[nickydwuk]

Having looked on the various rel estate web sites at property in various parts of New Zealnd there is one common theme. An emphasis is placed on the section size but no details of the room sizes. In the UK an estate agent always lists room sizes and for a family like mine with umpteen years of accumulated 'junk' this is quite important. I currently live in a 1930's mid terrace house that has a minute kitchen and bathroom but really good room sizes and a long garden. Any ideas on the avergae room size in NZ houses?

[jubjub]

There are no two houses the same, unless very new (which is kind of nice!), so its quite hard to give an opinion, but the sizes do seem bigger, and there are more open plan living areas that I saw in UK.

We have the same sqm area in a three bed late 60s house as we did in our brand new UK 4 bed...

[sizzlingbadger]

Go by the sqm of the house. One word of warning though sometimes if there is an internal garage it's included in the house size. We got caught out by that one, we were looking at houses around 170sqm mark but looked at a few with a double garage in that, so the living spaced ended up being minute.

I suppose once you're here you could go around with a tape measure measuring the rooms. The OH did that when we moved in :laugh Just to make sure we were in a bigger house than we were before, worked out that the whole of our old rental fitted just in the kitchen and the lounge :exit

[willowshouse]

I'd say generally the room sizes are at least as big as UK if not bigger but obviously that if what it is - a generalisation. That won't be the only thing to frustrate you when you're looking at houses.

When you go to look at a 4 bed 2 bath house and you find out that you have to go through the dirty stinking garage to get to a 'bedroom and bathroom' (I use the terms loosly as 'pit and sluice' seem more appropriate, and in case you're wondering this house was on the market at $750,000.

The Estate Agents descriptions REALLY annoy me - 'A Hidden Gem' is one of my current favourites .. my interpretation - 'Nobody knew it was there and that's the way it should stay!' I used to know where I stood with the UK agents descriptions and even though they decribed everything through rose-coloured specs you knew what they meant as they refrained from using anything too poetic. Here they all appear to be frustrated novel writers and they have enough imagination to go round the world twice over.

I am fed up looking at 'lemons' - rant over :exit

[Milliemoo]

Willowshouse: I think you and me should get together over a few drinks and have a good old rant about the Auckland housing market :laugh

I'm going to go against what everyone else is saying :D I think room sizes are tiny compared to what we were used to back in Edinburgh. I guess it all depends on what you've come from and what you've come to. We had a 1930's villa in Edinburgh which had huge big rooms and our friends had similar houses or beautiful big victorian tenement flats. From this, we're looking at *potenially* beautiful old villas in Devonport, but the rooms are tiny. Even the 'open plan' rooms seem very 'cosy'.

One of the reasons we moved here was to have a detached house (something we couldn't afford in Edinburgh) with at least 3 bedrooms. I think we'll get that, but I don't think we'll end up with much more space if you see what I mean.

Milliemoo

[Trigirl]

its the old story of it depends on what you were used to in the uk. we lived in a new build in the uk and find the rooms here pretty big in comparison. our 3 double bed house here is 50% bigger than our supposedly 3 double bed house in the uk was. plus having the lounge, dining room, kitchen open plan is lovely and makes it feel huge.

[nickydwuk]

I have found that new builds in the UK tend to have really small living areas & bedrooms but huge kitchens. As I live in an old house (1930's) I am used to a small kitchen and larger rooms, so an open plan living area sound ok considering we often sit and eat off our laps whilst watching TV.

[Rizak]

Quick calculation (Canada, though officially metric is still hopelessly mired in Imperial measurement) ...

Our place is about 135 m² with no garage and no functional basement. It's hard to get a handle on how many rooms and such there really are because it was semi-duplexed when we bought it. There is a second kitchen upstairs and a couple of rooms that don't really have a decent use aside from storage. There aren't any closets anywhere which is a pain because we have to keep everything in armoires. Combine that with the Dragonlady's penchant for buying all the wool in the world and I feel that we have no room at all.

I suppose that the 170 m² size is what we'd be looking for as well. Thanks for the numbers. It gives me something to work from.

[Ana&Steve]

The Estate Agents descriptions REALLY annoy me - 'A Hidden Gem' is one of my current favourites .. my interpretation - 'Nobody knew it was there and that's the way it should stay!' Here they all appear to be frustrated novel writers and they have enough imagination to go round the world twice over.

:laugh Same in the US...
cozy=small
quaint=rundown
cottage=shabby
Quaint cozy cottage, easy freeway access on a quiet street that is child friendly=ghetto
Ana

[barryp]

The only room size shock I had was w/r/t bedroom sizes. Most are 'doubles', which are really singles (one single or double bed). A few are 'singles', meaning you could put a crib or child's bed comfortably, or a single-width bed and not much else. Bedrooms described as 'huge' are not huge but merely generous enough for a large bed (queen or king) and furniture.