How do we stop the building of the current influx of !!!!!! new housing

Rick62

Only 8% of land is urbanised, if that was allowed to increase to say 10% that would free up room for about 5 or 6 million properties (and probably a good mix of family houses, not just small flats), while still be lower than most of Europe, so countryside would still be 90% rather than 92%, hardly a great loss, but then there would be property for everyone for affordable prices. Like in Germany, or most other European countries.

How could any sane person object to that? Unless they already have their big 4 or 5 bed property and are completely selfish and don't give a toss for the other 95% of the population who are saving to buy something decent or even to afford anything.

Rick62

What I am saying is with decent planning regulations we could have more and better quality affordable housing. What percentage of the population do you think are completely satisfied with the size and quality of the house that they live in (and own)? I bet the vast majority would rather something bigger and better than they can afford in the UK.

sheraz2

It quite complex, green belt land is not just land that is full of green grass with cows grazing. that is not the definition of green belt.

Even though I am confortable with my own house and a couple of BTL's :eek: I agree with you. Let's build decent housing for all and affordable

Although I do think it is happening, the affects will not be felt for a few years but there are massive projects and thousands of houses being built where I live. Though they are tiny :rolleyes:. But hopefully, in the future as these small houses ease the crisis, then afterwards as housing becomes cheaper (fingers crossed) then we could go back to the older days of building houses like we built in the 70's

lynzpower

heres how I see it

We all know that theres land available for building on. A few years since up by my parents in south manchester/cheshire planning permission was granted for a massive sainsburys/john lewis development. It was built on a park, which had a small wood on it.

To this day, theres a lone deer who used to live there who roams around the car park

If PP can be granted for a development such as this why not for new homes...

dealornodeal_3

movieman wrote:

Simple: stop buying them.

So long as people continue to pay insane amounts of money for crap houses, builders will keep building them.

Well you say that and I totally agree with you, but I feel if the people dont buy them; then they will have no alternative than to let to Housing Associations or Councils to let. Then there will be mixture of families, ones that care; and ones that dont care??

Guy_Montag

I got an leaflet from my council through the door recently, one of the things mentioned on it was, "Why does the council keep granting planning permission for !!!!!! little flats all over the place?" The reply was to the effect - if we deny pp, the builder will appeal to central govt. if we lose (& we will) it will cost us c. £50k.

lynzpower

dealornodeal wrote:

Well you say that and I totally agree with you, but I feel if the people dont buy them; then they will have no alternative than to let to Housing Associations or Councils to let. Then there will be mixture of families, ones that care; and ones that dont care??

whos the *they* you are meaning here?

the developer ( eg barrats) doesnt turn into a landlord do they?

Investors may buy to let them- and each individual LL will make a decision on what tenants they want- this cant bed legialated against of course.

If people dont buy them the developer has to slash prices till someone does. Once they have done that they know, hang on, no one is buying these townhouses- and commission some market research as to why.

But until huge swathes of the population stop buying them ( which they wont, as weve seen in this thread, many people actively like them) then why should be stop building them?

Eg, not everyone likes the fact that theres millions of identikit new build stud wall flats round near me, but people buy em, so the builders will build them as they are making ( must be) ridiculous profits.

dougk_2

Firstly - whats wrong with terraced houses - they were and are practical.
Secondly go to most european cities and how many detatched house do you see - not that many
Thirdly - If there is only two people , why do you need more than a two bed house? If the average "family size" is 2.3 then twio beds in normally sufficient or three bed at the most.
Forthly detached houses are not so environmentally friendly in terms of heat loss,energy efficiency etc so in them terms they are bad.

Rick62

Absolutely, terraced houses can be fine, or semi detached (allows for a larger garden). But whatever you want the quality in the UK is rubbish (UK new build are much smaller than in most other European countries) and the price is way too high.

There is no real reason for property to cost much more than the build cost. Land without planning permission costs typically £10k to 20K for a decent plot. So the only reason property sells for 2 to 3 times its build cost (sometimes more) is because planning does not work.

lynzpower

rick

You say plannig doesnt work- isnt it the builder who wants the profit?