How big should a 3bed semi be? and how big is the one you are buying/selling?

[AnotherLovelyCupOfCoffee]

comments on the thread about differences between the uk and America got me thinking... although, i'm not sure they have three bed semis in the states Anyway, I'm buying [touch wood] a 3 bed semi and it is 880 sq ft. Not huge... but it's not a luxury new build. It was built 1970 I think. I don't think new build semis would be a lot bigger, although they lay out might be better, more open plan. I'm in Dublin btw. I think a three bed that was 950sq foot would be marketed as "spacious". The EA did not use the word spacious to describe 'my' house. so is that it, 950 sq foot warrants the description 'spacious'?

[KatyDid02]

It's hard to tell how big 950 sq foot is to be honest. What are the room sizes?

We live in a 3 bed semi, it has a large entrance hall (we use it for a dining room as our table which seats 8 fits in it), a dining room big enough for said table plus several book cases, a lounge, two double bedrooms, one single+ bedroom (a double bed will fit at a push), a large kitchen, downstairs cloakroom and upstairs bathroom.

It's a good size but I wouldn't say it was spacious but then we moved from a 5 bedroom house.

[Reastie]

I'm not sure. We live in a 3 bed victorian semi. I wouldn't describe it as spacious at all. We have a teeny hall and rooms are quite a small ish size (but high ceilings make them look bigger) but we have 3 reception rooms and a kitchen, so we have more rooms but not very big. We also have 3 double bedrooms so in this respect it's spacious as many 3 bedrooms have a box room/small bedroom

[AnotherLovelyCupOfCoffee]

Well, to put it in to perspective, in the house that is 880sq ft, the kitchen is about 9x15 and the sitting room is 16x10. so, two rectangular shaped rooms and a hallway. The hallway is not poky for the size of the house and maybe one day a small loo could easily go under the stairs

I used to live in a 3 bed Victorian semi and the sitting room was much squarer which I liked. it was about 13 x14 or maybe 14x15. In fact every other room in that house was poky and/or like a corridor but the 'master' bedroom and the sitting room felt spacious so at least there was a room you could GO to in the house to delude yourself you had a bit of space!

[Goal]

880sq ft is pretty small. A decent sized natural 3 bed Victorian semi would prob be about 1200 Plus

[SmellsLikeWeenSpirits]

Our bog standard, square, ex local authority 1920s semi is 953 sq ft plus an attic conversion

Upstairs seems big enough, although the barroom is small. Downstairs there are two reception rooms, a cloakroom, hall and the kitchen, which again is on the small side. We plan on extending into the 100 foot garden

It seems fairly spacious as its got huge windows and high ceilings

[CanadianJohn]

In suburbia in the US, most houses are detached. I believe house sizes have been sneaking up over the lst few years, I think about 2000 sq ft is usual. I'll try to look it up.

My house (in southern Ontario) is about 1400 sq ft, and is regarded as small.

[DramaAlpaca]

It's hard to say as in the UK most people wouldn't have a clue how many sq ft their house is, as unlike Ireland this wouldn't be standard in property descriptions.

I would think on average an older 3-bed in a city would be bigger than an new build.

[CanadianJohn]

According to the US Census Bureau, the average size of a new US home built in 2006 is 2,469 square feet.www.census.gov/const/www/highanncharac2006.html

I don't see the problem in determining the size of your house... measure. Sorry if I'm being obtuse

[ILikeBirds]

A new build would almost certainly be smaller than a 1970s house with the same number of rooms.

Our 3 bed semi is around 1000sq ft and larger than most others we looked round. Victorian semis in this area are smaller.

[AllBoxedUp]

If our house sale goes through we are hopefully buying a 3 bedroom detached house which is 90m2 (~969 sq ft - it's on the EPC). It has a lounge diner, medium kitchen (no room for a table but not pokey) and a downstairs loo. Upstairs there's a large double, small double and tiny single. I think it's bigger than some new builds I have seen but still on the small size. It also has a conservatory which is additional space.

[denialandpanic]

ours is 1300 sqm, I can't remember the feet?

[denialandpanic]

about 125square feet I think.we lived in rented at 98 before and realised that would be too small long term.Happy with current house

[denialandpanic]

sorry not paying attention I've moved them up walks away in a hurry

[DontCallMeBaby]

Ours is about 1000sq ft, plus the conservatory, which is about another 200. It's only the conservatory which makes it bigger than our previous two bed flat, but that had huge bedrooms! Living room is a decent size, and all the bedrooms are okay (smallest is more than a box room, it contains a double bed but not a great deal else). The kitchen and dining room would seem mor spacious if knocked into one, but seem a little poky as separate rooms. And we'd struggle for storage if it wasn't for the conservatory.

[AnotherLovelyCupOfCoffee]

Thanks everybody, that's interesting canadianjohn that houses are getting bigger in the usa. the standard of accommodation in the usa is still bigger with more bathrooms! I guess even though new york has tiny apartments, in america there is a LOT of rural inbetween the Urban iykwim.

new builds are getting smaller here, maybe not still, because I think it'd be hard to make one smaller than 850sq feet. Where I am, how big your house is a major detail! always on the site/brochure!

[Jan49]

If you're buying or selling in England or Wales, the total size of the house is on the EPC.

We sold our 3 bed semi (1930s built) last year and it was 1205 sq feet. When I was arranging insurance, the broker needed to know if it was small medium or large and came up with some measurements. Ours was a little bigger than medium. It had 2 very large bedrooms (15 ft long) and a 3rd bedroom about 8 x 11ft. Two large receptions, tiny kitchen, downstairs cloakroom, upstairs toilet and separate tiny bathroom. Good sized hall and landing.

I thought estate agents used the word 'spacious' for any house that wasn't the size of a toilet.

[LadyKooKoo]

Ours is just over 1000 and is a 1920s semi. This includes a pre-existing kitchen extension which runs behind the garage. We are planning an extension over the garage and a kitchen extension which will run along the full width of the house and will almost double the current square footage. The garden is over 120 foot long though so it seems like we have a lot of space, I imagine if we had the tiny garden that comes with new builds it would feel very different.