New builds are "shamefull shoeboxes"

Mrs_Arcanum

IronWolf wrote: »

Not suprising really, as a developer you know you can get more for a 4 bed house than a 3 bed house, even if the land you build it on and the SQM inside are exactly the same.

Only way to solve it tbh is for the government itself to start building bigger houses and either selling them off, or giving them to councils for council housing. That's a very long term solution though.

Funny thing is new build social housing is bigger and better than houses next door for direct sale.

A very comfortable former council house dweller myself.

rosieposey1972

My other list of bug-bears about new-builds is the postage stamp gardens. Even if you manage to get a south or west facing one, it'll be shaded all day by the house built right behind your back fence.[/QUOTE]

This is our problem - we have a 5 bed new build (very good size bedrooms but the back garden is terrible (serves us right for buying off plan) and there is the brick wall at the bottom of our garden for the side of another 5 bed - it literally is only 10 metres away.

All the advantages of having a west facing garden are lost when the sun disappears at 3.30 in the summer.

This house is lovely but there are no downstairs cupboards, no back garden to speak of and a carport (will never do that again either as not just us but the neighbours have all scraped their cars - you wouldn't get my 8 seater in there either so i have to park outside on the road).

Luckily we are about 2 or 3 weeks off exchange on our 'new' 111 year old house - cant wait for those solid walls!

rosieposey1972

Opps sorry dont know how to do quotes!

googler

rosieposey1972 wrote: »

Opps sorry dont know how to do quotes!

Use the quote button?

googler

"Many new houses in the UK are "shameful shoebox homes" which are too small for family life, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has said."

RIBA in this case could also stand for The Royal Institute for stating the Blindingly Apparent .....

We didn't really need them to tell us, did we?

rosieposey1972

I tried that googler but it didnt work.

Graham_Devon

Really2 wrote: »

Ours are OK.

Guess it is the lower end that the major problem is though.


For the record I thought our 60's/ 70's was of far worse build quality and material. Wood shrinkage from that era was dreadful. Also they usually left feet of room under the downstairs boards causing large amounts of draft.

Did the penis enlargement tactics work?

ess0two

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Did the penis enlargement tactics work?

Credit where its due,its a nice gaff.

Really2

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Did the penis enlargement tactics work?

sorry i thought an example of a owner who owned a new build might help other than the "all newbuilds are" quotes there are on here.
There are some small new builds, but there are also some reasonable size ones. My house was about the cost of the average cost detached house.
So instead of ignoring newbuilds i looked at what was on offer? bad thing on mse?

Could i win? if i said i had a decent size newbuild biger than equiverlent older houses i would of been asked for proof. Try to avoid the argument and you still get the comments?

ps when i put ours are ok I meant in our local area, ther is no big difference in sizes of old and new family size homes.

Running_Horse

It does seem the big housebuilders have been allowed to be the tail wagging the dog. When the credit crunch hit they simply stopped building to force prices up. Maybe their landbanks should be taxed, or compulsorily purchased and given cheaply to smaller building companies who can complete houses in a given timeframe.

I would like to see some kind of homesteading with plots of land distributed to individuals, who would pay collectively for water, roads, etc. But they could build pretty much anything on their plot of land. Such new communities would avoid the identikit look of so many modern developments, and nobody is going to design their new house with a ten foot by ten foot main bedroom.

Whatever happens, future housing needs are too important to be decided by greedy builders whose only interest is rising land prices, and whose real profits come from getting planning permission, not building quality houses people want.