Are British homes sub standard?

Mrwong

Mrwong

Mrwong

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A mate of mine is seeking to rent a home. So far he says that British homes are expensive, sub standard and dangerous.

Everything he sees is a dump and expensive, this guy gets a very good wage 3 times the average wage in the UK. His skills are needed here, but now he is seriously thinking of moving abroad.

His boss has offered him a bit more to stay and not leave the company. If he leaves a department will be impacted.
 
Exceptions aside I wouldn't say most British homes are particularly dangerous and are built to better regulations than average, compared to the world in general not sub-standard - a lot of countries are way worse and few are better.

However I'd personally rate the vast majority of British homes as sub-standard with a lot of laziness and cheaping out. There are some eras like the mid 1930s and early 50s where houses tended to be better built, then you get the 70s where they would have been OK if they didn't go and cheap out on things like lintels.............. and then periods in the 80s where they used cheap and nasty materials throughout i.e. chipboard and need some serious work before now.

Taking a closer look at many modern builds I'm just like "really!?!" at how poor they are.
 
Rroff said:
Exceptions aside I wouldn't say most British homes are particularly dangerous and are built to better regulations than average, compared to the world in general not sub-standard - a lot of countries are way worse and few are better.

However I'd personally rate the vast majority of British homes as sub-standard with a lot of laziness and cheaping out. There are some eras like the mid 1930s and early 50s where houses tended to be better built, then you get the 70s where they would have been OK if they didn't go and cheap out on things like lintels.............. and then periods in the 80s where they used cheap and nasty materials throughout i.e. chipboard and need some serious work before now.

Taking a closer look at many modern builds I'm just like "really!?!" at how poor they are.
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He told me that all the rentals are in a very bad state, and very cheaply done.
 
In terms of energy retention/consumption, yes insulation is poor and regulations on that subject are poor as well I remember being told years and years ago germany required all new homes to be double glazed by law and were routinely triple glazed our standards are very lazy in comparison
 
Blackjack Davy said:
In terms of energy retention/consumption, yes insulation is poor and regulations on that subject are poor as well I remember being told years and years ago germany required all new homes to be double glazed by law and were routinely triple glazed our standards are very lazy in comparison
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He showed me pictures of places with a rental value of 2.5k a month for a one bed. Some were pretty awful.
 
Whereabout is he looking? around where I used to live in Zone 3/4 London you can get a 50+M2 1 bedroom in a fairly respectable building for half that.

Obviously would need a closer look but this doesn't look too bad to me at their price range https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/120678785 or for a different style https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/117391943

EDIT: Or if all else fails https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/118962146 :o

EDIT2: Or this... https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/117811580 couple of miles from where I used to live...
 
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Mrwong said:
He told me that all the rentals are in a very bad state, and very cheaply done.
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Is this London?

It's really va case of do as little as possible to be habitable and turn a profit for many private landlords.

Where is he/she coming from to have such a high comparison?
 
Rroff said:
Exceptions aside I wouldn't say most British homes are particularly dangerous and are built to better regulations than average, compared to the world in general not sub-standard - a lot of countries are way worse and few are better.

However I'd personally rate the vast majority of British homes as sub-standard with a lot of laziness and cheaping out. There are some eras like the mid 1930s and early 50s where houses tended to be better built, then you get the 70s where they would have been OK if they didn't go and cheap out on things like lintels.............. and then periods in the 80s where they used cheap and nasty materials throughout i.e. chipboard and need some serious work before now.

Taking a closer look at many modern builds I'm just like "really!?!" at how poor they are.
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Actually it was during the 50's after the second world war a lot of houses were built quite poorly, structurally.

There was a shortage of houses so they used faster methods of construction, mainly pre cast/pre fabricated where the houses were basically build off site in a factory, delivered in bits and bolted together.

They were only ever designed to last for a decade or two, people are still living in the now, but many are classed as "defective" and many others have needed to be repaired by local councils with guarantees issued etc.
 
BUDFORCE said:
Actually it was during the 50's after the second world war a lot of houses were built quite poorly, structurally.

There was a shortage of houses so they used faster methods of construction, mainly pre cast/pre fabricated where the houses were basically build off site in a factory, delivered in bits and bolted together.

They were only ever designed to last for a decade or two, people are still living in the now, but many are classed as "defective" and many others have needed to be repaired by local councils with guarantees issued etc.
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I was generalising - you have to go into quite a lot more depth to get the truth of it - it varies a lot by area, type and specific year, etc.
 
Mrwong said:
A mate of mine is seeking to rent a home. So far he says that British homes are expensive, sub standard and dangerous.

Everything he sees is a dump and expensive, this guy gets a very good wage 3 times the average wage in the UK. His skills are needed here, but now he is seriously thinking of moving abroad.

His boss has offered him a bit more to stay and not leave the company. If he leaves a department will be impacted.
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Depends if you mean sub standard in build quality or small? Compared to other countries our homes tend to be much smaller but better built. Take an America house it will on average be a lot bigger even double the size for the same price range but it will be built to a much lower standard. That's not to say there are no sub standard homes in the UK its just on average our homes tend to be smaller then average given a set price range compared to other countries.

If he is saying all rentals are badly done he is looking at the wrong rentals most likely in the wrong area. Rentals change massively location to location and even a small change in price can be a massive difference in rentals quality.
 
Mrwong said:
rental.
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There's the problem. Unless the landlord used to live there, chances are its going to have the cheapest possible fittings and liberal application of magnolia to maximise profit. The landlord isnt living there anyway so why would they "waste" more of their money on "luxury" items?
 
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