Why are new builds so small?

[Ilkleymoor]

Trying to find a rental property in a popular area. Tried a couple of new builds - cannot believe how small they are! 3 beds that seem to have the floor space of a larger one bed flat!

Are we just not supposed to have any possessions or need for personal space?

The cost of the actual bricks & mortar to build the house is insiginficant compared with the cost of the land it stands on. If the developer has paid £1million for a plot of land, what are they going to do? Build:

4 larger homes they can sell for £500k each = £2million

10 homes they can sell for £300k each = £3million

?

Well some are, some aren’t.

Mine isn’t small. It has very decently proportioned rooms. It has copious amounts of storage. It’s a lovely house. The garden is also a generous size relatively speaking. National Housebuilder too.

It's not a budget issue in this area. We can pay the high end of rent - as in the top level apart from a couple of very beautiful (and old) outliers. There aren't many 3 beds coming out so we looked at new builds. These ones are same or slightly cheaper than the older 3 beds but are ridiculously small. I agree with poster above that developers should not be allowed to do it, they are ridiculous.

And as for the multiple toilets and no cupboards...

My auntie has bought a spacious new build, I know they exist. Their existence doesn't justify the existence of these barely usable homes.

@Hiphopskotch That's really helpful, thank you! We're in a 1970s 3 bed semi and so often we have looked at 4 bed detached houses that we realise are smaller than our current house!

It depends what house age you’re looking at. In the 1930’s the average house size was 68.3m2 and now it’s 67.8m2. If you want bigger houses, houses built in the 1970’s have the biggest average m2.

Can you post the link? If you are looking at the top end rental price you must live in a very expensive area if a tiny house is the most expensive to rent.

I'm in a new build..huge rooms!

Maybe it's because there aren't many three beds? They've been two streets away from the sea. Doesnt make enough of a difference for me to want it.

Lovely if you're in a nice roomy new build. Doesn't explain these crappy ones though.

During lockdown, we looked at several new builds in our area and many were small! A few had such tiny 3rd bedroom, you could barely fit a single bed in them.

We were fortunate to find a independent developer and we bought a 3 bed house with them. We have 3 double bedrooms and living space, garden etc is a fair size. Keep looking, you may find a gem.

I priced up a 3 bed new build and a 4 bed new build (with one bedroom in each being a box room) - the 4 bed was much cheaper per usable square metre than the 3 bed was. (Useable as in: I only counted living and bedroom space, not hall stairs landing etc.)

I don't like sneering at new builds though, I live in a low-end new build as I need a roof over my and kids heads, and it needed to be in a certain area. It may be small but we still seem to fit more than enough general consumerist crap in it, and the heating bills are much lower than anywhere else I've lived!

Our house is an early 60s house. Was a 3 bed with a single bedroom, main bedroom (standard) second bedroom (small double), family bathroom, tiny kitchen, average lounge, small diner, good sized back garden and garage. Not suitable for more than two child family and you'd definitely want more room when they were teens. We extended, reconfigured and now have three single bedrooms, one double bedroom with en-suite and small dressing room, large lounge, large kitchen, utility, downstairs toilet, converted garage into second lounge/dining room. There's no way we could have stayed here without the extension, it was slightly bigger than a new build but not really.

We struggled to find a 4 bed home that had decent sized bedrooms. Most had bedroom 4 that was really a study or could fit a toddler bed. With 3dc that wasn’t what we needed. There was literally one house with 4 “double” beds - bed 3&4 count as doubles but you wouldn’t get much else in alongside the double bed so I disagree on that. They are okay sized singles though.

we did look at a new build 3 bed 15 years ago when finding out previous house and bedroom 3 was a cupboard… I was so shocked and the agent said “it’ll make a fabulous walk in wardrobe!” Er well we had a 2 bed house so wasn’t looking for another 2 bed fabulous wardrobe or not. People buy them though.

So many of them are three beds that don't even have space for a normal full height fridge in the kitchen.

Like any family can handle an under counter.

Cost cutting property developers.

