Will bigger houses become cheaper

[Wantarest]

I've been wondering whether the high cost of energy and maintenance will mean people will want more moderate spaces rather than large houses.

One of my friend has said she regrets their renovation which massively increased the footprint of their house (from a 3 bedroom to a 6 bedroom plus a basement) but they do not use a lot of the space. One of their two children has already left home.

I believe back in the days (many decades ago), people did not want houses with many windows or large footprints because of the costs (tax for windows and keeping the spaces warm).

Just curious how lifestyle might change and adapt in the years to come because of the move to Net Zero, higher utility bills, and people having fewer kids. How will that affect the type of houses/space that we value the most.

That said, planning laws changed not too long ago to make it possible to build massive 6m box extensions both at the top and bottom and that has really change the look of many period properties, with some become bottom heavy and in some case top heavy.

Open plan puts me off - so cold and draughty and a fortune to heat.

Friends keep trying to persuade me to knock through the downstairs - but I don't want cooking smells throughout the whole house and I don't want the big space - fine when friends are round - weird if youre just sat in it on your own

I agree it depends on what we all think of as big houses. In my mind, I am speaking about 5/6 bedrooms but also the way the house is organised. How much space is downstairs. I expect adult children will want their own privacy and independent space beyond just their bedrooms. In any case, unless they plan to live with their parents forever, they will eventually move out.

It might be that big houses will be in demand but will have to be remodelled to accommodate mutigenerational living. I can't see that being very easy for a typical 3-bed house turned into a 5 or 6 bedroom house.

Open plan is fine when the kids are young but as they grow older they tend to want their own private space much of the time. I have a separate kitchen which means all the mess is hidden away from the living space. Since divorce I downsized to a 2 bed flat when DD2 was still living at home. Can't downsize further to a one bedder as the cost of buying and selling is prohibitive even though the cash released would be helpful now that bills are so much higher.

As prices reduce in the current correction, I expect the prices of larger homes to reduce relatively more. For example (made up), if smaller homes reduce 3% then I expect larger homes to reduce 5%. That's because the majority of buyers will be looking at the smaller homes, e.g. FTB and downsizers.

Larger homes are more expensive to maintain - council tax, maintenance, utilities, etc, so a COL crisis will impact them more.

As other posters have mentioned, the costs of moving seriously add friction to the process of right-sizing and employment relocation. A smart move by an incoming government would be to eliminate stamp duty and reallocate the costs to an annual land value tax so that those with deeper pockets who can afford the larger homes pay the right proportion for their services.

@XVGN Ooh, I'm interested in your comment about a land value tax instead of stamp duty. I've not heard of this before, how would that work? Don't people with larger more expensive properties already pay more via council tax anyway? How would this differ? Genuinely curious. Stamp duty is just a tax on moving (for the vast majority) which always seemed very odd to me anyway.

Working from home means I need more space now than before. We extended after lockdown so now both DH and I have an office. We went from 4 to 5 bed. Admittedly one of the bedrooms is a box room but it can fit a single and it’s a nice size for an office.

Newer houses are easier to heat. It’s not all about the size.

Don't people with larger more expensive properties already pay more via council tax anyway?

certainly not in London. I agree with a land tax, they have it lots of other countries.

'A smart move by an incoming government would be to eliminate stamp duty and reallocate the costs to an annual land value tax so that those with deeper pockets who can afford the larger homes pay the right proportion for their services.'
Yes this would be a much fairer system and would also encourage mobility, something that SDLT strongly discourages.

Without a very particular plan in mind I’m not sure many people with two rising-adulthood children would embark on 6 bedrooms and a hugely expensive basement job, so you friend’s regret isn’t really surprising, OP.

I think attention to energy efficiency will be more important.

In the end people want a home that suits their lifestyle (space to wfh or whatever), a home that they feel at home in -so period cottages and drafty handsome Georgian houses will still remain popular - and location will still be key.

So not much change over choice of size , though More people may choose to downsize once children have gone.

People in small properties in London pay less CT than people in bigger properties in the same borough.

CT is based on property value but it isn’t standard across the country: it’s relative to the house size in that area.

Good point!

