goldfish21
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Age: 42
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Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
01 Jun 2023, 3:22 pm
^that would be a common size house built ~30-50 years ago. Everything started getting bigger in the 90's and then hasn't entirely stopped growing yet. There are some limitations on home size vs. land size etc, and because of the farm house trend the City of Richmond (where Vancouver international airport is) put a limit on the size of farm houses which made one particular house the last one that's ever going to be built at 20,000sf. Rich people who don't want neighbours buy stuff like that.. then lease the land to someone else to work while they reap the tax benefits of living on farmland. Some owners and their families do farm the land, but there are some who lease it out and put their efforts into more lucrative businesses.
UK home sizes are what happens when you cram 1.5 times as many people into 1/40th the amount of space And build with expensive labour intensive materials. (stone/masonry.) It's also simply a cultural thing -> homes have always been that size-ish.. and since they last sometimes for hundreds of years, things are slow to change.
My best guess on the start of the size of North American houses getting larger would be the height of trees used to make log homes.. taller trees meant longer walls. It's a theory, anyways. There were certainly very small log homes/cabins, too.
The house my father and his siblings grew up in as young kids in a small town called Spences Bridge was only 2 rooms, (mom, 4 kids, dad was away working doing civil construction building highways) and in the Winter the front room froze over so everyone was in the back to stay warm. This would have been around 1955-1960. I saw the house several years ago before it was eventually torn down, or fell down, and it was pretty small -> maybe several hundred square feet, nowhere near 1,000sf. A LOT has changed here in a half century or so.
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01 Jun 2023, 3:57 pm
Here's what a lot of modern new houses are like in the UK, even if they're only to buy not to rent:
goldfish21
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Age: 42
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Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
01 Jun 2023, 4:23 pm
We have similar developments here, similar sized, only the facades are different as they're almost never made from brick. There are some nice townhomes a couple blocks away that are all white - they look sharp. Some builders are better than others - quality wise. And the type that would be built IN Vancouver tend to be more stylish with fancier everything, sometimes rooftop decks, and definitely higher price tags.
Very few homes here of any age or size are built from brick - but some are.. if anyone wanted something solid they're more likely to build it out of concrete like Chip Wilson's (lulu lemon) house that has a helicopter pad on it. Almost everything is built out of wood framing unless it's a taller condo building, then they're concrete. Brick housing is much more common in Eastern Canada where they don't have forests growing all around them with thick trees for lumber - just some spindly pines or whatever but plenty of rocks to make bricks from.
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for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.
01 Jun 2023, 4:24 pm
01 Jun 2023, 4:27 pm
I think this is an example of a larger 'rich people' house in the UK:-
That's huge (and really nice). That would be considered a huge house here too.
goldfish21
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Joined: 17 Feb 2013
Age: 42
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Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
01 Jun 2023, 4:30 pm
I think this is an example of a larger 'rich people' house in the UK:-
That's huge (and really nice). That would be considered a huge house here too.
You realize there are three structures in that photo, right?
The house looks like it's maybe 2500sf, if that - maybe only 2000ish. Then there's a detached garage shop to the right and another house to the left.
It would be considered a huge house if that were all one structure.
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for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.01 Jun 2023, 4:36 pm
I suppose we have land space to a degree.. however, part of the reason everything is stupid expensive here is because there's only so much land between the ocean and the mountains to build on - and a bunch of it is, and should remain, ALR (agricultural land reserve) for local food supply. There are ever more homes being built in the mountains, but not a major sprawling city like Vancouver and it's suburbs - there isn't another large flat piece of land like that maybe anywhere in BC.
Things get built big because there are a lot of wealthy people that have moved here that like to show off their wealth with very large homes/estates. It's become a "thing," in Chinese business culture to show off your "Vancouver house," to your clients.
Some local people who have made $$$$ in a generation or two like to show it off with their massive farmhouse mansions - seriously - one could take a driving/motorcycle tour of farmhouse mansions across 5 or 6 suburb cities and be absolutely gobsmacked at these places.. some of them almost don't even look real they're so "straight out of the movies," - especially when they're lit up at night. I read an article that some Chinese Billionaire's sprawling farm estate out in the valley has security drones flying around the perimeter keeping an eye on things. 
As for "regular," big houses.. they're built for multi-generational Indian families and/or to have mortgage helper suites because it's almost mathematically impossible for one or two incomes to make a mortgage payment anymore. So, while we still haven't managed to get rich people on board with building more condos/apartments, there are at least multi-family houses being built that do tend to house more than just an immediate family. Some places are large enough to have 4 separate suites in the basement, then 2 floors of a family home above.
MR sold his Vancouver home after his wife died.
He made over 300% profit from 1983 to 2017.
01 Jun 2023, 4:41 pm
01 Jun 2023, 4:45 pm
01 Jun 2023, 5:57 pm
I think this is an example of a larger 'rich people' house in the UK:-
That's huge (and really nice). That would be considered a huge house here too.
You realize there are three structures in that photo, right?
The house looks like it's maybe 2500sf, if that - maybe only 2000ish. Then there's a detached garage shop to the right and another house to the left.
It would be considered a huge house if that were all one structure.
Yes, the building in the background is a different house.
01 Jun 2023, 5:58 pm
01 Jun 2023, 7:15 pm
01 Jun 2023, 7:38 pm
I spent a while looking for a Tudor and brick two storey house like the one Joe showed.
I couldn't find one quite similar but found this.
The price didn't show but in January 2020 the land taxes were over $9000 LMAOOOOO
It said the house was 3000 sqf so I imagine being in Leaside it would be around $3.5 M ish?
It's hard to say because home prices are actually dropped about 40% lately. 
goldfish21
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Joined: 17 Feb 2013
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Posts: 22,612
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
01 Jun 2023, 10:07 pm
I bet property taxes are astronomical in the parts of Vancouver where the lower priced properties start around $10M and at the upper end around $65-70M. :screwy:
LOL @ global economists & planners thinking there could ever be such a thing as a “15 minute city,” when if you work a job for a living you typically have to live quite far from your workplace and have a long commute.
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for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.01 Jun 2023, 10:20 pm
01 Jun 2023, 10:33 pm
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