The price of bungalows

[Chowtime]

Has anyone else noticed the price of bungalows has increased much more than the price of houses recently?

Call me synical but does the fact that we have a large proportion of the population about to enter retirement age have anything to do with this.

£650k for a 2 bed new build bungalow here in West Midlands. Would have been £350 last year.

I'm looking for myself, I want to downsize from the big 4 bedroom detached family home into something smaller to accommodate my increasing age (i'm 59 now so future planning) but the houses that i'd need cost more than my current home!

What a mess the housing situation in this country is. No wonder not enough people downsize.

Bungalows have always cost more because they take up more land.

Many people I know plan to live in the downstairs of their house rather than move because of the high cost of a decent bungalow. I do appreciate why the cost is higher though, there are very few in my area so it is simply demand and supply.

Flats just don't meet the brief, most are pokey with no storage, limited/ no outside space, neighbours and leasehold+ service charges.

I live in a part of the SW where the difference in price isn't that stark because there are zillions of bungalows in all the villages, so the supply is high. A lot of people do seem to buy them and extend into the roof though so there are getting fewer and fewer genuine single storey ones.

I must admit I'm surprised that a 4 bedr detached house costs less than a 2 bedr bungalow, when both in the same area.

Someone I know lived in a 2 bedr terraced bungalow. We have semi-det 1 bed bungalows locally, too.

I'm trying some sample searches in RightMove.
Redditch, 4 bed detached, seems to have median price about £480k
Redditch, 2 bed bungalow, seems to have median price about £300k

Solihull, 4 bed detached, seems to have median price about £625k
Solihull, 2 bed bungalow, seems to have median price about £600k

English Bungalows have always been stupidly overpriced imo, tbf. My age 70+ neighbour moved out of her 4 bedrm house to a 2 bed bungalow because the 4bedrm house garden (not that large, actually) was making her depressed, she couldn't easily manage it any more. The new neighbours store 5 vehicles in the same space, now.

@lljkk suprising- it's definitely cheaper than that in the areas around here (Bath) although Bath itself is around that for good bungalows . As I posted below my FIL is keen on a 4 bed bungalow ( although 1 bedroom would be an office and 1 would be just for his wardrobes)- lovely interior, beautiful in demand village -

Quite a lot on my new build estate.

Off topic slightly, but I live in a ground floor flat , what is the best way to stave off “ bungalow knee” ? I’m 51

Just keep active, @Toomanysquishmallows as bungalow knee is only really a thing if you never walk anywhere.

Most people in NZ, Australia etc live in one-storey houses. "Bungalow knee" doesn't exist. I always roll my eyes at people who think they're suddenly going to get unfit if they move to a bungalow. Keep active and you'll be fine.

(And actually, we moved to a bungalow two years ago as my [youngish] joints can't handle stairs and I am a lot fitter now than I was because instead of sending my kids upstairs to grab things for me I can get them myself.

I bought my bungalow in 2018 when I was 48 and DS was 10. I wasn't specifically looking for one but it was in the perfect location - between current junior school and prospective senior school. Parents a ten minute walk away. DS has now finished school but we are on a regular bus route for college.

I paid £220k and it was a probate sale. The previous owners had lived there since it was built in 1961. I had to rewire, replaster, new bathroom and new floors. Kitchen is still very grim and the garage leaks. Also needs new windows and guttering but they're not things I can afford at present. I have cleared the hugely overgrown garden, had a new driveway and new front door.

Me , DS and Ddog live here quite happily but I do miss having decent access to the garden. I have a back door into a lean to and the other back room is my bedroom. Lots of dust and spiders too.

I always thought I'd stay here forever but I hanker after a newer house with less spiders and straighter skirting boards. But on the other hand, I'm in a street of bungalows, mainly owned by retired people so it's quiet and safe. So who knows..I change my.mind every week.

