opening onto kitchens that's particularly grim IMO.

That's not a new thing. I live in a 1930s maisonette and the bathroom is off the kitchen.

That's fairly typical of a lot of older houses in south London.

What's so new and innovative about a bedsit? Back in the day they were perfectly normal, albeit with more damp and a lower rent. You often had a shared bathroom and laundry room, and they were usually unexpectly clean.

What I don't understand - and didn't understand back when I was first looking at bedsits when I wanted to move out - is why a bedsit needs a full sized kitchen taking up most of the room, when a micro kitchen would be sufficient.

@Beautiful3

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.

Yes. I've lived in far worse in London, I must say, and I can entirely see the appeal, if you want to trade off privacy for more space in a house share.

I also remember the old, unregulated bedsits that were common a few decades ago, which were often a bedroom-cum-kitchen where you could sit up in bed and fry and egg, and a shared, often gross, bathroom. My aunt was living in one in the 80s where her cooker was out on the landing because it wouldn't fit inside the room.

I also lived briefly in a student flat in Prague that had a shower cubicle in the middle of the kitchen. And a Kilburn squat where you regularly had to use an umbrella indoors.

Like @Herja, I know people who raise children successfully in very small spaces.

@astoundedgoat

What's so new and innovative about a bedsit? Back in the day they were perfectly normal, albeit with more damp and a lower rent. You often had a shared bathroom and laundry room, and they were usually unexpectly clean.

What I don't understand - and didn't understand back when I was first looking at bedsits when I wanted to move out - is why a bedsit needs a full sized kitchen taking up most of the room, when a micro kitchen would be sufficient.

Yes, I remember a friend's bedsit in New Cross where you opened a cupboard about the size of a wardrobe and inside there was a tiny kitchen

The problem with this flat is its been shoe horned into an existing property and is really poorly designed,

I live in the midlands and am seeing more of this shoddy overdevelopment of houses that would make two decent flats with 6 or more studio flats squeezed in.

The other flat featured in that article looks purpose built and is very well designed. You need longer rooms to fit things in and the different spaces can flow. Your standard squarish room in a house really doesnt work for this type of use.

But if you are a social housing tenant you may end up with something like this and no choice.
www.theguardian.com/society/2020/sep/27/housing-crisis-planning-converting-office-blocks-homes-catastrophe-jenrick

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar

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.

Yep! I work for a man who describes himself as a 'slum landlord' He caters for people who can't get housing anywhere else, many reliant on various benefits, unwaged, ex cons etc.

His bedsits and 1-bed places have hot water taps, electric showers and wall mounted electric radiators. All really efficient. So good he rarely has anyone do a runner on him. If a 'slum landlord' can do it, with bad risk tenants, anyone can, surely?!

Probably preferable to renting a room and sharing a bathroom though.

Most apartments in France don't have a sink next to the toilet, it's usually in the one in the main bathroom (no toilets in bathrooms here).

We live in a 2 bed flat , 2 adults and 2 children. It's become a bit of a personal challenge to keep the apartment working for us as our children grow up. I get a little impatient with my mum, for example, who lives in a 4-bed detached house and complains she doesn't have enough space or that she 'needs' a second shower room (it's just her and my dad at home now). From a sustainable living pov, aspiring to a 3-4 bed detached house for every family or retired couple is not reasonable - unless we want to cover the world in tarmac and bricks.

I thing new about micro apartments it is just a rebranding of what used to be a studio flat. First place I bought over 35 years ago was a studio around the same size. The only difference is there was no boiler noise as it didn’t have central heating.

@Boood

I’d be interested to hear about the size and type of home the people defending this live in. No, it’s not sustainable for everyone to live innGrand Designs-style mansions. Yes, we need to encourage more people to live in apartments and in existing densely populated urban areas. No, the way to do this isn’t to turn vaste swathes of land into giant concrete piggy banks for the wealthy, aka tiny, barely inhabitable cells for the rest.

Thank you. Is true what you say. People all saying is ok is no way they'd cope housebound in prison room home. Is not same if young or student or temporary and out working and out partying. If 24 hours 7 days week disabled is very bad. Is like solitary confinement prison cell.

Is why so many domestic violence murders cos not enough safe homes go flee to. Is prison cell slums or what a person previous on this thread said her friend who is slum landlord ssys. Is housing all together benefits and that is lots of victims of domestic violence and housed in together with ex prisoners including sometimes other people's abusers. Lots of people don't care and know they never will but is bad they not honest cos sometimes same people pretend they all outrage about domestic violence. Is all pretending cos truth is they think if you trauma victim or disabled, you scum who is only allowed prison cell home.

Is also different and not same as old bedsits. Cos I been in old bedsits when younger and lots are big size rooms and if big or small, big difference is they was cheap and affordable.

Was also used to be squats if you had no money. Had friends lived in squats. Was options in past is not those options now.

@Boood

great point. I am single, though I now do have a son. Being single should not mean you have to live in a shoe box and pay astronomical rent.
The picture of that ‘micro kitchen’ is ridiculous. I’m not a great cook, but even I would need more than that. Where is the fridge, food storage, kitchen bin.
The kitchen in the original article wasnt huge and looks to me like the absolute minimum

I'm shocked people are defending this. Imagine smelling toilet smells in your kitchen/bedroom/living space because someone has just been for a no2. I thought it wasn't allowed to have a loo off the kitchen with no door?
What a sad state we are in.

I think it's fine for a young single person. I would've quite liked it.