London house prices?

[The Moose]

Harry Flashman said:

I know that folk thing that open plan is a trend and will reverse, but frankly I don't think that it will in town flats. Houses, perhaps, but not flats. I think Keithton has added value to his flat with the changes.

I also don't see open plan turning back...at least not in big cities. Too many people, not enough square footage.

[wisbech]

I recall staying with my sister who was working in NY in the 90’s in a 2br open plan - with only facilities for breakfast/ heating food up. The assumption was that any 20 something professional would be eating out or using takeaways for all main meals. Which was true

Cities in Japan, almost all flats are ‘LDK’ (living dining kitchen)

[DonkeyApple]

wisbech said:

I recall staying with my sister who was working in NY in the 90’s in a 2br open plan - with only facilities for breakfast/ heating food up. The assumption was that any 20 something professional would be eating out or using takeaways for all main meals. Which was true

Cities in Japan, almost all flats are ‘LDK’ (living dining kitchen)

It is generally a trend generated from land prices and pitched as lifestyle. It really is economics. A 2 bed with the kitchen in the living room can be sold for more than a 1 bed with a separated kitchen. It also tends to do away with the expectation of a dining room also. Hell, you don’t even need a hallway any more. To help it on its way you inform people that if they don’t cook in their living room then they are seriously uncool and that society is mocking them.

In reality, after telling consumers in London for over 20 years now that not cooking in your living room and then eating in front of a tv is seriously uncool and also telling them that they should be eating out several times a week and mostly using their kitchen space as an unboxing zone for fast food we’ve probably reached the point just like in Manhattan where people have no money and are back living like their caveman forefathers in a single room. But they are at least considered seriously cool unlike the tt who has a separate kitchen and a dining room and a hallway.

[wisbech]

TRue plus as she was Wall Street lawyering at the time, it was also ‘you are way too busy and/or important to actually cook’

Amusingly she is now early retired in decent sized place in Putney and while they have all the separate rooms almost all life is lived in the family room, which is basically a large sized open living/ dining/ kitchen extension tacked on the back of the house...

[DonkeyApple]

wisbech said:

TRue plus as she was Wall Street lawyering at the time, it was also ‘you are way too busy and/or important to actually cook’

Amusingly she is now early retired in decent sized place in Putney and while they have all the separate rooms almost all life is lived in the family room, which is basically a large sized open living/ dining/ kitchen extension tacked on the back of the house...

Yup. There are bits of the change which are good and bits which are bad. The worst bit has probably be how it has helped to enormously inflate property prices by shoving in an extra bedroom where the kitchen was and spending the turn of the century suddenly able to sell a 1 bedder without a kitchen (ie a modern 2 bedder) for the same prices as traditional 2 bedders. But the whole concept of a lovely big family space that recognises the ‘zones’ where a family spends the most time and brings them together to create a better environment is a massive step forward and benefit.

The whole Manhattan thing is just plain unhealthy. Neurotic slave drones that spend 14 hours at a desk mostly trying to get 6 hours of real work to fill that by using meetings and bout meetings. Layers of middle management that have no definable purpose to exist other than to chair these meetings about meetings and their subsequent meetings. And in addition to creating the culture that you’re too special to cook so must eat out and probably a desperate phycolgical need to be at a table with people you don’t live with and for it not to be a meeting, they’ve also built shops under the offices so that you can’t leave the building during the working day. But they’ve all lapped it up and raced to live in smaller and smaller boxes by borrowing more and more while spending more and more and more on other people’s rents and labour until they have all reached the absolutely pitiful existence of the Manhattan empoverished worker drone.

I remember my bank moving from the civilised luxury of Mayfair to Canary Wharf back in about 98/99 and the absolutely dismal change of character that wreaked through the floor. Out went the mellow people who fitted 10 hours work into an 8 hour shift to be replaced with the drug addled neurotic types with zero time management skills who were all in a race to see who could stay in the building longest.

[kingston12]

wisbech said:

Amusingly she is now early retired in decent sized place in Putney and while they have all the separate rooms almost all life is lived in the family room, which is basically a large sized open living/ dining/ kitchen extension tacked on the back of the house...

I quite like that in a house though, as long as you have got at least one other reception room to use if you want to, and preferably a separate utility.

Quite how often the other room is used is another matter, and it would probably be very little, but I still like the idea of having somewhere to go if I don't fancy cleaning the kitchen straight after cooking and/or the dishwasher and washing machine are churning away.

I still think it is a good idea in flats as well, even if it doesn't suit me personally. It certainly isn't going away. I live right on the edge of zone 6 rather than London-proper, and most of the flats conversions that were done here in the 90s were already in that style, and certainly all of the new builds going up now are like that.

[AstonZagato]

We opened up our kitchen by incorporating the separate breakfast room about 10 years ago. It has room for a large dining table and some sofas. We used to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. We now spend more - and more family time there. Ironically, the other reception room we use is the smallest out of the others we could choose from.

[hyphen]

kingston12 said:

I still think it is a good idea in flats as well, even if it doesn't suit me personally. It certainly isn't going away. I live right on the edge of zone 6 rather than London-proper, and most of the flats conversions that were done here in the 90s were already in that style, and certainly all of the new builds going up now are like that.

Good idea? For who, the owner/renter or the developer/landlord!!

New builds only did it so they look bigger than they are, a few dividing walls and buyers would think twice.

I think if you don't live alone, open plan without an additional room is nuts imo, I blame the tv series Friends for making it appear cool and trendy and making it easy for developers to sell in the UK.

[kingston12]

hyphen said:

kingston12 said:

I still think it is a good idea in flats as well, even if it doesn't suit me personally. It certainly isn't going away. I live right on the edge of zone 6 rather than London-proper, and most of the flats conversions that were done here in the 90s were already in that style, and certainly all of the new builds going up now are like that.

Good idea? For who, the owner/renter or the developer/landlord!!

New builds only did it so they look bigger than they are, a few dividing walls and buyers would think twice.

I think if you don't live alone, open plan without an additional room is nuts imo, I blame the tv series Friends for making it appear cool and trendy and making it easy for developers to sell in the UK.

Well, it doesn't suit me personally, but as long as it remains fashionable and desirable for most buyers then it would seem like a sensible thing to do.

Most people tend to ignore the overall square footage of a flat, or certainly treat it as secondary to whether it is a 1-bed or 2-bed. As long as the premium paid for a 2-bed over a 1-bed of a similar size is more than it costs to do the work, then it makes sense to do it, financially at least.

[Greys0n]

I saw the prices near London houses, it's a lot of money. I live in a small flat now and was saving money for a long time but still it's not enough. I was thinking to buy studio flat antalya in Konyaalti area, it's up-and-coming developing area on the stunning historical coastline of southern Turkey. As I know real estate is a good investment.

Edited by Greys0n on Friday 30th March 09:28

[Ilovejapcrap]

I always look at house prices as London normal reflects what will happen in rest of U.K.

However according to this

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/5928499/house-price...

All have gone up but London