have four bed houses replaced three beds as the norm for a family post Covid

[45fseh3]

Post Covid and everyone increasingly working from home - has the ideal of a three bed house been replaced by a four bed? Am I being greedy? We are currently thinking about moving and need extra space. All of our friends are also now looking at four bed houses rather than the usual three beds. Is this now the norm? I get this is first world problems. But are we seeing a new trend or is this just our part of London?

I wouldn't say it's the norm, but with a lot of people still working from home either part time or full time, houses with enough room for an office are becoming more desirable.
Other than more bedrooms, a garden office is likely to be a good option as long as it has water and power.

Only on MN I think! I think a 3 bed home (for a family of 4) is still largely the norm.

However, in an ideal world, yes, after Covid people are looking for extra space knowing that isolating / lockdown means the space you have at home is crucial. As you say, WFH has had a massive impact and lots of people now are much more flexible about home working and again wanting extra space for that - not necessarily in an extra / 4th bedroom but ideally somewhere you can shut the door on work / not have it in your living space.

It never used to be on my radar to have an extra bedroom (2 kids). But if we do move again then I'll move looking at 4 beds if there's no obvious study. The small bedroom as an office and a bigger room for each child (one currently in a box room)
More likely we will do work on the current house. But I do know what you mean. Having been through lockdowns and now in the post lockdown work from home situation, I'd have chosen differently if buying now.
I'll add that we make it work. All of this is nice to have. I wonder if my idea of 'need' is a bit warped these days!!

Yes, I was just wondering if a four bed semi has now replaced the three bed semi as the aspirational goal. There just arent as many of those around and they are being snapped up like hot cakes at the moment

Near me 3 beds are taking much longer to sell than the 4 beds so i think you are right

Interesting, we actually went the other way and decided we wanted more outdoor space and potential for a separate outbuilding. We went from a 4 bed to a 3 bed, but the house is almost the same size in total, just the layout is very different. I wonder if it's partly just sort of a fashion, lots of newbuilds now seem to be 4 bed, but are squeezed in in order to be so.

I don't understand how everyone can suddenly stretch to a four bed?

The trouble with three beds is the third room is often a box room which is perfect for working, but if you have more than 1 DC it can be a squeeze using it as a second bedroom.

We moved last year from a 3 bed to a 4 bed. We have 3 kids though so we wanted them all to have a bedroom now they are tweens/teens. unless we really upped our budget there were not many on the market. We were really lucky that we found one that had pretty much everything we needed. lots of the more expensive 4 beds in the posher end of our very small town only had a kitchen/diner and a lounge. The one we found had a kitchen, lounge/diner, study and a very large modern conservatory. becuase its ex-council and not on the new estate it was much cheaper! its all the same school catchment and most of the houses are now privately owned not council.

It's your bubble.
In general households are getting smaller over time and number of children per woman is dropping.
I can see people factoring in living with wider family in some cases. But that's my bubble talking!

I wonder if higher divorce rates / more blended families is playing a role here. So many people I know (us included) where one or both partners have (a) child(ren) from a previous marriage. Some then going on to have one together.

Naturally that often means more bedrooms are needed / wanted.

I have friends looking for more bedrooms for blended families. In our 40s now and lots of divorce.

Ha ha cross posted.

Pre covid we would have considered a 3 bed. Now we need a 4 bed (or alternative downstairs room) as DH needs an office.

We’re in the process of moving and tbh I actually said I’d rather have 3 decent sized bedrooms and an extra reception room, than 4 beds. The house we’re hopefully moving to is a 4 bed, but the 4th room is a box and I can’t envisage us using it for much past storage once DC2 is out of a cot - it’d fit a single and not much else. The more important factor is that it has a living room and a second reception room, which will be a large study with a sofa bed so we can put people up when they come to stay. Yes in an ideal world we’d have had a separate study AND four doubles but I think that might have been pushing it! And that reception room will probably double up again as a playroom in time - I can’t imagine the kids playing upstairs in a spare room, and by the time they’re not playing downstairs it’ll be all screens and consoles anyway.

The third bedroom is often tiny so it makes sense unless there's a potential loft room conversion. My fourth bedroom isn't even 6' wide, not a bedroom in my mind but a good little office. The loft has been done so it's technically a four bed, but to me it's three bed plus study/office. I definitely looked for three beds plus office (could have been a garden office).

It is for us - we’re a family of 4 in a 3-bed but DP and I both need an office. So we’re looking for a 4-bed with a big garden at a budget where we can stretch to a home office too. Like hen’s teeth and all snapped up quickly. But they’re better than the 3-beds in terms of bedroom size, too – all that we’ve looked at have had 3 decent bedrooms plus a box as study, whereas the 3-beds are all 2+box which is a bit shit for the youngest.

Pre covid we bought a 4 bed and I felt extremely guilty / anxious as we didn't need a spare room. But the house was right for us for lots of reasons (location, condition etc) so we stretched ourselves.

Now I am so thankful as both DH and I are WFH permanently and need an office.

I do think that the 4 bed detached is the new 3 bed semi for most families. We went from the latter to the former a few years back, mainly because the local stock of 3 bed semis (including ours!) had a box bedroom so we went for 4 to get equal sized 2nd and 3rd bedrooms. The 4th clearly got repurposed during Covid and is still an office/spare guest room.

I don’t know how we would have managed in our old house with both of us WFH and 2 DC being homeschooled. Blood may have been shed.

Around us we'd be lucky to get a three bed but with both of us spending half the week at home - we need it. I wonder whether developers will start building more four beds in the future.

I'd also rather have more reception rooms or a garden office, than work in a bedroom.

In my world, my colleagues are all working in their living rooms.

Would love an extra bedroom but could never afford it! And we bought years ago and are now mortgage free. Don’t think most people could afford it.

Dh spent the last 2 years working at the dining table, on the odd occasion I worked from home, I was on the bed.

I can see this. We’ve looked at 3 beds for two adults, no children. Looked at some 2 beds that had kitchen big enough for a 4 seater dining table, separate dining room (which would be second office space) and separated living room. We both work from home full time at the moment. The plan is one in the second bedroom/ guest room, and other in the box. If we have a child, I think we’d have to move to a 4 bed to maintain the space we want.

In my world most people are looking at gardens, everyone wants a bigger garden.

We bought a good sized four bed terrace with one young child, knowing we’d have one more. Ten years later it felt quite small so extended into the loft. A month later covid hit and I am SO glad we did that work, never mind that we’d never be able to afford either the house or the loft conversion now.

I don’t think we could downsize now despite living in one/ two bed flats for years. You really do expand to fit the space you have.

I live alone and recently moved to a four bed!

I found I needed a dedicated home office - I spend ten hours a day in my home office. I also need a guest room and have a dressing room!

I know I am lucky - but I certainly found I needed more space working from home.

And More dishes, more dishwasher tablets, more groceries, more casual clothes etc etc!!! My whole world has changed in the last two years