I get that theres a housing shortage but are any first time buyers depressed at potentially living in one of these ‘copy and paste’ estates built on the side of main roads on the edges of towns. No character to them at all.
https://i.redd.it/do5kwbholqnd1.jpeg
Posted by stoney_giant
26 Comments
At least those concept houses have a driveway and potentially some rear garden. I’ve seen ones that have no front or rear gardens which would be horrible.
I look at this and really question, why the fuck is it not just an apartment block. It’s got so little garden. All houses look connected to their neighbour. Atleast if it was a big fuck off apartment block they could put a cafe/conveninece shop/creche in the ground level. Wouldn’t having one big shared green space be preferable over this ?????
I just can’t help but think developers are unthinking, or, maybe there’s just such a cultural resistance to apartments in Ireland. Personally I can’t abide by endless building of buy to let units, as I see many sitting empty in high demand areas, but this thing of housing estates with no resources is fucking miserable. It cannot possibly continue to develop like this.
I live in a copy paste house pretty much. But I really didn’t care about it lacking character as I was finally getting a house for my family. I couldn’t care less if it was a brick cube to be honest as long as I can have my life.
Character isn’t something that’s built into an estate, if comes with the people, be it positive or negative.
I’ll take “no character at all” any day any time, over living with housemates in my 30s, thank you.
The majority of housing in Ireland or at least a massive amount is like this so no it doesn’t bother a lot of people.
I’d take that house over my current house share with 5 other people in a 4 bedroom house. We are so privileged and yet we moan about the slightest inconvenience 🙄
“Copy and paste estates” You’ve clearly never been around Crumlin, Drimnagh, Cabra etc
They’ll gain character as they age, with gardens, trees and paint jobs. Bit nieve to think it will look like that for good.
I do not care. I’ll be happy if I ever get to own a house before I retire. I can do it up myself and give it some character if I need
Vivarium
It is not my main concern, my main concern is not to be homeless.
But it is disheartening to see them. Both as someone living in them, as a buyer, and even as someone walking past them.
It looks like something out of a bad communist distopian movie, where homogeneity is enforced through police. It took a fair 30k off the price for me if the estate was a copy-paste one.
Incidentally those estates are the reason we have the housing crisis. It makes more sense to build 4 blocks of 20 units with a large shared garden and a gate to enter the garden than to build 80 small houses (which will still be bound in a homeowner association anyway). It is still with little character but at least it’s only 4 buildings so it is a bit harder to spot.
i really dont care about copy and paste.
and even a place like that with only the ground floor.. would be more than enough for me to be able to live alone and grow from there.
I live in a copy and paste….and I bought it because it was a house.
If you wanna live in something with character then build it, make serious bank or win the lotto. House is a house, be thankful you have one (that is if you do)
They’re blank slates. The idea is that the people who move into them will add their own character over time.
The character comes with time, people and greenery that will grow around the place. All newly built estates look soulless.
Would prefer walls/fences between gardens though, that seems to have become a thing recently as builders find ways to cut costs.
They’re a home though. Yeah they’re a bit bland aesthetically but they’re homes. The estates need some time to grow a community, it doesn’t happen overnight.
As an architect I agree these are poor quality, although residents adding in their own landscaping would improve the appearance.
Unfortunately we have a terrible planning system which allows these edge of town developments, disconnected from any established character. Combine this with developers desperate to produce houses quickly and cheaply, you end up with these eye sores.
As much as people here are right to say be grateful for what we have, I also think there’s space for making homes nice. It doesn’t cost much money or time to include a little landscaping, or add some colour or variety of materials/textures.
These buildings will be here for 100 years at least, so the state really needs to invest in building well, building more and building now.
Wait until OP discovers Bungalow Bliss, almost every one off rural house in Ireland came from that book.
My estate is quite new (built in phases so I believe the oldest one is 2018-2019 and the newest finished around 2022) and it’s a bit samey to start especially at the newer end of things but even a few years on people are already making their customisations and improvements and stuff and it’s honestly great having a walk around the place and seeing what people have done. People have already started painting, doing up the gardens and adding to the buildings etc etc. The green areas have the trees and shrubbery growing in, already starting to fill in and feel a little less bare.
Unless you’re dealing with like, historical areas like the georgian buildings in some places around Dublin etc these places have to start somewhere.
Not at all, if anything it gives you the chance to decorate accordingly and no two houses will be the same when lived in. I grew up in a “copy/paste estate” built on the edge of a town, and I had a grand aul time for myself. Nothing wrong with these. As a matter of fact, the new ones they put up about two or three years ago down by the Jacob’s factory in Mahon are copy/paste houses, but they’re some of the nicest houses I’ve seen around.
In the dining area of the house I am currently renting I have a pro wrestling belt hanging up on the wall over a Nuka-Cola poster, opposite a little tin painting of Michael Collins and a canvas painting of the Angel Sanguinius, a character I like from the Warhammer 40k novels.
You make your house your home regardless of how “copy/pasted” it is
What pisses me off most is the little tiny strip of grass. Buying and storing a lawnmower year round to cut 1m² of grass
Live in one now, we bought a year ago and were just happy to buy a house tbh. It’s not our forever home so we’re happy enough staying here until we can afford to move.
It has its flaws, mainly for us that the area is full of young families and kids roam the streets constantly, and our house lacks privacy which seems to be common in these sort of estates. That would probably be something I consider when moving again more so than my house looking similar to my neighbours
You could say exactly the same thing about 100 year old red brick terraces with the pavement right outside
I live in one. I love it.
Just happy to be able to put a room over my wife and kids heads. And air to water is fantastic.