Houses that don't make sense

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-83343251.html

These were built on the site of small units about 3-4 years... and they haven't sold at all.    They are plonked at the end of a mainish road with some other houses opposite in a cul de sac.  They don't have footpaths, a  shop or any other amenities.  You are going to have to drive for everything.

The plot was small and they have rammed these bungalows onto them.  Looking at the sizes, the rooms are too small for a four bedroom house, in particular the living/kitchen area.  

The adjoining field is lovely... and has wet muck on it twice a year to bring it back to use and the houses have a public foot path running right around them.

They pretend one sold, but it didn't, the developer has moved in.

The other two sit like white elephants.  The single house next to them is constantly being sold because it's an inconvenient way to live, none of the benefits of the town or the country.  Price has varied between 500k and 600k depending on which estate agent has it, and this has changed every few months

We lost 8 working units for small businesses to these houses, what market were they actually aimed at?  

Hot can you build stuff that people actually want to live in.  They're basically two bed houses that aren't attractive and I wonder if the planners had a hand in the design by specifying heights and roof pitches.

There are plenty of developers who try and pitch stuff towards being more upmarket so it's higher margin but there are only so many people who can spend half a million plus.  One of villages where I grew up is full of suburban new builds for £700k upwards and I can't see there are enough families locally with a combined salary of over £150k who want to live in a suburban new build when the same money will buy you a cottage out of the village with no neighbours.  In the meantime nobody is building stuff locally that's affordable for a couple with a combined salary of £50k.

No offence at all.  I think people agree with you given that these aren't selling and I wouldn't buy one!.  Actually it's Epping at that point.. but I get your point.  Look at this on the same road ! 

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-74155522.html

hotnow, this road has had 13 "Townhouses" added on a 3 acre ex-skip yard.   The land remediation for this waste site was removing top soil and a bentonite liner.   They have no garden, no street lighting, no paths, no school, no shop and a village hall in decrepit state that has no regular activities.  Those places are now not selling on.  The famillies in them are trapped.  The more they complain about how shit it is to live there (build quality and remoteness) the more they are blighted.  You can't decide to infill as a source of housing in any significant way, because you'll end up with houses somewhere people will be miserable... and you can't upgrade infrastructure for infill houses.

Houses like mine have substantial land and feel more remote than they are,  I therefore get the best of both worlds, these tiny modern boxes get the worst.

Exactly Sails... The three sites here (the two mentioned above and a contaminated brownfield site on the adjoining road) have all been at the executive home end of the market with no section 106 agreements for social housing because the council don't consider them suitable for social housing.

None of those sites interferes with the area (the 6000 units being built the other side of the M11 may...) but they are miserable to live in.

 

people don't want gardens now.  They don't want to maintain them.  Here they are all covered with pink and purple plastic grass that is hoovered.... seriously...

Ebit I love it when Octagon buys a one acre plot then builds three quarters of an acre of house, garage and indoor pool so that when the owners sit in the garden they're basically just six feet away from the garden fence.

Sails madness isn’t it. I think it’s a London and Home Counties thing in the main . If you have 6 bedrooms presumably you have multiple children , or friends and relatives who regularly want to chill , and eat in a decent sized garden .

I certainly don't like those on the first lnk.

My son last week bought a detached (newly buit) house in Oxfordshuire with a garden for 303k. It is nicer as it has a more traditional fee despite being new.

Octagon probably aren't the worst offenders but certainly a few developers in St. George's Hill and the like who buy a plot with a relatively modest house and decent garden and then build some enormous new monstrosity which leaves very little garden.