Why are houses in the UK so ugly?

[h2o1 10]

I don't understand why houses here are so shabby and crowded compared with other countries in EU. Any particular reason?

[zak123 10]

If you don't like it move to one of them other countries what are so nice you are on about Britain is Britain and us Brits love it here

[speedy69 10]

I don't understand why houses here are so shabby and crowded compared with other countries in EU. Any particular reason?

 

Any particular country?

[Jeffrey Shaw 90]

I don't understand why houses here are so shabby and crowded compared with other countries in EU. Any particular reason?

HMG trying to force more and more bedspaces into the same volume; and developers who shrink rooms to fit it.

[Bojolo 10]

We have a much smaller landmass.

[muddycoffee 10]

We have a much smaller landmass.

 

No we don't, that is a myth put around by the toffs who want to keep all the lower classes crammed together in cities. If you disagree just take a train ride to Edinburgh or London and back. You will see that most of the UK is fields.

It is also worth considering the fact that Britain is the NINETH LARGEST ISLAND IN THE WORLD.

 

I agree with Jeffrey above. A big problem with the UK property market is that houses are advertised by how many rooms they have. Bedrooms, reception rooms, bathrooms etc.

In most of Europe, houses and flats are advertised by the square metre. This means that they tend to be much more spacious and priced accordingly. this is why if you sell up and move to Germany you can get a much bigger house with some land on the outskirts of a city for the price of a terrace in Sheffield.

 

If you look around a newly built house in England, you will find Garages that are too small to fit a car, bedrooms that can barely fit a bed, and tiny little extra bathrooms where it might have been better to have some storage space.

Edited April 26, 2014 by muddycoffee

[wibbles 10]

I don't understand why houses here are so shabby and crowded compared with other countries in EU. Any particular reason?

 

Archaic planning legislation, nimbyism, lack of design skills in Housebuilding, desire to maximise profit margins, lack of imagination and so on are all contributing factors to the poor quality of housing in the UK

[tzijlstra 11]

I don't understand why houses here are so shabby and crowded compared with other countries in EU. Any particular reason?

 

I have often wondered about this as well, the key in my opinion is both historic and in mentality.

 

Historically houses have been small for the working classes, as this is the biggest proportion of the population it means that most houses are small. Comparing to the Netherlands - classes don't really exist in the same way, everybody feels they have a right to a decent sized house, where houses are too small they get knocked down and replaced. I think the Brits are bad at upgrading existing infrastructure and buildings.

 

The mentality is a different thing and I can never quite work out what caused it: The Brits think that more rooms is better than bigger space. The Dutch and Germans have taken to open plan living, preferring large open spaces to small pokey rooms. The house we live in now has a similar floor-space to the house we had in the Netherlands, but with a big difference, there are no fewer than 15 closed off spaces in this house (including separate bathrooms, toilets, hallways etc. excluding attics/cellars) in the Netherlands our house had 8. Both houses have 3 bedrooms, but you can imagine the difference in feel for the two houses.

[muddycoffee 10]

The Brits think that more rooms is better than bigger space.

I completely disagree with this. I don't think brits are so stupid that they think more rooms is better. This is all that is being provided by the mass house building industry because UK planning is so slow and expensive the only way to survive as a developer is to get as many houses on the development land as possible.

 

It was not always the way that small rooms were acceptable. During the post war years the government stipulated the minimum sizes of rooms should conform to the Parker Morris Report of 1961. However this standard is not achieved for first the first time buyer sector of new dwellings nowadays.

[tzijlstra 11]

I completely disagree with this. I don't think brits are so stupid that they think more rooms is better. This is all that is being provided by the mass house building industry because UK planning is so slow and expensive the only way to survive as a developer is to get as many houses on the development land as possible.

 

It was not always the way that small rooms were acceptable. During the post war years the government stipulated the minimum sizes of rooms should conform to the Parker Morris Report of 1961. However this standard is not achieved for first the first time buyer sector of new dwellings nowadays.

 

Fair enough, but it is a fact that British houses have more rooms per surface area than their counterparts in the Netherlands. That situation can only remain if that is the demand, right? Unless you are saying that it is because that is what the supply-side has decided is the demand without taking the buyers' opinions into account, which would be odd, to say the least?

 

I agree though, the planning side of things is slowing an awful lot of things down, the Dutch are bureaucratic as well, but because councils have more freedom in designating development land it is easier to build new stock...

 

Whatever the reason, it is a conundrum that needs tackling properly.

[muddycoffee 10]

..

Whatever the reason, it is a conundrum that needs tackling properly.

Unfortunately the establishment and banks will never allow the release of the required amount of land for the building boom the UK so desperately needs.

 

Their continued wealth depends upon keeping land values high, and pedalling the myth that we are a small overcrowded island. This way the banks can provide ever increasing values of mortgages. while governments pretend to do something about housing supply.

[tzijlstra 11]

Unfortunately the establishment and banks will never allow the release of the required amount of land for the building boom the UK so desperately needs.

 

Their continued wealth depends upon keeping land values high, and pedalling the myth that we are a small overcrowded island. This way the banks can provide ever increasing values of mortgages. while governments pretend to do something about housing supply.

 

I always wonder about the enormous amount of undeveloped land in Sheffield alone, there is so much available but it is either locked-up due to being designated commercial/industrial or in ownership of the large land-owners that hold it to play tug-of-war with each other (supermarkets are guilty of this).

 

The councils should get far more rights to force development. (and thus do the opposite to our council who seem hell bent on stopping development at every opportunity)