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.

I wonder if having lots of children in a smaller house was easier back in the days when children were allowed to roam the local area without adult supervision. It's not likely we're going to go back to that way of doing things and I wonder if it's partly what's driven the trend of wanting bigger homes.

I live in a 3 bed 1900s terrace with one bathroom. Just me and 2 children so we all have a bedroom. Would love another bathroom but no where to put one and can’t afford to buy bigger. In the north. My house was £95k when I bought it but only seem to going in the £80k region now. Some of the same houses are actually 2 bed. The upstairs seems to have different configurations depending on which house. The 3rd bedroom is tiny though. Even my bedroom isn’t huge. But the newer build houses in our area are looking more like £180k onwards for the 1970s build properties of 3 beds - some have added extra toilets and extended over their garages, and then the newer build ones which are actually smaller with less outdoor space are over £200k.

But the north is definitely cheaper.

I’m currently visiting my granny who bought her 3 bed flat in 1964. At the time it was them, my grandad’s elderly mum and my mother. Then at various points there were my grandparents, my mum and her first husband; grandparents my aunt and her first husband and their son; grandparents me and my mum; grandparents and me; granny and two of my cousins; granny, my older cousin and my middle cousin with his wife…. One bathroom to share between as many as 5 people at once. Somehow it always felt relatively normal to us. Most of my married friends share one bed flat with their kids by converting the living room into a main bedroom and using a kitchen as a family room. UK is an exception. Elsewhere in Europe it’s not that uncommon for multiple generations to share a relatively small flat.

Hmm, Can't really go much smaller for us lol, we are a family of 8 in a 2 bed in the SE.... Two girls in one room, two boys in the other, boy n girl twins in with us in the front room cum nursery cum bedroom cum office!
Luckily we make it work, I go out most of the day with the kids, our older kids work, and we get on really well, especially the kids having to share, you kinda have to lol.
We also love the area too much to want to go cheaper, so we do without to stay somewhere nice!
But we can't afford anything bigger atm, we were supposed to be moving but due to personal reasons it fell through, then I had the twins...now hoping by the time the twins need their own room the two eldest will have found their own place, otherwise it will be three to a room! x

If people are going to buy smaller homes then I’d like to know where they’re going to find them because all the new developments that I see are mostly 4 and 5 bedroomed houses.

Just has a look on rightmove for a town close to me £75k for a 3 bed 2 bath mid terrace. Wish the whole country had such prices.

That ship sailed in London years ago!

Lots of professional mid-earning families I know live in small flats because of affordability

That’s nothing new.

Did they live in a hole in the ground and get thrashed to sleep ?

My dads side of the family owned a little shop, nan never worked, 2 kids, 4 bedroomed house.

Why should I have that ? I have an expensive education and a high pressured job. But apparently my living standards should be worse

No, they didn't. They are a very loving family who are very involved in the community. A lack of individual bedrooms doesn’t indicate disfunction.

There might be policy for how many bedrooms families get in social housing, but if the properties aren't there, the families don't get them. We are 4 in a 3 bed ex council. The 2 council properties either side of me each have 4 kids in, presumably they're the most overcrowded families.

There's thousands of kids in one room bed and breakfasts waiting years for housing, it's not a better deal.

Speaking as someone who has 6 children and lives in a 3 bed terrace…

I LOVE THIS

Yes I know that is why I posted that🙄

This is already happening and it's not 'interesting' it IS a bad thing. People are being forced to houseshare into their 30s people are limiting how many children they are having because they can't afford it and there's significant overcrowding. The fall of living standards between the generations is mind blowing. Everyone should be angry about it and want change. It's not an 'interesting' spectator sport

There’s nothing to Love about lack of privacy and personal space and boundaries for six children who didn’t asked to be brought into the world.

I obviously meant the sign. I wouldn’t choose to have more children than I had bedrooms for, personally. But the sign is wholesome and different living arrangements suit different people.

@Bignanny30 I think the issue with a lot of new build 4 beds is often the space isn't actually much bigger than some of the 3 beds but the builders Chuck another room in there (or even an "office/bedroom 4 downstairs) and can charge a lot more for it.

This is very true. I know of one local authority which has a criteria for how big a family must be to be housed in a 4 bed house, despite there only being 2 4 bed houses in the whole of the local authority area (including HA stock)

Unfortunately since bedroom tax, social landlords are nervous about building anything bigger than a 3 bed for fear they will be unlettable or people won't afford them

houses in England are so small and ceilings very low in newish houses. I live in middle east. our house is nearly 400sqm, when i come home to i stay with my mom and always feel very claustrophobic.

@jojo2202 , heat rises, so lower ceilings better suit the climate in the UK.

My parents had four children in a three bedroomed house. My sister and I shared a room right until she got married at the age of 23 (I was then 14) and my brothers shared until the elder went to uni. Somehow we managed.
I'm sure it's nice for children to have their own rooms and I did feel sorry for my sister as there was nine years between us, (the boys were only four years apart) but we didn't have any choice.

We weren't dirt poor, we never went hungry and we managed a family holiday most years, albeit in the UK, but there was little left for real luxuries. We had much lower expectations in those days I suppose.

My son went to look at a new built flat a few weeks ago
2 bed - 2bath
so the main bedroom was big easily fit a double bed wardrobes chest of drawers and beside tables

the second bedroom if you put a large single bed in you couldn’t fit in a wardrobe or anything else

the agent said most people use it as office or wardrobe

I told her it was basically a one bed flat with aspirations of being a two bed 😂

Has the UK banking system brought in the home loan types where friends can get together to buy property?

While I really see the attraction we should remember that the Americans are responsible for ost of the world pollution - part of that is surely heating and cooling these massive houses?

I went to LA on a holiday - the movie star houses from the 50s were really lovely reasonable houses. The ones now? Insane. That same trip I was in a beast of a house in NJ which was on an estate where all the houses were massive. We could hear the toilet flushing on the top floor (3rd) from the kitchen. The entire ground floor was massive open spaces - air conditioning was on all day and all night of the entire summer. I presume heat was the same for the winter. They needed to drive everywhere.

Loads of space but at what cost?