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A
Z
Variety in urban living: the challenges and opportunities
Current
2020
list Article list

Variety in urban living: the challenges and opportunities

Posted 11.08.2023
By Make's residential sector team

In March 2023, Make invited leading UK voices in the residential industry – including architects, developers, investors, consultants, agents and market observers – to a roundtable discussion of new and long-standing issues affecting the urban housing sector. Here, two attendees share their thoughts on the current state of urban residential design and development.

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The architect’s view: Frank Filskow, Make

At a glance

At Make, we’re exploring the make-up of households in the UK. We went through the results of the 2021 Census and are setting the data against questions around the provision of family homes in London. What are the different demographics that make up of British households today? Where do families choose to live and why?

The predominance of small households

A notable fact we uncovered is that 30% of households in England and Wales only have one person living in them. Over a third of these singletons are more than 65 years old. Couples without children comprise another 17%, bringing the number of single and lone couple households to nearly half of all households.

Surprisingly, the proportion of single or lone couple households is only marginally lower across London than in England and Wales as a whole, suggesting that it’s a nationwide trend to live in smaller households – not just an urban phenomenon.

What are the needs of these Londoners, older or younger? Do they live in homes with spare bedrooms? How does the predominant provision of standardised 1 and 2-bed flats fit in?

Stay-at-home kids

The Census reveals that only a quarter (26%) of all households in England and Wales are what we might call ‘traditional’ family homes: parents with dependent children under the age of 25. The same goes for London.

Combining single, lone couple and traditional family households brings us to 73% of all households, meaning the remaining 27% are a different make-up.

It turns out around a significant proportion of these remaining households – so 11% of all households in England and Wales – are parents with non-dependent children over the age of 25 years living at home. Perhaps they’re saving for their first home purchase or can’t afford to move out. Or are these long-term intergenerational households – for example, an adult living with a divorced parent?

This diversity of family make-up shows that we should be thinking more creatively about what family home design can and should look like.

Shared and multigenerational living

The Census classifies the remainder of all households (over 16%) as ‘other’. This includes shared flats and other types of shared living for professionals, students and extended multigenerational families.

As one might expect, this number is higher in London. Are developers and designers considering alternative living formats for these households?

The need for diverse design solutions

Clearly, there is a demand for small homes, but we need to understand the nature of that. A home shouldn’t simply be defined by the number of bedrooms it has, but by how well it meets the needs of the households inside in terms of age, culture and lifestyle.

The one-size-fits-all approach needs to be more tailored to offer greater value, flexibility and efficiency. Design and development need to reflect and support changing living patterns so people can buy and rent the homes they need.

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The developer’s view

At a glance

If there is an as-yet unfound design idea that reduces costs and generates extra margin, that could be part of the answer. But however margin is created, somebody will fill it – a vendor of land, a contractor seeking a higher price. Margins have shrunk. Historic commitments have been made on land, while prices and values have softened. But procurement costs haven’t, and there’s huge uncertainty for buyers around interest rates.

More sophisticated thinking

Every land opportunity is unique. Developers and designers should focus the right product for the location. The opportunity is to be more like purveyors of consumer products. There isn’t sufficient thinking, which gives rise to follow-the-herd stuff. The more dinosaurs there are, the better for those who think harder.

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