Is it just me or the UK properties?

[Awakenedsoul]

As a Canadian who recently moved to the UK (due to DH's job) I have been looking for a property to buy closer to London.

Am I unreasonable to think the properties are weird here? Here are my reasons:

1. 2 bedroom houses with one box room are sold as 3 bedroom houses. In the US and Canada they are typically called 2+1 houses etc. I mean it is no offence to box room but that cant be sold as bedroom. Or the 3rd bedroom is a tiny single room with barely any room to move after one puts a single bed in.

1. Most of the semis in my budget (550k) do not have more than 1 bathroom. Even when the owner has properly extended the house, they would not add a bathroom and a 4 bedroom house has to make do with 1 bath.

1. There is no way to search RM based on the number of shower rooms. The only criteria available is to search by the number of bedrooms. Would it not be easier to just eliminate those houses with single baths while searching as opposed to manually browsing each property.

1. Things that would be considered standard in other countries are sold as 'attractions'. For example, some EAs would advertise 'Downstairs w/c' as a highlight in the ad summary.

1. Barring the new builds, most semis / detached properties have outsized gardens and the floor area is relatively tiny. For example, floor area would be 1000-1200 sq ft and have a long narrow garden area. Not sure why in a country where gardens are not usable for almost 7-8 months in a year, floor area as a percentage of garden area is so tiny.

1. Conservatories are so common but they cant be used year round unless you invest in heating / aircon.

If you think describing a box room as a bedroom is annoying - don't even get me started on agents who include ground floor rooms as bedrooms. They are studies.

We have quite a lot of those 60s/70s style townhouses locally and the amount of listings I've seen as 4 bed, when the 4th bedroom is on the ground floor behind the garage!

It’s you. You have come to a completely different country and are expecting it to be the same. The way properties are marketed here is fine for the majority of us beachside we’re used to it, and would no doubt find the differences equally as quirky if we were trying to buy property in Canada.

The British way is indeed a bit 'unique'. I think every other country advertises houses according to overall squaremeter/feet space and overall number of rooms and bathrooms, with boxrooms or single bedrooms being counted as 1/2. The housing stock in UK has much improved though over the last 40 years. The main problem is that the UK tends to keep its old houses rather than demolishes and builds from scratch, so you have tons of Victorian workers cottages, interwar semis and post war council houses that were only ever intended for very basic living, but now command prices that would get you a mansion in other countries due to location. Pulling down and rebuilding in wood_pre fab like the norm in Canada would be cheaper than renovating and result in much more usable, better insulated homes.

Budget is too low for a 3 bed + also wanting all of the things you mention!

I would rent if I was you and get all the things you want , given that you don't know the areas that are possible for that budget (and they will be quite a way out of London) and it's likely that next year prices will stay static or fall a bit. I think a 70s town house may be more to your taste. I'm with you on bathrooms/loos- I want at least 2 and I too like more floor space and less garden

I think it's you - or rather your budget to be honest. You can certainly have the four bed with three large bedrooms and 2-3 bathrooms but not at that price.

Don't live so close to London, for £550K in my town in the NE you could get everything you wanted and more. But you no doubt want to live close to a large city famous for its high property prices and you have to accept the compromises associated with that which means less space and less bathrooms. Personally I find the number of en suites in new builds quite unnecessary. A single bathroom plus a downstairs loo is fine for most families and a second bathroom (that is accessible for everyone, not just an en suite) is useful for larger families.

You have come from a continent where land is cheap and plentiful. In the UK, the land the house is built on costs far more than the building materials and labour to construct it. Which is why we have to cram as many homes as possible into the smallest land area.

To give you an idea, there is a parcel of land not far from where I am sitting, which is currently up for sale at £5million. It has planning permission for new homes, and they can fit up to 12 smallish houses on it. So the land itself under each house costs nearly half a million, before they even build the thing.

The bedroom thing and bathroom thing I'd say are both caused by the British system of advertising number of bedrooms not by square footage. It's incredibly deceiving using the number of bedrooms.

Some people will extend and prioritise bedrooms over bathrooms because it adds more value to their house (because of aforementioned system). Not sure how it works in Canada but I know some US states won't allow a room to be called a bedroom unless it has a built in closet. I think we do have minimum size standards for bedrooms here but it is tiny!

