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UK builds the smallest homes


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Good article here from BBC we've all been saying this on HPC and here for years but here's a nice pretty graph (you might find this a useful one to quote/reference Dr.B):

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8201900.stm

 

The floor area and room sizes (of new builds in the UK) are the smallest in Europe - the average room in a newly built dwelling in France is 26.9 square metres, compared with 15.8 square metres in the UK - and, the graph below shows how British new-builds are less than half the size of those in the United States and Australia.
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Good article here from BBC we've all been saying this on HPC and here for years but here's a nice pretty graph (you might find this a useful one to quote/reference Dr.B):

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8201900.stm

Presumably "home" includes flats.

 

In Finland a 76 square metre flat is regarded as "big" (and would be 2 or 3 bedroom).

 

Americans here call the flats rabbit hutches.

 

But fair point about the UK - the slums of the future. So much for housing bubbles being a good thing.

 

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It would be good to see houses in the UK sold in square metres. House prices are staying level but is that because bigger, bargin houses are selling for less or could it be that prices are going up and smaller ones selling for more.

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It would be good to see houses in the UK sold in square metres. House prices are staying level but is that because bigger, bargin houses are selling for less or could it be that prices are going up and smaller ones selling for more.

Transparency is the last thing estate agents want.

 

Total area in square metres would be great.

 

In Finland everything is quoted in square metres and comparisons between towns are on a euros per square metre basis.

 

Every dwelling has an official record of its characteristics including square metreage, if/when renovated etc.

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This is why I won't be buying anything built after the late 70's........ UK property is such a rip-off and the newer stuff is even more overpriced that people realise when you value a property and it's garden in relation to it's area - welcome to rabbit hutch britain :(

 

No room to cook dinner or seat guests? Welcome to 'rabbit hutch Britain'

 

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...

In Finland everything is quoted in square metres and comparisons between towns are on a euros per square metre basis.

...

In Germany as well.

 

This is why I won't be buying anything built after the late 70's........ UK property is such a rip-off and the newer stuff is even more overpriced that people realise when you value a property and it's garden in relation to it's area - welcome to rabbit hutch britain :(

...

Yes. I'd actually say don't buy anything younger than 100 years. :o

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Americans here call the flats rabbit hutches.

But fair point about the UK - the slums of the future. So much for housing bubbles being a good thing.

 

An America is now facing decades of wealth reduction, thanks to its love affair with McMansions,

building out the sprawl in its outer-ring suburbs

 

Watch these two videos : The Good and the Bad...

 

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I never realised it was quite like that in the US, which is why many of us living in the UK probably don't get it when you talk about the stranded suburbs. For us, a suburb is 2, 3 or 4 miles out of the average city centre, but that place was 50 miles out...... didn't realise about the tax issue for building new schools etc. either - really unsustainable.

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This is why I won't be buying anything built after the late 70's........ UK property is such a rip-off and the newer stuff is even more overpriced that people realise when you value a property and it's garden in relation to it's area - welcome to rabbit hutch britain :(

 

No room to cook dinner or seat guests? Welcome to 'rabbit hutch Britain'

 

That's a good plan.

I think if you buy a well built and roomy secondhand property you will do better than buying something new

 

I never realised it was quite like that in the US, which is why many of us living in the UK probably don't get it when you talk about the stranded suburbs. For us, a suburb is 2, 3 or 4 miles out of the average city centre, but that place was 50 miles out...... didn't realise about the tax issue for building new schools etc. either - really unsustainable.

 

Good point.

There are probably not so many "stranded suburbs" in the UK.

They would be considered rural

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This is why I won't be buying anything built after the late 70's........ UK property is such a rip-off and the newer stuff is even more overpriced that people realise when you value a property and it's garden in relation to it's area - welcome to rabbit hutch britain :(

 

No room to cook dinner or seat guests? Welcome to 'rabbit hutch Britain'

 

There is a solution as to where to seat your guests :)

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-45...restaurant.html

 

dinner04.jpg

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Not exactly a surprise this is it

 

Daily Mail have similar article with a better chart which seems to predate the BBC item by a few days. Seems to have gathered 130 comments !

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12...t-rooms-EU.html

 

 

Also somewhere I have a chart showing how UK house sizes have reduced in periods something along lines of 1850-1900, 1900-1950, 1950-1970 and 1970+

- used for calculation of rebuilding costs

- + average cost of reinstatement (building materials + labour costs etc) also reduces proportionately per sq m as the property gets newer

 

I know a builder guy who was doing good business extending new build houses once the new owners realised they were too small

 

You gotta laugh - the UK new builders are selling a utopian idea of "uncluttered living" where you have a small place with not much furniture and little bric a brac (clean lines Ikea furniture etc). And the rest of the UK is selling the opposite :rolleyes: And UK Gov wants to support both parties ...doh! :angry:

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This?

article-1205709-06082F1F000005DC-778_468

Cramped: A Barratt Homes' 'Manhattan pod' in Harlow, Essex, one of Britain's smallest homes

(I suppose that a "hong kong pod" would be even smaller)

 

Or This?

1c7b4dfd0.jpg

Here's the same plce from that advertising brochure - that's central HK in the background

The_Long_Beach_01-1.jpg..thumb.jpg

 

I know which I prefer to live in.

The choice is made easier when you can get rid of the Car,

and rent one only if/when needed

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