New Housing Estates -

I drove past 5 "detached" houses down a lane and they would be lucky to get their bin down between them and I bet they will go for a pretty penny. At the end of the lane there is a very large house that has been there for years and it looks like they sold off their drive to stick up these 5 houses. How they got planning permission is beyond me.

They are building a lot round here mostly apartment blocks, everywhere you go. Its suppose to be a rural area but the farmers are selling their land off for building on. Its where every body is going to park and the infrastucture ie Schools,Doctors, hospitals ours is only half used. Its happening everywhere I think.

They are building 3000+ houses opposite my local hospital, no thought to the patients who have to put up with the noise while they recover. No thought to parking as the hospital car park fills up really quickly. When I saw the plans for these houses, I wanted to ask if the hamster wheel came with it or was it an optional extra.

An in-fill house was also built not far from me, the front door to the neighbouring house is on the side, facing the wall of this house. If the tenant wants to move out, she's going to have to remove a window to get her furniture out. There's isn't even enough room to get her shopping trolley between the house and her front door.

* Germanshephardmum*, only folk who have money have real choices. Young folk, starting out are often priced out of the market and cannot afford these inflated prices for tiny little boxes.

I have grandchildren living in Scotland where house sizes are a wee bit bigger but are really struggling to leave home and find homes of their own.

So no, folk don’t always have choices of where they want to live or what size property they can afford!

I live in a rural area but have seen a couple of huge housing estates go up in our nearest town. They range from some attractive looking four bedroom to two bed terraces which look small but pretty. Lots of sizes and designs in between.
The roads are curvy with small cul de sacs, small gardens with green spaces in front. I think most young couples would love them and they are reasonably priced. Young people and lots of children and the chance to build a community.
I wonder if rooms are smaller because people expect an ensuite bathroom, a walk in robe, downstairs cloaks and more recently a pantry. All get crammed in somehow.
Btw sheep’s wool is a breathable, highly efficient sustainable and natural insulation recommended by heritage England. It resists flame to 1200F. So more fire resistant than rock wool or many other alternatives.
Good to see solar panels on roofs and an effort at environmental improvements.
Just wish local councils would refuse planning permission on flood plains.

We have searched for over 6 months to find a home which has a reasonable main bedroom. Many show homes have a small double bed, but when trying to walk around it the shins get knocked. Even looking at homes near £800,000 the rooms are small. Our current house is not huge but certainly bigger than the overpriced rubbish on the market. I am aware of some sellers adding over £100,000 to a home they bought a few months ago. The madness is that people are buying them! We've decided to stay put

There are some very ugly " luxury apartments" going up in the rather posh city near me. They are advertised as very expensive.
The prison is just next door, with some famous inmates. I just hope they don't have back windows.

MagicWriter, what I meant was that if you can afford to buy a house you have the choice between a modern one with maybe small rooms and almost certainly not a very big garden and an older one which may have bigger rooms and more garden. I hope your grandchildren are able to find homes they can afford. It’s very difficult for youngsters today if they’re not earning huge salaries.

MissAdventure - makes an excellent point that youngsters just want to get out of living with parents or renting. They are being exploited by greedy developers. And mark my words - I know for an absolute fact that THEY don’t live in the type of housing that they build. They’re off living in the posh areas without a housing estate in sight !

I looked round some new builds in the Midlands. The bedrooms could accommodate at least ten people. The sitting room ( or lounge ) could only accommodate seating for six it was so small. The house agent agreed with my criticism that it was ill designed. It had a magnificent staircase but landings which were so narrow you couldn’t have put a piece of furniture on them. Some new builds in Lyme Regs had bedrooms that were too small to accommodate wardrobes or bedside tables. The gardens are overlooked pocket handkerchieves in size. Developers are evidently cramming too many houses on plots with profit in mind rather than facilities for those who buy them.,

Jaxie In many areas the cost of the land can be as much as 60 or even 80% of the cost of building a house. Double the plot size and the developer has to add £100,000 to the price of the house.

