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?

Here in Wales developers do a deal with farmers for land which is spare, unsuitable one smallish field netted the farmer over a million pounds. The plots then worked out at between 80k and 180k each. The price of timber, bricks, steel etc have risen so much over the last two years an affordable shoebox is now 225k.

The solution is for the Welsh government to compulsory purchase the land at agricultural prices as they used to do 20 plus years ago. That would help tremendously all over the UK I should think

The land purchase is the expensive bit, so they maximise their profits by squashing in as many as they can legally, and by pretending a just adequate 2 bed is a 3 bed and so on with a plasterboard wall.

I honestly don’t know how they get away with building them so you basically look into each other’s ‘garden’. The gardens themselves are a token patch of green. The average ‘normal’ new build (not top spec, the 3-4 beds places) are a piss take and so overpriced. Obvs big developers aren’t going to be reined in because Tories.

we used to be in a new build 3 storey. Last 2 houses since have been older and needing work. Through putting up with the renovations we’re now down to mortgagee only on 25% of the house value, nice big rooms and massive garden, 1930s semi (extended).

look at older places op, you’ll get more for your money

I nearly bought one but was really put off by the bedroom size. It had really lovely living space but the bedrooms could barely fit any furniture and the third bedroom especially was not even a box room plus a garage that couldn’t actually fit a car in 🙄 It did have 3 bathrooms and 3 toilets though which seems totally unnecessary in a 3-bed house!

I thought a bedroom had to fit a single bed in order to be classed as such? Obviously this can still mean it's tiny, but surely it has to fit a bed even if it's squeezed in and not much else?

Exactly. It’s the same in the US. In this country homebuyers are ripped off through putting up shoddy stuff walls to separate rooms to create smaller rooms just to call a rabbit hutch a 3 bedroom or 4 bedroom home. We should look at price per sq.ft always.

Insane price of land - the best way to profit is to squeeze in as many units as possible.

I don't know about you, but I really notice how many of these modern lots-of-glass flats have piles of stuff stacked against the floor-to-ceiling windows and masses of belongings on the balconies because there's clearly barely any storage at all.

Partially because we don't include the square footage as standard. I noticed watching the French Netflix property show that every property was X metre squared and that I'd never seen the equivalent on zoopla / rightmove.

it always on zoopla. You need to look at the floor plans and 99.9% of the time they have the square footage @MoltenLasagne

@MoltenLasagne every house I view on rightmove has the house size in sqm and sqft, along with room sizes!

We bought a new build because the room sizes were much bigger than the Victorian terraced houses where we live in SW London.

It's on every floor plan though

I live in a 1970 built house with three bedrooms. The smallest bedroom has a single bed, wardrobe, dressing table, bedside cabinet, computer desk and chair, and there's still some space in the middle. The only downside compared to a new build is that soundproofing has to be retrofitted.

@BlueOverYellow Are you posting from 1979 The Parker Morris standards were abolished in 1980

www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/comment/building-homes-fit-for-tomorrow-the-lessons-from-parker-morris-60237

Parker Morris standards became compulsory for all new homes built by councils and new towns and influenced those built by others but they were abolished by the Conservatives in 1980.