To think new builds are too small

[Neuroticmillenial]

Especially social housing.

Much prefer old style council houses with the smaller kitchens but larger living rooms and dining rooms.

I’m in a rented new build and I’d trade a hallway/porch and grassy garden for our bigger kitchen (bigger than living room) and downstairs toilet. Our stairs is less than 2 metres from our front door and it’s a pain with the buggy!

I think the UK has the smallest housing footprint in Europe.

I agree. All new builds under a certain budgets and sometimes over around here, are tiny. With bad layouts and small rooms. The 3rd bedroom is always made smaller for the addition of an ensuite, which i find crazy.

I lived in HA and it had really good sized rooms. It was built in the 40s. I'm now in my ex council 70s and again has a really well thought out layout, big rooms and big front and back garden and garage!

Some absolutely are. Ridiculous sizes. 3bedrooms, 3bathrooms, in quare footage of what should be a 2bed flat🤦

I agree. I think we should have minimum room sizes to prevent house builders making tiny ridiculous homes. I would also like to see all bedrooms (in new homes) have built in wardrobes as I think this is cost effective and sensible to have homes with storage built in as standard.

100%. With easily swapped doors

We have a new housing estate being built near us. I'm watching the foundations being put in place and can see the layout of the downstaira rooms. The rooms are small and pokey. I'm thinking one 3 piece suite and there's no space to move.

Went to look at the demo house, looks lovely, furnishings look good but if you really look properly, there's no wardrobe in the bedrooms, the sofas are 2 seater sofas and look slightly smaller than ur average size ones. Beds are small doubles etc...gardens are tiny, just a small square patch in the back. And on top of that, they're charging a small fortune for the privilege.

I had an estate agent in stitches yesterday whilst talking about the box room at my mum's house. I was 5 when we moved in. As the youngest I got the smallest room and heard everyone who was youngest at school call their room the box room so that's what my bedroom got called. It's 10ft by 12 ft. The agent said don't view any new builds then.

Obviously I know it's not actually a box room now but kid logic and all.

Our first house was a new build with “three bedrooms”.

It was ludicrous and barely big enough for just me and DH. One of the bedrooms could fit a small single bed or desk and nothing else. The second bedroom could fit a double but you wouldn’t be able to move. The master bedroom had a totally unnecessary en-suite (as there is an upstairs bathroom and a cloakroom downstairs) and no storage. Even the garage wasn’t big enough for anything larger than a VW Golf.

The estate also had extremely narrow pavements (no doubt due to them wanting to squeeze extra houses in) so couldn’t be used by buggies, wheelchairs etc. Hideous.

There are government technical space standards that set out desired minimum sizes and housing associations conform to these. Private developers often don't for their cheaper houses. Ironically then, social housing is sometimes larger than private.

There is a huge housing shortage and pressure on land, especially in the south east. Developments are built to such high densities so the space standards and garden sizes of the old council houses are gone sadly.

Technical housing standards – nationally described space standard

We do - they were introduced in 2016

Like this one.
How is 2.3m on 1.4m a bedroom???
Yes. 1.4m! Single bed is 0.9x1.9. That leaves 50cm and less next to the bed each side.
I could put 1 foot infront of another and that is the spare space. Literally.

It should not be allowed to be classed as bedroom. Bedroom 2 is also quite shit. Pretty sure that just tiny bit longer than 30s semi box room...

https://www.barratthomes.co.uk/new-homes/dev002575-brun-lea-heights/plot-69-h850169/?location=Manchester

The days are long gone where you can get a large council house on a big plot, our population has increased massively and is only going to get worse with the demands on social housing, you can’t expect social housing as it was in the past, times have changed there are just too many people to house so small it is unless you have a budget to buy a large home that’s what you get these days.

I can see a PP has linked these standards, so are they legal min room sizes? Or just a recommendation if private developers don’t have to conform to them?

The council just gave my CF neighbour planning permission to convert a small two bedroomed bung, into two, three bedroom bungs. He has come just over the absolute minimum of living space in each of the rooms. A local architect wrote a long letter to the council stating it was inadequate housing, but their standard line is that three bedroom houses are in demand, therefore they automatically get permission. The gardens will be postage stamp, and there is no garaging. But there is a condition to provide bicycle storage! We live 8 miles from the local town. Developers play the game. It is truly awful.

Not another post slagging off new builds!

They’re not all tiny with tiny rooms and tiny gardens.

DD has a 1920's ex council house semi (she didn't RTB). It is the tiniest thing I have ever been in. You can't swing a mouse let alone a cat in the lounge, barely fit a sofa in it. Kitchen is tiny, we all struggle to get in and out of the bathroom - only one toilet in the house which is in the bathroom. Back garden is at an angle to the house due to the way they were crammed in but is a good size. Bedrooms - no room for a wardrobe. The stairs are incredibly steep and the treads are very narrow, I have to come down sideways To this day I cannot work out how anyone brought a family up in this house.

If you are looking to buy just avoid new builds if you think they are too small, I don’t get the angst.

Meant to say I agree with you, there is always a thread like this going, there are lots of new builds in my town and they are massive, obviously you have to pay for size.

A lot of new builds near us are pretty bloody huge - they've got great floor plans too.

I'm not really sure a minimum size for housing (especially social!) would work particularly well in terms of costs and land space with how things currently are - they'd all be crazy expensive. I'm not too sure it's a great use of budget either in terms of social housing!

And yet all adverts for anything furniture related show rooms the size of Blenheim Palace! Our 4 bed has the largest bedroom just big enough for king sized bed, built in wardrobe and 2 sets of drawers. Which leaves about 2 feet each side. Bed adverts show a room the size of our entire top floor! And storage? Absolutely nothing. My sons 3 bed ex council house has more cupboards than our 4 bed and my dads 4 bed put together. Bloody ridiculous.

Housing is one of the areas which has undergone the most shrinkflation, but British people don't realise quite how bad it is because they don't often see the larger houses in other countries.

Even in a country that's even more densely populated than Britain - the Netherlands - the houses are 50% larger.

People in Britain put up with all sorts of crap they shouldn't, and the ridiculous small sizes and high prices of new build houses is one of the worst.

I think 'neatly designed' is a euphemism for 'incredibly cramped'.

Living in a generously proportioned well built well designed new build 2 bed bungalow. Delighted with it tbh.

Not here. You get a lot less for your money if you want a new build here. We looked at lots before we settled on our ex council. Didn't see a single one with a window in bathrooms or toilets

That’s a terrible house design - the downstairs doesn’t flow at all, you’ll be banging into each other and doors all the time. Upstairs bedroom 2 is 4 foot 7 inches wide!

I understand that to house everyone in this country we need houses on smaller footprints than in the 40s. But houses can still be smartly designed for living well.