Number of ‘rabbit hutch’ homes increases fivefold in five years

January 24, 2020 / Isla MacFarlane
Number of ‘rabbit hutch’ homes increases fivefold in five years

Dubbed ‘rabbit hutch homes’, micro homes in the UK have been on the rise since Permitted Development Rights allowed developers to swerve those pesky space standards.

New research finds that the number of micro-homes being built in the UK has increased almost fivefold in just five years.

The research by the Intergenerational Foundation reveals that the number of new micro-homes developed has increased from 2,139 in 2013 to 9,605 in 2018.

Policy-makers, including Boris Johnson, then Mayor of London, hoped that micro-homes would provide a part-solution to the housing crisis by using a “policy shortcut” in 2013 to permit the conversion of dis-used commercial buildings into residential housing with almost automatic planning consent irrespective of their size or amenity. It meant that homes could be created below the 37m2 minimum national space standards for a 1-person, 1-bedroom home with a shower.

Instead, the UK can now claim the dubious title of having the smallest rooms, and the second smallest homes, to be found across all of Europe with some micro-developments as small as a single garage at 8.3 square metres, and others without windows or ventilation.

Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography, University of Oxford, who provided the foreword for the report said: “We need to call time on quick-profit-seeking speculative developments of rabbit hutch homes. We need to tighten, not loosen permitted development rights for homes converted from commercial to residential use, and ensure that developers are made to abide by the Nationally Described Space Standard, in order to better protect younger and future generations.”

There is an argument that for those that can’t afford a slice of the capital, a crumb is better than nothing. Micro homes do offer an alternative route to homeownership; and with DVDs and CDs ejected to the cloud, a new generation tends to pack lighter than the last, and less space is needed for storage.

The so-called sharing economy means have made bulky items such as suitcases and bicycles redundant in the home. Microhomes often have generous communal spaces, meaning that residents are simply sharing space instead of sacrificing it.

In 2017, a YouGov poll by Inspired Homes revealed that 71% of British adults support the development of 31 square metre plus micro-apartments.

“Millennials who have been priced out of larger properties and forced to rent can see light at the end of the tunnel,” said Martin Skinner, CEO of Inspired Asset Management and Inspired Homes. “Today’s affordable new home may be smaller, but it’s smarter and it’s one they can call their own. This approach represents an easy solution to what has become a major problem for the London property industry.”

However, micro-homes are far from a London phenomenon. From 2016 to 2018 significant numbers have been built in the North West, the South East outside London, and Yorkshire and the Humber.

Research from Which? has suggested that microhomes may be the runt of the property market, failing to grow in value alongside their roomier relatives. In 2017, a study indicated that micro-homes don’t necessarily grow in value like their larger counterparts, while some mortgage lenders won’t lend on them at all.

Colin Wiles, report author, said: “The available evidence shows that micro-homes are not a solution to the housing crisis. They represent a short-term, kneejerk reaction to wider problems in the housing market and the planning process, including the rising price of land, inadequate housing investment, rising under-occupation by older generations, and land-banking by housebuilders.

“They have a negative impact on affordability, health, community stability, and general well-being. They are clearly speculative, uncontrolled, and unplanned, and therefore in clear contradiction of the planned approach set out in the National Planning Policy Framework which requires that “planning policies and decisions should ensure that developments…create places that are safe, inclusive, and accessible and which promote health and wellbeing, with a high standard of amenity for existing and future users”.”

Angus Hanton IF co-founder added: “Younger generations deserve decent affordable housing whether they rent or buy. We urge the government to scrap office-to-residential Permitted Development Rights in the name of intergenerational fairness so that any new homes created are decent, affordable and the homes sold tackle housing affordability problems rather than create inflationary pressure in the rest of the market which appears to be the unintended consequence of micro-housing development.”

It seems, when it comes to property, size still matters.

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