New Housing Estates -

Just browsing and looking at bungalows and noticed one has a bedroom size 10' 6" x 12' 12"
Is that unusual?

I have just come back from holiday and noticed many new housing developments, on the edge of both towns and villages. Whilst it is certainly true that people need houses to live in, we also need communities. So many of these new homes are a long way from shops, public transport, schools etc, so the occupants will rely on cars, -not ideal.
In the 80 ies I lived for a while in a new development, but it was designed so that there were schools and shops within walking or cycling distance. Cycle tracks cut through the estates, linking housing to community hubs. You don’t see this so much now.
A new estate is being built on the edge of my town. A school will be built once the 100th house is occupied. Meanwhile about 100 children have to go into temporary classrooms at a distant school which already has major traffic problems. It doesn’t make sense.

I am in the South West, below Bristol. Locally my village & surroundings are being suffocated by a “new town” comprising thousands of houses & building everywhere there’s any green space.
It’s depressing & worrying. Where are all these people who pay huge prices to live in a box coming from?

I am very suspicious of descriptions and figures for 'surplus' and 'underoccupied' bedrooms in older people's houses.

There was a big report on this subject some years ago and I had the opportunity to ask the author what the definition of a bedroom was, because many houses, and certainly bungalows have several rooms with undefined uses and many people describe rooms as bedrooms just because they are upstairs but the rooms are not used as bedrooms but for a variety of other uses. He said a bedroom was what someone described it as and they did not enquire whether it had any other use.

Similarly, no one ever talks about 'surplus' or 'underused' bedrooms in the houses of people under retirement age. Yet I see more and more young single people and couples who are childless and intending to stay that way buying 3, 4, and even 5 bedroomed properties.

Many people of all ages sue rooms designated as bedrooms for a variety of dfferent uses: home offices, fitness rooms, craft rooms etc, to name but a few. Many older people have grown-up children who live some distance away and visit with grandchildren and need bedrooms.

I do not deny that there are a signifcant number of older people who would like to downsize, but downsizing means different things to different people. A widowed friend sold a large detached house in a large garden and bought a large three bedroomed semi - and promptly extended it. Not everyone wants to downsize to a nice bungalow or a retirement rabbit hutch in a battery of such hutches.

What i really oject to is the emotional blackmail exercised on older people to make them feel guilty for staying in a large house that they fully utilise, when no one says anything about the many younger households doing exactly the same thing.

Chardy

Personally I'm very disappointed that there are not more little 2 bed houses being built for an ageing population that wants to downsize, first-time buyers and not only for singles but for divorced, non-resident parents too. Not enough profit in them presumably

I agree with you Chardy.

Not everyone can afford a two to three hundred thousand home.

A lot of folk round here are on minimum wage or just abit above.
I for one love terraced type housing, and having seen newly built ones locally I applaud builders who cater for this type of buyer.

I for one would not want a big posh house, all that walking about, and vacuuming

A few years back, I read an article in the Mature Times free newspaper that you can pick up in libraries. It was about a survey carried out by a bank or building society. The results suggested that many people think about downsizing in their 50s or 60s but the majority do nothing about it until their 80s when say age, bereavement or poor health forces them to do something about it.

Roughly speaking, a generation is considered to be about thirty years. In other words there is a log jam in the housing market a generation long in which older people remain in large houses. There was estimated to be several million unused bedrooms in the UK.

One of the reasons given for not downsizing was the paucity of suitable accommodation for older people to move to. Someone has mentioned McCarthy & Stone apartments and their epic prices.

I would like to see more smaller houses built and incentives which encourage older people to move to them. This would free up larger homes for growing families which are nearer to commuter services for working people and established schools for their children.

I was talking to a developer about this who came to the village hall to give a presentation about a new development. Essentially it was going to be eight large detached houses to buy and small number of "affordable" homes to rent through a housing association.

