Why do new houses have such small gardens?

Yakubu22

ISIOTB wrote: »

It's really p*ssing me off!

Is it the govt, the property companies, or both?

Most new builds near me are three storey houses with small gardens. Basically if you build upwards, you can save on the land. Instead of having to put half the house at ground level you can stack rooms on top of each other on a much smaller footprint

zfrl

Don't forget some old houses also have no gardens. There are loads of old town houses in cities with just a small yard. Also in quaint villages really expensive cottages that front onto the road and a tiny garden at the back.

p00hsticks

I dontl think anyone has suggested yet that it may be because a lot of people these days don't really WANT a big garden - they want a bit of tarmac/gravel/paving out the front to park their cars on, a bit of patio at the back for a barbecue, and perhaps a bit of grass to sit out on on a sunny day. Often anything more is seen as being too time consuming to maintain.

Austin_Allegro

p00hsticks wrote: »

I dontl think anyone has suggested yet that it may be because a lot of people these days don't really WANT a big garden - they want a bit of tarmac/gravel/paving out the front to park their cars on, a bit of patio at the back for a barbecue, and perhaps a bit of grass to sit out on on a sunny day. Often anything more is seen as being too time consuming to maintain.

I can just imagine a newbuild housing salesman coming up with that one though!

'The gweat fing about this pwopperdee is the small garden, which is low maintenance as it comprises of only 2' by 1'...gweat for the busy working executive...'

Of course people don't have time to garden anymore - they are too busy working crazy hours to pay larger and larger mortgages for smaller and smaller houses with smaller and smaller gardens...!

z1985m

Not all new houses have small rooms. it usually depends on the builder. alot of the 'new' houses built during the 90's were pretty small. but they have came along way now. granted the gardens arnt the same as ex council houses but most of them are big enough i feel. but there are some developers who take the !!!! when it comes to gardens. e.g i live in a new flat and the rooms are descent, my mum has a 4 bed by the same developer and its a large house with a descent garden, but ive looked at other developers who are building up the road and the big town houses have no garden at all, just a 2nd level balcony type thing. if i was buying a HUGE (seriously, they look like big dolls houses!) house like those town houses, id want a garden!

racheyg

I have a 370 ft garden, but a relatively small cottage. Trouble is, people want more rooms in the house, rather than a nice garden that isn't overlooked. They will do their market reserach.

Bernie

If you want to see people building up to the very edges of a plot, visit Tokyo and you'll see plenty. There they build the biggest place they can whatever the size of the plot. The cost of the land no doubt dictates this....

PasturesNew

poppysarah wrote: »

Some council tax band D new builds near me have no back garden. Just two parking spaces.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/new-homes/property-19632340.html
You can see them on the map - or look at the pics and see through the patio windows to the carparking space!

There's a reason for the way they've done this. They couldn't have allowed all those extra houses to be driving on/off that main road - close to a hatched junction - like their neighbours, for highway safety reasons.

And the houses had to be built in line with existing properties, because somebody decided so. Which means the only alternative left was the odd rear access road and parking spaces.

Mad, but they're the sort of rules they work to

lincroft1710

Many, many years ago, my parents' first house was a small Edwardian end of terrace, with backyard, garden beyond (across communal access) which contined back round to side of house with road frontage.. Mum frequently talked about putting bungalow on side part of garden and selling house, yard and rear garden. It never happened as we moved in early 1960s.

Fast forward to 2000s, has anybody built a house on this side garden. Nooooooo, they've built two!!! Shoehorned a pair of semis with front garden parking.

poppysarah

PasturesNew wrote: »

Mad, but they're the sort of rules they work to

Maybe - but they've not got any private garden space at all - and the road is a very busy one. It's still shown as a green field on google maps - but I spose the church got a good price for the land!

The problem is they are band D and they're still empty after a year. (Think they got registered for council tax on the 16th March last year)
So there's obviously something not quite right with them.