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!

Mine is big and has a good layout with a massive L shaped hallway. Like any houses it depends on your budget.

not to be unkind but you've put that shoe storage in a dopey place, surely that makes it difficult to open the door. do you not have an under the stairs?

whats the square footage of your house?

my mum has a large 4 bed house built in the 70s and she has limited storage, just one cupboard in the study that takes up 1/3 of the room

The technical space standards published by govt are only for use if a local authority have adopted them in their local plan. London has... most authorities don't bother, meaning new homes are often "better" in terms of internal floor are than elsewhere.

Ha, I'm going to look out for that phrase 'neatly designed', AKA dolls house.

@Ohforgodssake123 theres nowhere else for the shoes to go. It’s an awkward layout.

So no under the stairs? No lounge? I mean it’s your house so you know the layout, but I wouldn’t have put it there. Plus you knew the layout before buying it.

ive a new build and we’ve the space for a settle, sideboard, tall boy, umbrella stand and pushchair in the hall.

I agree but our house isn't a new build and it's tiny. 5 person house but we can barely all fit in the living room. No dinning room either.
Bedrooms also small apart from one.
I absolutely hate the house but it's what we can afford.

i made the mistake of watching the virtual tour that has really sinister music playing 😅

My town is full of old mill worker Victorian terraces which are narrower than my 2000s 3 floor townhouse and have the toilet on the back of the kitchen. There seems to be this idea on MN that it's easy to come by 1940s and 1950s semis on a nice road - we have those but they're £100k more than the new builds because the 1960s ex-council houses are on the mugger-filled estates you avoid after dark.

I went to view a 4 bed new build and its got no more floor space than my current 2 bed property.
The kitchen was tiny, living room was OK but definatly not big enough to have a dining table and sofa.
Bedrooms was all the same size and no way could two kids share a room.
There was 2 nice size bathrooms and a large toilet room downstairs.
Rent was £600 a week

I live in a 2000 sq ft new build with a detached garage and large garden. We have lots of storage and all the rooms are large.

But it cost an absolutely insane amount of money so we'd never have been able to afford it when DC were small.

Not all new builds are tiny, but the vast majority of houses on this estate are 3 storeys and have too much upstairs for the amount of living space downstairs so feel really cramped. They also have parking spaces as opposed to garages, which cuts the storage space down further.

I went to look round a new build detached. I noticed that the "Double Bedroom" only had the bed and 2 Bedside Tables in it. And then realised that the door was pushed flat back against the wall and the bed was in the way so it wouldn't even close. There was no Wardrobe or Drawers in there.

As you could see from my original post I was responding to someone who was defending new builds by saying lots of them being built in her town are massive, which she felt was a viable reply to the op complaining that new builds are too small.

My point was the larger new houses in my small town are being sold at a cost totally beyond the average person, so just saying some new builds are bigger is an unhelpful point to make when only the rich can afford them.

Housing here is so expensive the average person here can, at best, only afford the shoe box sized two or three bed semi that the op was describing.

To cement my point further I don’t think people working hard on average incomes in my area should have to live in tiny houses with no storage. An average house should have bedrooms big enough for wardrobes, reception rooms big enough for a dining table, somewhere to store a hoover, etc.

Also, did you miss the four bed at £800,000? Lots of people might hope to get a couple of promotions and move up the ladder from a three bed semi to a four bed one day. What income do you need to achieve that in my area? Unless you are mega rich it’s shoe boxes all the way here.

As you could see from my original post I was responding to someone who was defending new builds by saying lots of them being built in her town are massive, which she felt was a viable reply to the op complaining that new builds are too small.
But it’s true, many new builds are massive they just cost a lot of money, small money you have to buy a smaller house whatever the age of the property.

My point was the larger new houses in my small town are being sold at a cost totally beyond the average person, so just saying some new builds are bigger is an unhelpful point to make when only the rich can afford them.
Larger expensive houses have always been out of some peoples price range whatever the age of the property, as I have said average salaries won’t get you large houses these days, you can’t expect to earn an average salary and get a large house in an expensive area, the world doesn’t work like that anymore.

Housing here is so expensive the average person here can, at best, only afford the shoe box sized two or three bed semi that the op was describing.
That’s market forces for you, it’s frustrating I understand but no one is going to sell their large house to you on the cheap just because you can’t afford it

To cement my point further I don’t think people working hard on average incomes in my area should have to live in tiny houses with no storage. An average house should have bedrooms big enough for wardrobes, reception rooms big enough for a dining table, somewhere to store a hoover, etc.
Then if the new builds are that small in your area at your price point it’s best to find somewhere else to buy that is larger, new builds are not the only properties available they are generally more expensive so you could buy a cheaper older terrace or a large flat or an ex council house and get more space, no one is forcing you to buy a small new build house.

Also, did you miss the four bed at £800,000? Lots of people might hope to get a couple of promotions and move up the ladder from a three bed semi to a four bed one day. What income do you need to achieve that in my area? Unless you are mega rich it’s shoe boxes all the way here.
Again market forces, you have options, try to earn more, move to a cheaper area if viable, buy a run down larger property you can do up over time. Many people think older properties are much cheaper and larger so just stay away from the small new builds.

I actually think the measurements on that floor plan must be wrong. They just don't add up in several different ways.

Is that even a legal bedroom size!

Greedy builders squeezing as many little boxes in as they legitimately can!

I was watching an interesting documentary about the history of council housing in the UK recently. Apparently, the very generous gardens of old-school council houses was connected with the assumption that families would use these to grow a lot of their own vegetables, potatoes and so on, even chickens. Of course, this was back in the days when "respectable" women tended not to be in employment.

This entrance is the same as what I have in a 1970s terrace and what I had in a 1950s council house, a proper hallway/entrance is my dream!

There’s lots of “you have to buy a smaller house”; “you can’t expect to earn an average salary….”; “you can’t afford it” comments in your reply. It’s as if you think I’m a bit dense and I need you to personally give me this groundbreaking information.

You also seem to, rather patronisingly, be telling me to earn more or move house.

Actually, I have earned comfortably above average for quite some time and I happen to have lived in a Victorian house for many years with no intention of moving any time soon.

What I was managing to do was sympathise with people who aren’t as lucky as me because I can understand that others are struggling.

Absolutely! My back garden is pretty much the size of a standard allotment. It is really quite ridiculously huge. The front garden would be considered a generous back garden by most modern standards. I would still rather have some storage and a dining room!

Don't agree with any of this. Normal family homes all over Europe are 40 to 60 sq m and everything above this comes with a higher price.

There are million of massive houses all over Britain

The problem is they try to put a larger houses floor plan in a small building. A home the size of most three beds with an en suite round here are the size of older 2 bedroom homes. When we bought our house out we ruled out most new builds due to this. In the end we bought an older home in a private development with plenty of space and adequate outdoor areas too.

Clearly touched a nerve on your personal situation unless of course as per your post, you are one of the mega rich in your area. Unless you are mega rich it’s shoe boxes all the way here.
Funny how you have to declare your comfortably above average wages and Victorian house to strangers on the internet, who knows or cares if that’s true or not, but whatever makes you feel better. Maybe you could provide advice to the less fortunate in your expensive area on how to be so mega rich as you so they don’t suffer the dreadful fate of a shoe box new build? Or maybe they could follow my patronising advice and erm, let me think 🤔 don’t buy one?