How would it be introduced? What about people who already paid a whack if STLT? Would it move to the annual tax on the next house move?

People in small properties in London pay less CT than people in bigger properties in the same borough.

I'm aware of that...

I referenced London which has lots of boroughs & some boroughs have much cheaper CT than others.

And certainly a house that's more expensive & in London than one in another part of the UK could pay less CT.

CT is based on property value but it isn’t standard across the country:

From a very low time ago.

We have a huge and hard to heat house and we differ in views. Me and introvert son wear more clothes and appreciate the space. DH is from another culture and prefers crushed in and cosy. I think as our kids turn into teens we will benefit from the space and with the memories of the lockdowns still fresh I couldn't move somewhere smaller at the moment. We will probably look to convert the basement and loft in due course to create self contained living areas if our kids decide to stay in the area into adulthood and go for multi generational living. Alternatively a developer is keen to snap this up for yet another HMO which is what has happened a lot round here. I think house values may drop but it will be proportionate and not be a particularly big issue for downsizers

A bizarre OP, oddly disconnected from what is currently happening in Britain. The Window tax is indeed no longer a concern - it was imposed in 1696 but repealed in 1851.

Larger well-insulated family homes with good BER ratings are very much in demand at the moment.

Households in Britain are increasing leading to an increase in the requirement for additional space. The number of UK young adults aged 21-25 living still living at home has grown considerably in the past decade and the number of adults aged 26-34 still living with parent(s) has grown exponentially.

Work-from-home has also added to the need for additional space. There has been an exponential increase in the number of adults working from the parental home in the past decade.

Also, larger homes are generally bought by those who are better off. The increasing gap between well-off and poor means that the well-off are generally less affected by the cost-of-living crisis and a position to pay substantial sums for these homes.

Never been a for sale sign in our cul de sac. Snapped up.

@NoraBattysCurlers is it necessary to engage in insults? Have we lost the art of dialoguing without resorting to unnecessary sniping? The point about the window tax was simply to point out a time when having too much of something that was seen to be good became a liability. If I felt it was a crucial point, I would have invested time in getting accurate dates of when it received Royal Assent and when it was repealed.

Anyway, as you were and have a pleasant Sunday morning.

... and I am sure you already know that you do not have to respond to threads or posts you find bizarre or beyond your taste.

Land tax presumably doesn’t allow for changes in circs?

pensioners keeping the family home, redundancy, family changes such as caring needs. Circumstances change and while you may be able to afford the costs of a larger house initially, that may change.

for example we bought this house which has a small downstairs living area. We could afford it when we bought it, including sdlt. However mil now needs care, she has moved in to our downstairs, and dh has had to reduce his work hours massively.

we need the space, but would no longer have the income to service land tax yearly.

big house does not equal big income.

In a good location, houses will never be cheap, no matter the size. Location is everything.

And as the general footprint of new builds becomes smaller and smaller, larger well proportioned houses will become like gold dust and be worth more. Everywhere you see smaller developers buying larger detached houses on big plots, knocking it down and building multiple smaller detached houses with hardly any outside space and rabbit hutch sized bedrooms. This makes those houses more valuable for people who want a decent sized detached house.

These changes are always luck of the draw in terms of who wins/ gains.
Labour look likely to get in at the next election and I haven't heard them making any sensible noises about housing policy so far so would be v surprised if they instigated. I guess we can live in hope!

People need to and do adjust as their circumstances change. Pensioners, for example, have previously down sized and can do this. Families who decide to have several generations living together, which will probably become increasingly popular, can pool resources so that they can afford the bills.

Not until jobs are spread out more over the entire country, and not just concentrated in a small number of big cities. The next generation who've been to Uni and got degrees aren't going to return to their regional small town/rural family homes and work in shops, pubs or care homes - they're going to go straight from their Uni city to another city where the decent professional jobs are!

Pretty sure there was some recent Rightmove data that showed that the prices of higher end properties were falling fastest.
I expect that very large properties have been less popular in some areas and that this may increase as budgets are more stretched. However, contrary to this force, I think the multi generational living one will increase.

I know a few people that have regretted creating big open plan spaces, all comment on it being colder and as children become teenagers the idea that they all love being in one room isn’t the reality.