Pretty much all houses now have the square footage on the specs and if not then ask and work out what you need, we have a 4 bed new build and it’s about 1800 square ft. Not huge but not tiny for a new build. You’d be looking for about 1200 min for a 3 bed to feel a decentish size

A few years back when we were looking to move we looked at some new builds. We have 3 DC so wanted a 4 bed. We looked at one new build 4 bed that had a smaller footprint than our existing 3 bed that had been built in 2000. There was more living space downstairs as the 3 bed had an integral garage and the 4 bed a separate one, however this meant that there was 4 beds in the same space as our 3. I think nowadays there is a thought that the last bedroom won't actually be used as a bedroom hence it being very small. The other thing we found was large 5/6 beds over 3 floors which had a similar downstairs to a 4 bed. They therefore won't really reflecting that the more bedrooms = more people = need for more living space. (Aware not always the case)

Anyway we eventually settled on a 1960's 3 bed detached, with all 3 bedrooms doubles and of roughly equal proportions, the least loved eldest sleeps downstairs in the garage conversion.

Having spent a significant sum of money on a new roof and repointing there is something very appealing about new builds. Older properties can be a monetary nightmare.

We have lots of different new build developments in our general area, and the dimensions of the rooms were really small even in houses where you'd expect them to be quite substantial. Living rooms and kitchens so much smaller than you'd ideally need.

What really irked me the most though was that NONE of them had a decent sized garden. They were all really small, even for the bigger houses.

We wanted a larger garden for a specific reason so we had to rule out new builds.

It just made me wonder what this country is going to look like in the future. There will be thousands and thousands of new build estates, all crammed with houses built on the smallest viable space and none of them with a decent garden. Fine if you want an intimate BBQ but absolutely no good at all for the kids to go outside for a run about.

And I'm genuinely not sneering at new builds. They are beautiful inside. Light, airy and with a nice flow. My first flat was a new build and I bloody loved it. I was quite keen on a new build this time around but it soon became clear that it wasn't even a matter of affordability, they just don't make them a decent size. At least, not in my area they don't.

Possibly should have said small new builds as not meant to be sneering - except to the developers, who deserve thorough sneering.

Also mind boggling - had a big garage but no connecting door. And a drive for a car. A very quiet cul de sac. The garage isn't useful and the woman currently renting had it full of stuff they couldn't store in their own home.

We bought a house last year. We needed a 4 bed as wanted the 2 boys to stop sharing a room now they are tween/teen age.

we looked at loads. All the new builds that we looked at were tiny and we looked at one that was marketed as a 4 bed. The 4th bed was downstairs by the front door and more suited to a study! The kitchen was tiny and open plan to the lounge. Lots of toilets but no storage!

we ended up going for an extended ex-council house. Much bigger rooms and the box bedroom fits a single bed, desk, triple wardrobe and a tall bookshelf without being too squashed.

Smaller houses and smaller gardens means the developers cam cram maximum number of houses onto the estate plot.

All the hate is on the developers, but in fact, money is squeezed by everybody in the process.

The original landowner who sells to the developer wants max money
The developer wants max number of houses, max profits
Then there is an effort to employ people with the minimum skills necessary to do the hard work and pay them the minimum possible. This results in them not caring much about the job. I actually know someone who was given plants to build something in a particular location (put on a plan). He knew that what he had been asked to do was wrong (wrong place) but deliberately built the entire thing there, knowing that it would have to be ripped down and redone, but that he could not be held responsible for it. He got paid for doing it wrongly and then paid to pull it down.
The consumer wants to minimise price paid

Ultimately lots of new houses are so small that they are difficult for a family to live in. And they have a lot of issues - hundreds of snags or worse.

It's a dirty business.

It's the integral garages that get me. In 4 bed houses especially, the bedrooms aren't necessarily poor sizes, but the downstairs will be 50% garage with a 10ft wide lounge and 9ft wide kitchen diner. I saw one with an 8ft wide lounge the other day!

I want a detached garage and a dining room.

We're renting one at the moment. It's crazy and we hate it. It's technically a 4 bed but that's 1 bedroom on the ground floor (and it's impracticably tiny), 1 on the middle floor which could only fit a single bed in and 2 on the top floor which could fit double beds in.

The bathrooms, however, are enormous. One on each floor. Top floor is en suite which means small child wanders in in night rather than going downstairs. Middle floor has a bath with a shower over and a separate shower cubicle (why?!). Ground floor has an enormous one with a loo and basin. They could remove about a third of each bathroom and made the bedrooms bigger!
There are no sensible storage cupboards, nowhere to hang coats etc.

I think bathrooms and downstairs cloakrooms have to be as big as possible now because building regs say they have to have disability access, same with light switches now have to be half way up the wall.

I've found that the more deprived an area is the smaller they'll be, the more well off the area is the bigger they will be. It all comes down to finances of the people who are likely to live there IMO.