Next door is up for offers over £325. They have done the loft but it's still only a 3 bed. Think mine would probably sell for c£300k off a mortgage of £180k.

Ultimately I love my bunga but if money was no object, I would move. I think...

Several NB bungalows near us (2&3 bed) and we did look around them but while they are spacious, airy and nicely laid out they attract a very high premium.
Decided a generous 4-bed would be better with room for a lift as/when required. Can't get away from the fact that a house has much more floorspace and the extra bedroom comes in handy for storage. Bungalow garden was possibly more sqM (plots are wider) but did not strike me as deep.

Word of warning if anyone is planning on keeping a two storey house and relying on a stairlift. If you are totally dependent on it, for example to access a toilet then I have found them to be unreliable. My parents is rented but the service terms are only 48 hours; no good if you are trapped on one floor. Ok if you can just about manage the stairs in an emergency. Depending on your stair configuration, the lift can make walking up and down harder; particularly relevant if you have one person in the house who doesn’t need to use it. For my
parent, the banister had to come out to accommodate it and it’s really
hard to navigate around the seat itself. On the plus side, almost all stair configurations can take a stairlift of some description.

They have big plots, which is always going to cost more. The supply has gone down a lot, as they are increasingly being demolished and flats built on the plots.

Look for ground-floor flats or flats with two elevators (in case one breaks down).

I do think leasehold/service charges stuff needs to be sorted out and made fairer and more transparent in the UK.

My parents can't downsize as there just aren't any small bungalows about - they all seem to have been turned into houses by having the roof turned into another couple of bedrooms.

What does seem crazy is the usual bungalow premium which used to be applied to the 1950s bungalows which had a large footprint on a large plot, detached, set back from the road etc now seems to be applied to anything called a bungalow. So even overdeveloped, semi detached 'bungalow houses' on tiny plots are now comparably more than actual houses which are bigger and are on bigger bits of land. It's crazy.

Can people not just use a dormer bungalow as a bungalow, and allow the extra rooms at the top to be for guests who are more mobile, rather than using them themselves? Or do you mean that the addition of the extra rooms has resulted in the price being increased accordingly?

I’m in oz where most houses are one story and have never heard of bungalow knee.

As someone who lives in a country where most houses are one storey, it really isn't a thing.

I have heard several tales recently about people who have fallen down the stairs - not all of them old - with bad consequences, so even if "bunglow knee" was a thing I think it would be the lesser of two evils.

If you've always had an active life living in a one storey property, you'll be fine.

It can be a problem for older people if they move to a bungalow as it removes a proportion of the type of exercise they were having to do every day and most don't think about replacing it with different exercise. eg still leave the house the same amount to do the same kind of thing.

Around here they’re mostly pre WW2 builds, with big gardens - space at the sides as well as front and back. So loads of room for extensions, hence higher prices.

An ex colleague bought one in need of a lot of work. It had previously been bought by a builder who did precisely nothing to it for a couple of years - and didn’t live in it or rent it out - just sat on it while the price went up and up, until he thought he’d cash in.

‘Bungalow knees’ are definitely a thing. My folks in around mid 60s moved to one, not because they particularly wanted one, but because it was all they could find in their chosen area. Roll on 3 years and they decided they didn’t like the area after all, and moved again, to a house. And found that a lack of stairs had definitely affected their fitness. It did return, but took quite a while.

Plus a DSis and BiL moved to a bungalow maybe 2 years ago, because of BiL’s declining health, and just as well they did it in time. But she stayed with us recently and commented on how our stairs were now an effort, which they never had been - and she’d always been fit and mobile - pre BiL’s illness they’d been very keen walkers.

They usually have big gardens so are desirable for extensions

Not new that they cost alot

Not having stairs in your house is not an issue if you are doing other kinds of exercise. The problem is, of course, that most people don't!

Also makes me wonder how all the millions of people who live in apartments their entire lives manage lol

A lot of care providers are buying up bungalows.