Soldato
But what physical size? You mention tiny houses with small plots... What would you consider a reasonable size for housing and garden for those examples I gave?
Mortgage Rate Rises
- Thread starter glenimp617
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But what physical size? You mention tiny houses with small plots... What would you consider a reasonable size for housing and garden for those examples I gave?
If you want to see houses on small plots then check out Japan, the plots are only slightly larger than the house so you could walk around the perimeter and no garden to speak of. Still I kind of like the idea that it lets people have their own detached house rather than being connected.
Soldato
I couldn't say it's not something I know enough about it, I wouldn't even know the square footage of my current house if it wasn't on the market, it's 1532sq feet (100+ year old Victorian terrace with a small extension and bedrooms in the loft) it feels adequate (nearly 3m high ceilings helps massively) for a family the garden is small though. My comparison is purely anecdotal from visiting friends with new builds and occasionally looking round them with a view to buying and deciding they are not very nice! It's funny how a Victorian terrace Row can feel less crammed in and over crowded than a modern estate mind you our street is wide enough to park both sides and get a car down the middle without people having to park on the pavement it's almost like it was planned except cars didn't really exist when they did it! I've lived in a terrace a semi and a detached house and can honestly say I don't mind being attached to other people the most important factors are quality of construction to keep the noise of your neighbours out and people being considerate which the vast majority are, off street parking doesn't bother me even with the impending electrical revolution I value community and location over out right convenience.
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I've been to Poland four times now (Krakow, Sanok, Poznan and Lublin) and you should see the houses there.
In the cities, it's all apartments. But they are spacious, modern, well appointed, with parking built under the apartment block, and with greenery and kids play areas built alongside the units. Honestly compared to our apartment blocks, it's night and day.
As soon as you move out of the city, it's houses. a lot follow the same style, detached, squarish footprint, on their own squarish plots with land around all sides. Basement at ground level or just below with garage, steps up to level 1 which has kitchen, and a couple of living rooms, stairs up to level 2 which houses bedrooms etc, and stairs up to loft space. Many houses have both gas fired and wood fired boilers, and you'll see stacks of drying wood piled in sheds and around the boundary of all the houses.
The houses are dotted around the landscape spaciously, there is no cramping together of houses into restrictive 'developments'.
Examples:
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In the UK how many back to back houses still exist? Pretty much none, they've been knocked down as they were unfit. Why don't we do the same with terraced runs with no parking, or un-insulatable solid wall housing? We should be modernising our housing stock and making it better, more comfortable, more spacious - we are doing the opposite.
Only have to look at social houses that have been put in the arms of private housing associations.
All the council houses up here have had new roofs installed, the private housing association ( looking at you sanctuary housing!) Don't do anything, even if there are slates crashing into next doors walkway or sewage leaking.
It's night and day between the two, unfortunately until landlords and these private housing associations are held to account, nothing will improve, it's all about squeezing money.
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Our gene pool (another child) and stocks and shares ISA. The latter has made only modest returns, was doing ok until the pandemic but hasn't gained anything in aggregate since then. It wasn't really a decision about where to invest though, we were too lazy/slow to get our house prepped for sale and then had to start applying to schools.
That's what we live in, I'd agree with this except interior layout which works reasonably well for us. A lot of older houses have smaller rooms (our smallest bedroom can fit both a double and single bed) and/or insufficient bathroom facilities (a real pet hate of mine is houses where there is a single toilet located in the bathroom). Kitchens can be a bit poky too compared to the more modern kitchen-diner style. Obviously some of these issues can be addressed by having work done on a property but we're not the sort of people with the vision/desire to do that.
Given the choice I'd obviously prefer a detached two-story home on a big plot but building townhouses just make logical sense to me, maximising square footage for a given plot of land. A 'traditional' layout would probably cost at least 20% more for the same interior space.
My dad lives in a classic Victorian Semi which is a better house than ours (worth twice as much), but it only has two decent sized bedrooms, 3rd bedroom is a single and the 4th room is literally a box room (about the size of a toilet room).
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Associate
Crikey, our bedroom is bigger than that house!
Caporegime
My driveway is bigger than that house. Complete madness. What is the world coming too.
Soldato
To be fair it’s no different to a 1 bedroom flat so as long as the price is comparable I don’t really see an issue.
Man of Honour
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Not looking forward to our remortgage in 18 months time. That’s my Lego money 
. Doesn’t look like it’ll settle much by then. Glad we didn’t overextend to need a mortgage for our second home.
. Doesn’t look like it’ll settle much by then. Glad we didn’t overextend to need a mortgage for our second home.
Caporegime
Yeah, 58sq. m isn't that small.
Not looking forward to our remortgage in 18 months time. That’s my Lego money
Yup similar timeframe to myself. Bye bye to disposable income
I assume they misplaced the comma / number separator?
Caporegime
It is just crazy though. 350k would buy a lovely house in the Midlands and up. 4+ bed detached with a double garage. Yes you get the London salary but it is taken on a mortgage for what would quantify as an old people's retirement home worth 80-90k tops anywhere else in the country. It even has the fibreglass roof. You essentially earn more money to spend your life in a box.
Coming home from a week's work to have a side alley for a garden would lead me into depression tbh.
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Soldato
Buy it. 10 years later with London salary you've paid off mortgage. Sell it, but huge up north. Live like a king.
Caporegime
Or just just buy a house further North in the first place and live a good life from the beginning on slightly less salary. My house would be close to a million in that area if not more. I would need to be on 100+k a year just to have the same style of living as I have now. With 700k+ mortgage instead of the 40k I have left now.
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Could you get that same mortgage for 40k now? No.
Caporegime
No but even if I bought now with my original deposit adjusted for inflation my mortgage would still only be 200k tops which is still half a million cheaper than an equivalent house in that area.
Caporegime
Its not really a good solution for social mobility or general happiness to be shunting people out of their environment so they can afford a house they should be able to afford with the job they have. I have a couple of friends who are not doing so well on the mental health front and a large part of it is isolation because they bought properties in cheaper places where they don't have friends and have to travel for 40 minutes plus to see us. Its not nice. You work a hard and stressful job and then have to worry about an hour and a half round trip to socialise.