Why do new houses have such small gardens?

Geenie

Greed on the builders is my main thought. They wanted to get as much built, in as little area as possible. And the buyers fell for it!

There are 4 bed new builds gone up in areas around me with barely parking for any cars, let alone a garden. When I questioned it a few years ago, I kept being told by those supposedly in the know that people didn't want large gardens now, and the less outside area the less time wasted on maintaining and gardening.

Well now certainly around where I live, people are crying out for space to grow vegetables and relax outside. Those new builds are being rented due to no buyers coming forward. A family home needs a family space outside.

gfplux

Small gardens AND small houses. In my opinion that has been a long term trend as more houses are squeezed onto smaller plots to get greater density and more profit for the builder.
I continue to be amazed that in the details of a house on sale very, very rarely is the actual size of the property mentioned. You can have a 4 bed house that is only 1000 square feet or a 4 bed that is 1300 square feet. The second one is 30% BIGGER but you would not know it if you just go by the number of bedrooms.

peachespeaches

Many of them do. But in some developments, if you get in early, you get the pick of the plots and can get a larger garden if the development land is a quirky shape. This applied to us. We got the end house and chose it because it had the largest plot, it has an L shaped garden. So look round.

At the moment, we are in a typical 1930s semi and the new build we are moving to is larger inside and out. And it has more bathrooms.