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 saw some hate of aquare rooms on older builda. Floor plans like this make me giggle. Like what the heck were they smoking😂

I definitely think it’s certain new builds rather than all. I was really surprised by the storage in mine (in addition to the double garage) - there’s a double door narrow width cupboard in the kitchen (hoovers, ironing boards etc), a massive understairs cupboard, a double door width fully shelved airing cupboard on the landing, and then a whole wall of fitted wardrobes in the master bedroom (other bedrooms you could have with extra cost). Much more than either of the period houses I had before the new build.

Another mean spirited thread essentially mocking those who living in new build houses. It’s giving, ‘let them eat cake’

not all new builds are tiny. Mine isn’t tiny nor massive, it’s 1300 sq ft and a 4 bed.

people have different budgets and different resources available to them. Like them or loathe them, there is a chronic housing shortage in the UK and the stock housing (aka older houses already built are of really poor quality) and new builds are the only way to solve that.

This isn’t a relevant comparison? I’m talking about detached new builds being built close together, not terraced houses.

New builds being close together is what would put me off buying one. I personally wouldn’t consider living in a terraced house, regardless of how many there are.

That's samw generalisation about old houses aa people do about new builds.
I had 3 bed ex council semi. Insulated and enetgy costs of mine wereless than most of people I knew. No mould, kepg temper well etc. Old houses just need bit of update and they work just fine. It was also about 3x cheaper at the time than nearby cheapest newbuild.

its not a generalisation about old houses, it’s a fact that our housing stock in the UK is of a poor quality, much poorer than on the continent and other places like Australia. This is particularly pertinent for the rental sector.

the ‘bit of an update’ is or can be cost prohibitive for a lot of buyers, especially first time buyers hence the government backed schemes that have been run (because it is hard to get on the housing ladder)

it’s also a fact that there is a shortage of houses, particularly social housing (thanks in part to right to buy and new social houses not being built). The only solution to this is new builds.

saying that there should be pressure on developers to build better quality houses but ultimately private entities only care about one thing… profit.

Yep. We've just helped DD buy a modern, one bedroom flat in a city centre with her boyfriend. It's very cute with views over the river, but there is zero storage. It already had a small footprint that has now been made even smaller because of having to install wardrobes in bedroom, cupboards in bathroom and hall, shelving everywhere.

For people going on about apartment living and culture on the continent, do you actually know any spanish (as an example) apartment owners and the utter shambles that most of the arrangements are, you cant get anyone out of them, people dont pay up for the service charges, arguments go on for years about communal areas and updating them even to legal requirements, the noise, smells, rubbish arrangements, personality clashes etc etc

Be careful what you wish for

We had a new build , it was very big and spacious . Surely it just depends on your budget ?

I think it depends. We viewed some new builds that had good room sizes and layouts. However a lot were ‘4-bedroom’ was had the footprint of a 3-bed house and two of the bedrooms would be teeny box like things. But the price would reflect it being 4-bedroom 🙄

That said a lot of the detached and semi-detached houses round my town that were built 1930s-ish seem to have two enourmous doubles then one absolutely tiny box room. They always only have one toilet as well which is a big no from me.

Agreed, I was in Italy recently, the apartments were a depressing sight, run down, in need of painting and repair, washing hanging over balconies, satellite dishes, they only thing they had going for them was at least it was sunny.

I've got a 2300sq ft 5 bed 5 year old new build. All rooms are massive and we are having to down size to buy another house.
All the older houses we are looking at (70s, 80s and 90s) are tiny in comparison to our current house. It's miserable how small UK housing is both old and new.

I agree on that! All of the 3 bed houses we saw that were older had 2 good size doubles and then one tiddly box room. That said there was potential to extend as the plot of land was bigger.

what would you say is a 4 bed with the footprint of a 3 bed.

new builds are definitely premium priced

When we were looking for a three bedroom, a lot of homes (non-new build) were advertised as three bedrooms but what they actually were were two bedrooms (not doubles) and a third that was could barely fit a crib. The one we did find eventually, the third bedroom was a bit bigger and there was a massive garden but we ended up having to move because the last owners had some work done by a builder friend and he hadn’t done it properly and it was something that an inspector would miss because it was underneath the house.

It was an older house and DH didn’t want to go through it again with another older house so he looked into new builds. We’ve been in ours and love it, four double bedrooms, three loos, front and back garden, plenty of parks and safe, well-lit areas to walk, close to everything we need including public transport.

Only downside for us, well, autistic DS1 is it not being detached. I don’t hear the neighbours’ appliances (semi-detached) unless I really strain but he does.

Looking back at the other house we were in, it would have been a problem for him and us and we would have had to move anyway because where we were last, it was a narrow path separating us from the neighbour on one side and a wall from the neighbour on the other.

I would rather buy out our neighbours if we could than move somewhere else.

Detached homes in our county are an extra £100,000 from what I’ve seen and I think that is ludicrous.

Our new build is massive but we had the budget to buy a pretty big one 🤷‍♀️

That floor plan is literal lies, to make it look bigger they have drawn beds in that are not bed size. They have 2 end to end beds - with a gap between - in the 'twin room' that is 3 meters long. That makes those beds about 140cm long. Which is the size of a cot bed, but a room that can just fit 2 cot beds in is not a twin room! All the other beds are drawn the same length too.

No one really uses dining rooms anymore just another room to clean and heat.

We use our dining room every day. The kitchen's too small to put a table in, but I like it that way. I don't like eating in a kitchen & I like to be able to shut the door on the kitchen when I'm elsewhere in the house.

Yeah I agree. We have a 4 bed detached new build but it's the size of an older 3 bed semi as they've squeezed 4 bedrooms and an ensuite into the space of a normal 3 bed house.

It works for us for now but it's definitely not our forever home and I wouldn't have another new build again.

My daughter has recently bought a five year old two bedroom house, it is a very similar size to the 1980s two bedroom house we used to own but better laid out.

I was surprised at one ex council house I saw on Rightmove (probably 1920/30s) which was very poky inside and very little storage.

And another thing...
The big new builds near me (of which there are 100s, as our nation enthusiastically builds all over our productive farmland) cost £££££.

You could buy a similarly sized, older, more solidly-built house in good repair on a larger plot with all sorts of outbuilding for LESS money.

Bonkers.

Yes, three bed new build semis are pretty small. Four bed detached if buying a new build would definitely be needed to have enough space. But they aren’t worth the money because of how overlooked the back gardens are. Plus, when you’ve seen one new build on an estate, you’ve seen them all.

If I were lucky enough to get a new build HA property I wouldn't care about its size. But then I don't have children.. I see your point though.

Our Victorian end terrace has absolutely massive rooms, 3 bedrooms, living room and dining room. They certainly gave people more space back then, plus the big windows let in loads of light. On the downside it's bloody freezing and prone to damp, although saying that my sil has a new build and they've had to fit air con as it's so stuffy in summer so you can't win really!

We have a beautiful new build home with amazing space in every room, even the downstairs toilet and storage cupboards are larger than normal. The garden is a perfect size too

Our house is only coming up to one year old and we have had no problems with space or anything else for that matter.

@Ohforgodssake123 not mean spirited as I live in one myself.

I used to rent a 3 bed council house (built in the 40s) back when rent was reasonable. It wasn’t the most aesthetic with bumpy wallpaper everywhere but I miss the space!

I’m just frustrated because living here feels like a live game of Tetris. And I have the tilt the buggy diagonally to get into the house - as it’s the same length as the space between the front door and stairs - and my poor ds knocked his head on the wall the other day. Ridiculous for a family of four!