Part of his pitch was about knowing the village and what the housing needs were. This is quite a prosperous place with many underoccupied homes as described above. I asked him whether they had considered building sixteen semis that older people might downsize to. He said that would mean his company having to provide more land for more affordable homes. In his opinion this would make the balance of owned to rented homes unacceptable for some buyers as well as reducing his company's profit margin.

In other words, having mixed developments and passing the responsibility to build affordable homes to the private sector is also a factor in the shortage of smaller homes to buy.

We were looking at 3 bedroom houses last October, ranging from refurbished 1950s ex council houses to brand new estate houses. It’s very difficult to bring an older house up to modern standards, even then it’s a compromise, that’s why new build sells so fast, often “off plans”.
The new houses were smaller, more compact, better designed and better insulated, I know exactly which I would (maybe will) choose.

Couldn`t agree more Visgirl.
The thing is, the bigger the house the more council tax you pay.
Councils will pass any building regulations because the bigger the picture the bigger the £ sign.
Sad but true,it`s all about revenue.

The selling price of these minute two bedroom semis are still way out of reach for a lot of young non professional couples to buy. I agree as some of our lovely posters have pointed out, that there are beautiful developments of well designed, well constructed small homes. Unfortunately the one near me doesn’t look like meeting that criteria. It’s built on a site that was historically a flood plain and many of the other estates in the same area have suffered from flooding in the past. I don’t know what the solution is to all of this.

Moving from a 1901 terrace, which I loved,but it was a money pit, on the edge of a seaside town to a two bedroom terrace new build on an estate to be able to walk to work. Now I’ve retired, it’s not such a good idea. No car now, Can’t afford to sell and move to town,. Developers promise many things to get these homes built, never forced by local councils to comply. Should have been school, shop, play areas. Absolutely nothing good, 20 mins from shop and bus, otherwise it’s a taxi. Move from these areas before you retire is my thoughts. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

My father was a builder, time served, from the age of 14 until he died aged 75. He always advised me never to buy a house build in my lifetime because they are now only built to last the term of 1 mortgage, i.e no more than 30years, before they need major repair works or rebuilding.

There are plenty of buildings which could be put back into use as decent sized homes if developers were willing to develop them, but alas most people now want new build. They've just erected a block of flats near me which are nothing more than container crates stacked upon each other, horrible looking building, but exorbitant prices.

When I was in my early 20s, myself and my then partner purchased a two bed old terrace which we could afford in our very ordinary non-professional jobs.

Anyway life happens, I did night school and gained professional quals, we split up, blah blah. Some dreadful things happened and I had to be rehomed in an emergency situation in a HA property. I had no choice as to where this was - it was out in the sticks in what is actually a beautiful location. I had to then sell my house of course. I’ve never been able earn enough to get out of HA housing. An estate was built in the village and a lot of the properties were purchased by farmers who rent them to their children. They were well out of our price range. I can’t private rent here as the very few properties available are either tiny cottages, or huge barn conversions that are out of our price range. I’d love to go back to being a homeowner but it isn’t going to happen anytime soon. This HA property is much smaller than my old terrace - although it does have a garden and beautiful views!!

neither is it a case of just training more doctors, teachers etc. Medecine, especially at GP level is becoming more feminised, as a result more of the doctors we do have are working part time and flexible hours, so to replace 10 doctors you need to train 20.

Many GPs are working part-time partly because there is a limit to what they are able to put in their pension pot. All ours are part-time and can presumably share childcare if they have a family.

Chardy

Personally I'm very disappointed that there are not more little 2 bed houses being built for an ageing population that wants to downsize, first-time buyers and not only for singles but for divorced, non-resident parents too. Not enough profit in them presumably

There are never any bungalows built now anywhere, probably because they are not an efficient use of land.
If more were built then older people could downsize from family homes, couples with families could move from starter homes and more starter homes would become available.

However, many people don't want large gardens now when both partners are working.