In our village, the owner of an end of terrace house with a double garage along side, sold the strip of land the garage stood on. It was 25 foot wide and faced onto a busy road with views of the local dual carriage which passed nearby on an embankment. That plot sold for over £200,000

geekesse

Anybody remember Nina and Frederik’s song ‘Little Boxes’? youtu.be/ReV-z0PORso

I remember it well, and it really applies to the urban sprawl on old ICI land near me. It's like a fungal growth of boxes and more boxes. Precious little infrastructure, facilities or open spaces, nurseries, shops etc. Just profit and then added profit for the "throw em up" developers. I feel very sorry for first time buyers.

My last place - a new build the builders - Beazer at the time, but Persimmon by the time it came to the snagging - built our estate just small enough - (47 houses) - that they didn't have to provide a play area.

We bought our first home in the 70s on a small newish estate and it was a box. Ok the garden was a good size but that was it. No garage, no hallway, minute bathroom, kitchen and impossibly small bedrooms. By comparison some of the new build starter homes are spacious. We stayed 7 years and luckily sold to other first time buyers. However they really struggle these days to sell on that estate because first time buyers want better and I dont blame them.

I thought Nina &Frederik's song was really offensive and patronising because it covered the inside of the houses and was a reflection on their occupants as well.

Our first house was on a small state of identical new terrace houses, but once in the front door the interiors were as diverse as the people who occupied them. Go to a front door and you had no idea what lay beyond it. I have good friends still that date back to those days.

It is only people with money. who have choice and can afford to patronise those less wealthy than them.

Housing for the masses has always been little boxes, whether those are the small Georgian terraces housing the servants and tradesmen who served the big houses, or, since WW2, the square miles of little boxes built to give decent housing to the growing population.

But better little boxes than over occupation, back slums and multiple generation families squeezed into run down properties with inadequate services.

Little Boxes was written by political activist Malvina Reynolds and became a hit for Pete Seeger.

Nina and Frederic's version was a cover.

Its is still a nasty, if catchy, little ditty.

I think it was meant as political satire on the conformity of middle classes in America.

What they saw as the conformity because they though they were so clever and 'right on' and intellectually superior to those they looked down on

In fact they were so up their own fundaments they could not see the immense variety, differences, originality and creativity it fostered. Nor the sense of community and help and support that lived within it.

It is exactly the same today.

I always hated that song.

What they saw as the conformity because they though they were so clever and 'right on' and intellectually superior to those they looked down on
In fact they were so up their own fundaments

Oh, I do agree.
I was just pointing out why it was written.

However, ironic, too, that it was then sung by members of the aristocracy!

They're awful. Before I bought my ex council house that I live in now (which I also love), I was also looking at new build houses and the size of them is shocking. Hardly any storage spaces and a lot of snags as well, plus the cost of it...! I was so desperate to have my own house but there was so many cons into buying a new house I just couldn't take that risk. It took me another year of saving every penny I earned to save for a deposit and got a much better quality build and also cheaper home.

But people love them! About 15 years ago when DD was house hunting, she had her eye on some older roomy 3 bedroomed houses, within walking distance of the local commuter station for London.

She also looked at some new houses being built on the outskirts of the town, They were half the size of the houses she wanted to buy, postage stamp gardens, limited parking space and no garages - and too far from the station to walk. Yet they cost about 25% more.

Spacious “ council houses” and similar other dwelling are just a product of the post WW2 building ideology providing decent housing for the those families that could not afford to buy.

Before that the rule was cramped, cold, dirty hovels with a privy down the garden, and a pump in the yard shared with neighbours. That desirable country cottage you have now, extended and modernized, housed a family with 6 children in abject poverty.

Estate houses we have now aren’t perfect, for today’s lifestyle, small families, both partners working they provide an affordable cheap to run home, much better than the apartments and high rise, some have to live in. To build a spacious house with a large garden would cost double and more, that is just not needed today.

Many rural properties had much that you mention Katie59, even when they were large. In fact sometimes readingthe description of living conditions, even in grand houses, cold, unheated, food that was invariably cold, makes a nice foetid cottage with all those people cramped in sound quite comfortable.