Does Size Really COUNT?

1st September 2005

T. Wyn Jones

A five-year review of UK housing published in August this year concluded that British homes are becoming condensed, with more rooms in the same floor space with the overall house size having not changed much since the late 80’s.

The report, which profiles trends in UK housing, says the shrinking home spaces are as a result of the inclusion of extra rooms in the same floor area, particularly en-suite bathrooms and utility rooms with developers capitalising on the growing popularity of ‘town houses’ (houses of two, or sometimes three storeys) and ‘mews homes’ (converted outbuildings or stables) by re-branding the smaller terraced properties as the town house or mews.

The report, by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, also indicates that the most common type of new house is the four bedroom detached house which makes up a third of all homes built. Not surprising though when you consider that the larger, detached, high quality houses are often more profitable for developers.

Of further interest is that the report advocates that Estate Agents should indicate the floor areas of each house offered for sale – similar to the rest of Europe and the US and not rely solely on the number of rooms to infer the property size. Currently property details can be misleading as quite often you will find that a 1980’s built 3-bed detached house is considerably larger than the equivalent 4-bed detached house built in 2005.

This floor area analysis is common practice amongst Chartered Surveyors and New Homes Developers in assessing house values but why it is not incorporated by Estate Agents in their sales information I do not know.

Coming back to more rooms in the same space I understand that the general consensus is that people today prefer their children to have their own room and more people are working from home which results in the growing trend for these “additional rooms”.

For my part I believe it is a good idea for agents to include the total internal floor area of the property in their Sales Particulars as it is an additional method by which prospective purchasers can compare properties - but it will of course not indicate how efficiently the room layout is designed.

With regard to children having their own room I appreciate that it may be preferential for children of opposite sex and considerable age gap to have their own room but I shared a large bedroom with my two brothers which was an absolute hoot. Not so enjoyable for my parents I presume whose attempts to watch television in the room below were constantly thwarted by the noise above.