To think it will soon become more normal for families to live in smaller houses

[flipflopfloop]

With the recent rates increasing, borrowing costs are so high now that it would be at least 1200pcm in repayments for a small 2 bed house around here and it’s a relatively cheap area of the country. If not higher than this. Surely this will mean the days of having more bedrooms than people are numbered, and more and more families will have to make do with smaller living space - possibly leading to smaller family sizes even. I personally don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. They are building lots of new developments on the outskirts of our city with prices starting from 350 for a 2 bed. A 4 bed home with three useable bedrooms there is easily 450-500. I find it interesting to wonder who will occupy these as presumably they are not yet sold and you would have to have at least a 6 figure household income to be able to afford this.

Well obviously an inheritance is different but for the most part , people buy houses they can’t afford and the banks allow it . We’re all suffering now and I’m part it’s due to our own greed and need to keep up with the Joneses.

Well if you're anything like us we have a lot of skills and ability that we can do it all ourselves might take a bit longer but we get there. We also make our income go a long way ( not actually sure how we do it we shock ourselves sometimes) 😲 . But yes there are lots of different ways people achieve what they want .

Did you steal it?!! 🧐

Not RTFT.
@Arabels , most of the new housing in the town where I live is flats. They are mainly open plan kitchen-diner-living room, and are short on storage space, because the floor space has been used to make money for the builders.

I think the consumption won't slow down all that much, but there will be more items being discarded.

So what do you view as the solution? Someone does a free house swap where you get the big old house and in return they gey your one bedroom house?

I already know people who are stopping at one child because they can't afford to move.

The management fees are my issue
They basically can charge what they want, use expensive contractors and pass the costs on to us
I pay £170pm and that's in the NW. what does that cover... someone "gardening" or wrecking my tiny lawn once a month whether it needs doing or not, window cleaning and building insurance
They came to cut a tree that was too high and just lopped off one side of it to the trunk. No attempt at actual shaping of it

I do wonder also what the broader societal impact of the housing crisis will be. Younger people whether in insecure private lets, or precariously mortgaged to the hilt, are likely going to feel very let down. A generation totally disenfranchised and disengaged with little stake in society. That surely can't be good.

I‘m with you on everything you said but particularly the big golf courses!!

It really depends where you are.

Near me you can get a lovely 4 bed detached for approx £800.

But are there jobs to match?

I don't see why it would be a bad thing - people living more within their means and borrowing less. Most of us of a certain age remember being in small houses, sharing bedrooms with siblings which was the norm and it didn't do us any harm. Thing is that now most people think they are 'entitled' to have things which are really not within their means, even if it means borrowing to have them. And while I'm sorry for those affected by interest rate rises, it should be remembered that rates have been far too low, for far too long, and it was obvious that they would rise some time. However it should have been done much more gradually.

Oh yes, overcrowding is a wonderful side effect of all this!

I could afford that one. £800. Is it a doll's house?

wrong person quoted.

I meant this one

Willyoujustbequiet · Today 12:53
It really depends where you are.

Near me you can get a lovely 4 bed detached for approx £800.

Have been looking to buy a house for months now. Most of the newbuilds are ridiculously small - so maybe a 4 bed but rooms tiny. i guess there is a legal minimum size for a bedroom but this needs to be addressed too.

Overcrowding is one of the main reasons for an increase in violent crime. People snap at their neighbours households implode on themselves when they can’t get away from each other.

Absolutely.

This is not a good thing. Before we know it we will be returning to whole families in one bed - hurrah 🙄

This. But people don't like to hear it. They'd rather live in denial in a big house they cannot afford (unless interest rates stayed ridiculously low). If you can't afford your house at 5 or 6% interest, you could never afford the house.

I believe the minimum size is 6.51m² - so 2.55x2.55m or equivalent.

My box room is that size and it's not suitable for anything beyond a cramped nursery.

It's been interesting researching my family tree. Some of my ancestors lived in very overpopulated houses, seen on the censuses. One had 4 children, an elderly parent AND a lodger in a 3-bed house!

I think one of the issues is people describing wants as needs.

I heard a young woman on the bus the other day chatting to a friend and saying 'I've told the housing association that I need a 4 bedder' when really she meant I want a 4 bedder. The way she said it sounded like she felt it was an entitlement.

People's expectations have hugely increased regardless of income on many cases

My best friend as a teenager was one of 12 children in a three bedroom house. Nobody imploded.

No. Redundancy and profit on sale of old house in Kent. We stretched ourselves to our limits in our 20's. I had a good job, I had a massive pay off and bought in an area that's doubled in value in ten years. It's been a series of risks that paid off so mostly luck. However, what it's not is unaffordable. It would be if I wanted to buy it today. But no one stays on same circumstances however much you would hope too.

So to outside it looks like we might have been feckless or entitled. But meh. It's not the truth.

Stealing it might have been easier though. My husband's boss seems enraged we have a bigger house than him. So he is welcome to time travel back, do my degree, specialise in my field, then get almost two decades of redundancy. It's not all luck really.

@DyslexicPoster I was going to suggest a large redundancy payment

We work in music and I know several people from the 70s and 80s who have big places due to a one off large advance royalty chq (happened a lot at the time) and they could buy outright!! but have never earnt more than £50k