Small rooms, tiny gardens, low ceilings and limited parking are standard features of many inadequate new build homes…

Now we have coach houses.

The clever marketing term conjurers up romantic images of open fires and country living but the reality couldn't be more of a contrast, as it is used to describe a property built above two or three garages owned by someone else.

Catriona Bright, Managing director of New Build Inspections, a company that carries out snagging inspections of new homes commented: "Buyers really need to think about what it would be like to live above a neighbour's garage. It will almost certainly lead to a row."

Disputes on high density housing estates are not uncommon and usually relate to noise and parking, any move to increase this is a recipe for disaster.

Bright added: "On one housing estate I am familiar with the residents were so fed up with the lack of parking and arguments that three of them converted their tiny gardens into parking spaces."

Getting away with it

The current housing shortage ensures that the builders continue to get away with these tricks to increase the number of properties per site as the local planning policies reflect the Government’s commitment to increase housing density.

Bright commented: “Increasing housing density is just one solution to the problem which dramatically pushes up the value of the land held by the developers and the profitability of each site. This leads to the building of inappropriate homes that result in a poor quality of life for the owners.”

Bright added: “The builders hold massive swathes of land, or land banks, which they should be encouraged to develop rather than cramming as many homes as possible onto the sites under development.”

Source: NewBuildInspections