It is no surprise to many property buyers that new build homes sell at a premium to the equivalent “second hand home”. Many are willing to pay a premium for the pristine property with its newly fitted kitchen, bathroom, flooring, etc. But what about space, is there enough space to live in the new home?
Some recent research has identified that the average size of new build homes is shrinking. In 2006, when statistics were last compiled, that average UK home measured 91 square metres, a lot less than in Australia where the average is 239 square metres, but relatively spacious compared with today’s average.
So what is the average size of a home today, well it seems hard to believe but the survey has identified this to be just 76 square metres, that is down from 91 square metres just 3 years ago!
The main impact for the reduction in the average home size has been the proliferation of new build flats, most of the new build in recent years has been 1 and 2 bedroom flats, almost all of which are well below the average dwelling size of 76 square metres.
It seems that action is now being taken to address this problem. Already Boris Johnson,Mayor of London, has stated his intent to take action to address the proliferation of “rabbit hutches” where studio flats are built with just 30 square metres of space. But maybe the problem is more about freeing up land for new homes to be built on?
It is not possible to increase the average size of homes (effectively build more houses and less flats) if planning only focuses on existing urban areas, there needs to be far greater amounts of land made available for building. Of course this then creates another issue, the environment, this seems like it is going to grow into quite a debate over the next year or so.
So back to the original question, is your new build property a good investment? Well, apart from paying the correct price for the prevailing market you may want to consider the property’s overall proportions and market trends. It is possible that more cramped new build properties may not turn out to be quite such a good investment in the longer term, especially if planning guidelines and future new build focus on increasing the size of properties.
