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 think en suites went through a phase of being so trendy people had to have them regardless of the consequences 😅

@groupery sure but I feel you are saying it from a negative aspect, whereas I think people expect a higher standard of living so they're not saying "oh no I can't afford a third" because it's too expensive, but we can have 2 and the life we want (and be happy with 2)...if that makes sense, I know it's sort of the same point.

It's actual madness that we build houses with as many bathrooms as bedrooms while the bedrooms are so small they can't accommodate even basic bedroom furniture. Where are you supposed to put your clothes? Or study? In your frigging en suite bathroom?

Well I do think it's a negative that housing is so expensive, wages have stagnated, there isn't enough support for families etc. 🤷🏻‍♀️

In my city they either build pokey 1/2 bed flats and sell for North of £250k each. Or "executive" 4/5 beds for North of £650k each.

There is a spattering of 3 beds, but they tend to be dinky narrow things being built which I stare at and wonder how on earth they fit furniture in them.

Growing up in the 1980's my friendship group was all 2 parents & 2 children in a 1970s 3 bed house. The only friend with 2 siblings was rich and had a 4 bed house which was like a mansion to me. I was one of 4 kids in a 3 bed house. 3 girls shared one room.

A 4 bed house to me was a luxury to aspire to, we have 3 kids and just got our 4 bed in 2021 when my kids were 12, 10 & 9yo.

I agree. We have prioritised housing wealth over what the country actually needs and now we have depreciating housing values anyway, but with a smaller birth rate and a future pension and health care problem due to it.

Our politicians and economists are thick as shit.

Maybe you can eat in your ensuite bathroom as well. Because you sure as shit can't eat as a family in an open plan living space that's 10x10 ft that already has a sofa, telly and a bunch of kids' toys in it.

I have heard of people getting the plumbing removed from their ensuite to create storage space

Yep. We live in a 4 bedroom house which sounds like we should be swimming in space, but 2 of the bedrooms are too small to fit more than a single bed and a chest of drawers.

A 4 bed house to me was a luxury to aspire to

Maybe because i'm a Londoner but i've never got the idea that a certain number of bedrooms is aspirational or a detached. For me location & sq footage are by far the most important things.

I do think it’s daft that social housing aims to provide separate rooms for children of different sexes in a family when many middle earners don’t have that luxury.

We have this problem in our flat. 2 small bath rooms and two doubles that could be bigger. One room wouldn't fit a king bed that comfortably (would be hard to open the closet). It would have made much more sense to have a bathroom and a separate toilet and more bedroom space. But, we live near the sea, so they weren't built for families were they? They were built for second home/holiday let investors. This is a big problem. Much of what we have built in recent years were for either investors, pensioners with money, or people on large salaries upsizing. Very few starter homes for actual families.

Maybe there will be more multi -generational living with families pooling financial resources to buy or adapt a property they can share. We are about to move in with my husband's grandmother who lives in a big farmhouse. It will come with challenges but ultimately it'll help all of us.

No, not at all. And the two things are not unrelated.

Children are expensive. Being unable to have children means more disposable income than otherwise, and hence more affordability for a larger house, but it’s not a privilege.

6 of us in a 3 bed / 1 bathroom here.

Would love to be able to move to a 4 or 5 bed but no way we can afford it

The days that are coming are likely where adult kids can no longer afford to move out because rent and home ownership become out of reach of young people. I know a few thirty year olds who have overstretched themselves jumping in with 4 bedroom houses that they barely struggle to afford but those in their twenties i doubt will even be able to afford a 2 bed starter unless something changes.

The U.K. already has the smallest housing in Europe. I’m in a two-bed house and have three children -now in their 20s. They shared. Most siblings shared, amongst their primary school friends. We don’t have any en-suites, and only have one bathroom/loo. This is completely normal amongst those I know.

Meh, I can't get exercised about that. Only around 15% of people live in social housing and a huge chunk of those are pensioners so don't have kids in the home anyway.

The bigger issue is that we're all expected to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to live in tiny boxes with no storage, a million bathrooms, that are by and large inadequately ventilated, inadequately insulated and have endemic damp problems.

This is pretty much my life. I'm in my 40s and kind of felt: yes, I've done it! When we got the big house. Even though it's taken us nearly 20 years to get here and needs a lot of work. We bought our first tiny 3 bed in 2006, so made bugger all when we sold it. And by 3 bed, the 3rd room only fit a single bed in it. My parents' 3 bed is bigger. A house they bought in early 70s when they earned fuck all.

We're fixed for another 3 years, but I'd be gutted if we had to downsize so soon if mortgagesgo right up. I feel like stamping my foot and saying:"but it's but fair! We did it all the sensible way. Let us have this. "

Same here - well seven adult ( 6 of us plus Ds's gf who doesn't really have a home to go to due to parents splitting and each now having new partners kids living with them ). fortunately we have a decent sized lounge/ diner at the back so can use out front downstairs room as a bedroom. I see it being this way for a while as no-one can afford to move out.

I hope to see more communal living.
I see it as a real fingers up to the powers that be.
People need to start banding together.

Yeah not been a lot of future proofing going on. Meanwhile the rest of the world outside of Europe is skilling up.

Ofc the pension gap is exacerbated by us having had stagnant wages for 15 years. Nobody can put a lot aside when their earnings don't grow but their expenses do.

They're already here. My lad has just finished Uni and had secured what we thought was a good graduate job with a national firm in a city 100 miles away. We thought, naively, that his salary would be enough for him to rent a flat to live there. Nope! Flat rental prices are insanely high as the city has 2 Unis and a teaching university, so lots of student demand, and it's also a major tourist destination, so lots of flats are holiday lets on AirBnB etc. Flats only appear on the market at the rate of 1 or 2 per week, and they are "let agreed" typically 2 days later - you have to be there to get a viewing as the agents expect you to drop everything and view on the day they appear on the market! Typically £1250 to £1500 for a flat, and even £800-£900 for a room rental in a shared house! Son is now seriously considering giving back word which is an absolute travesty as there are no decent employers within commutable distance of home for his chosen profession!

But just imagine how much higher house prices would be if wages had increased over the last decade!

But just imagine how much higher house prices would be if wages had increased over the last decade!

I think we would have seen higher interest rates. It's low rates that has contributed to wage stagnation