It's just different norms isn't it? It's probably weird if you're used to something else but it's not weird to us.

Basically if a room is not a kitchen, hallway, bathroom, cupboard, living room or very clear/could only possibly be used as a dining room, it's counted as a bedroom, and bedrooms are pretty much the only metric we care about for space. So when you see "X bedrooms" just see that as = X number of rooms usable for flexible purpose. Unfortunately that does mean you get some miniscule rooms that barely even fit a single bed because a "4 bedroom" house is seen as more valuable than a "3 bedroom" one even though the fourth bedroom is unusable except as a nursery.

And yes, one bathroom for an entire house is the norm, hence why it will be mentioned if there is a downstairs toilet or en-suite, because these things are not standard unless it's a mansion.

If you want to understand EA speak here are some more:

Double bedroom = bedroom larger than a box room

Reception room = downstairs room which is not a hallway, toilet or kitchen.

It’s pretty easy to check square footage.

I just look at floor plan and check that and garden direction before viewing

Long narrow gardens were also useful for long washing lines!

yogiil · Today 10:24
But yes it's because old houses“

In our experience (6 house moves over 34 years) older houses have more generous accommodation than new builds.
I believe our new houses have the smallest footprint of any in Europe.

@onemouseplace

Even more annoying when the property has
1 X small kitchen
1 X living room
1 X dining room
2 x bedrooms
1 X bathroom

And is advertised as a three bed. Why not just go for it and call it a four bedroom while they are at it because you could turn the living room into a bedroom too 🤦🏼‍♀️

That’s just how the housing stock is in the UK. If you live here, you have to buy the properties that are available, not the ones you wish were available. Housing is different in each country.

Last time I was in Toronto my family there took us to laugh at see a development of massive detached houses, think huge portico entrances etc, but you could barely get a person between them and they backed straight onto a creek. They might have had a small terrace at most. Certainly plenty of interior space but they just looked so out of proportion.

Having said that, I do like Canadian houses as a rule and the house my mum grew up in is gorgeous.

Garden not useable for 7-8 months of the year ? ? Probably don’t use it much December to March ( London)though we can often have weird warm spells in February and I will be out there then having my morning coffee and admiring my greenery. The washing line gets used except when it is consistently wet or really cold but a breezy cold day does work to take the worst of the moisture off.

I remember having a conversation with a Canadian colleague who would never dream about using washing line, not just because she wanted to use a tumbler dryer ( North American paddle top loaders plus tumblers wreck clothes - I lived in Chicago for a year and learnt the hard way) but also because her neighbours would disapprove, which seemed bizarre.

Yes it's not Canada! You will find many many differences!

Fellow Canadian here, you won't find the quality of build and size here as you would in Canada, and be prepared to give up a lot of space. Everything that is normal in a Canadian house is nowhere to be found in a typical British build. Oh, and have you seen the laundry machine in the kitchen? Ridiculous. Most places also don't have rooms with built-in closets, let alone walk-in closets.

It's not so much age, we've in a 5+1 new build in London and the layout and design are the same as older builds. Be prepared to lower your expectations.

Or increase your budget.

@Hermione101 I’ve got a 3000 square foot five bed four bathroom house. Big kitchen with island and American sized fridge freezer, three ovens, separate utility room, two receptions plus a study, large garden, big driveway, double garage…oh and two walk in closets. My American neighbour feels right at home 😊

If only you had moved just a little bit out of London. About 40 miles away to be precise!

Only on MN could north of half a million pounds be described as 'a small budget'.

OP, it's probably got a lot to do with Canada having a little over half the number of people as the UK living in an area 40 times as big.

The houses you describe (3 bed semi, garden, one of bedrooms small but perfectly acceptable for a child's bedroom and a single bathroom are absolutely standard interwar building boom properties, of which there are millions across the country.

have you seen the laundry machine in the kitchen

Makes perfect sense if you hang your washing outside most of the year, which many people do in the UK.

I know many older houses have cellars (ours doesn't) but I wonder why we've never really done the basement thing in the UK.

I do not consider £550k to be a low budget as one poster declared! It may be low for London. To get what you want, I would consider your DH commuting in from further out and even look at more modern/new build houses if gardens aren't important to you. Pollution is bad in London so living further out may be healthier for your family.

It's not a small amount of money but due to house price inflation the OP won't find much in London for 550k so it's a small budget.