New study shows UK has smallest properties in Europe

So what’s it to be? Cramped, overpriced UK homes, or…

Still undecided whether to chase your dream and buy that property in Spain? Well, perhaps this will help: a recent study by Cambridge University has found that the UK has the smallest living spaces in all of Europe… and homes are getting smaller…

This so-called invisible housing squeeze is a result of successive failures on the part of recent governments to address dwelling sizes; a problem exacerbated since the 1980s following the then-Conservative government’s selling off of the UK’s council housing stock.

This ‘Right to Buy’ scheme was lauded at the time for helping aid social mobility. But for every council tenant purchasing their home and enjoying the security of home ownership, many others saw it as an opportunity to snap-up cut-price homes and rent them out as shared dwellings.

The rise of the Buy to Let landlord in the UK had the knock-on effect of prompting developers to build new properties that were smaller than their predecessors. Partly to keep costs down as house prices soared, and partly to appeal to the Buy to Let investor keen on acquiring more studio and one- and two-bedroom apartments.

Today, the average floor space of a newly built UK home is just 76 square metres – smaller than homes in every other country in Europe, including Spain. The sample of 16,000 properties in England found that 79 per cent of homes were below acceptable size guidelines laid out by the London Housing Design Guide, introduced in 2011 in an attempt to improve the quality of accommodation in London and beyond, becoming the industry-wide standard.

… spacious, affordable and attractive Spanish homes? The choice is yours!

The average floor space as a whole, including older properties, is 85 square metres, which still leaves the UK rooted at the bottom of the European table, along with Greece and Portugal.

“The majority of homes in the UK are not fully occupied and yet residents are dissatisfied with the amount of space, with lack of storage space, insufficient space for furniture and lack of space in which to socialise often cited as particular problems,” wrote the authors of the Cambridge University report, Malcolm Morgan and Heather Cruickshank.

In London, the average size of a new one-bedroom property is a mere 46 square metres, according to the president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Stephen Hodder. “This is the same size as a London Underground carriage,” he said. “This is depriving households of the space they need to live comfortably and cohesively.

“Space for children to do their homework, private areas for rest and relaxation, and even space to store food and the vacuum cleaner are all major concerns in British homes. With a failing housing market, we need to empower our local authorities to borrow money and build quality homes.”

In Spain, the average house size is 97 square metres, which puts Spanish properties in the upper reaches of Europe. And when you consider that homes in Spain are generally cheaper than in the UK, and enjoy the benefits of that wonderful Spanish climate and lifestyle, you have to ask yourself: if not now, when?