I couldn't agree more OP. I think my house is small enough and I crave just a little bit more space. There are new houses a couple of miles away from me which are a lovely design - think Neo-Georgian, but they are well out of my price range anyway. I can't see how Mr & Mrs Average could possibly afford them.

You are all right but I agree they need to consider those that want to downsize, to realise that 3-4 bed housing market, for young families.
What gets me is the number of "Mccarthy Stone" type property with eye watering costs, they keep building them. How many do they think we need? They need starter homes that are affordable.

Apparently Namsnanny,farmers were paid NOT to produce/grow veg etc as the EU paid them to not farm.
Since Brexit they have lost their income so have decided to sell up.
They make more money from selling land to buildidng investors.
The thing is,the propertys are sold before they are even built.
Personally,i prefer to look at land/farms/countryside.
Housing estates have NO character at all.
And i do think it will impact the environment sadly.
And you are spot on,we don`t have reliable figures,will we ever ?.

The problem is that the supply of land is finite and it is now very expensive in areas where most houses are needed.

In these areas the cost of the land can account for two thirds of the pric of the land, and even more. If builders are to build houses that people can afford (and there is no point building houses they cannot afford) then they have got to make houses as small as possible so that each house plot is as small as can be.

It is all very well saying new surgeries are needed, but in my area, Oxfordshire, a big growth area, surgeries are shutting down because there are no doctors around to staff them.

Saying that we need this that and the other is all very coforting, but you need to work out where the resources in terms of skilled employees are going to come from.

It is the same with schools. Parents rise in opposition when a county council wants to close schools with falling enrolments, but the teachers from these schools are needed to staff the new schools.

neither is it a case of just training more doctors, teachers etc. Medecine, especially at GP level is becoming more feminised, as a result more of the doctors we do have are working part time and flexible hours, so to replace 10 doctors you need to train 20.

Nothing is simple and certainly not providing housing.

Personally I'm very disappointed that there are not more little 2 bed houses being built for an ageing population that wants to downsize, first-time buyers and not only for singles but for divorced, non-resident parents too. Not enough profit in them presumably

timetogo2016

Namsnanny,there are loads of farms/land on the market.
We travel pretty much all over the country and the amount of housing estates going up is incredable.
With luck more schools/surgerys and hospitals willbe built too.
And i don`t think anyone know just how many people are in this country, so it`s a big job for the government to sort out.

How do you feel about this?

If we can produce the same amount of food from less land, will using spare land for housing impact badly on the environment?

It just seems to me if we dont have reliable figures to plan the country's future by, how can we make any headway with anything?

The census only gives one view.
No one keeps accurate figures.
The best estimate is one million people are added to the population every 3 years (not through births).
Could be more.
Without figures, housing, the NHS etc. Are always going to be playing catch up.

As Elegran says, the latest census provides up to date population details and of course local authorities always have a good idea of local population figures from council tax, electoral registration and school data. Planners do take into account the need for more school places, GP facilities, recreation grounds and other ‘infrastructure’ when considering whether to grant planning permission for residential development. Developers are often required to provide land for and to build such facilities or make a payment into a local authority pot towards them as a condition of being granted planning permission.
.

The Government should know from the regular censuses how many people are in the country, what numbers of children will soon need school places, and how many GP's surgeries, dentists, opticians, grocery shops, roads, parking places etc are needed.

Namsnanny,there are loads of farms/land on the market.
We travel pretty much all over the country and the amount of housing estates going up is incredable.
With luck more schools/surgerys and hospitals willbe built too.
And i don`t think anyone know just how many people are in this country, so it`s a big job for the government to sort out.

My daughter lived on a new estate for a while. It was a complete rabbit warren, lots of cul-de-sacs. It took me two or three visits to be able to find the house without getting lost.
The house was a good size 4 bed with on suite but the houses were close together with one parking space each any visitors ended up parking quiet a distance away.