The humble 1930s house is enjoying a renewed popularity

Published 03rd Aug 2007

THEY are at best dismissed as boring and at worst derided as naff, but the humble 1930s house is making a comeback.

Unloved and unfashionable, 1930s houses have been selling at a discount compared with their more popular Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian neighbours. With the exception of the occasional Art Deco or Modernist gem, 1930s houses have a poor image. Buyers with money and choice have tended to opt for either period character or contemporary new-build, shunning homes built between the First World War and Second World War. Homeowners who did end up buying 1930s houses often admit that they were attracted by the price rather than the look.

Here’s why. A three-bedroom 1930s house is on average 30 per cent cheaper than a similar Edwardian property, according to figures from Propertyfinder. The gap is even greater in London, where prices have risen faster than anywhere else in the country over the past two years. Buyers in the capital would rather pay 63 per cent more, the equivalent of almost £200,000 in real terms, to live in an Edwardian house than settle for something built between the wars. This astonishing gap is starting to narrow. The recent surge in house prices has pushed pre1920s homes well beyond the means of many, forcing buyers farther out into 1930s suburbs, where they are rediscovering what made these homes so appealing in the first place.

Warren Bright, chief executive of Property-finder.com, said: “Interwar property now makes up about 19 per cent of all homes in the UK and a higher proportion around London, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham. 1930s suburbs are very popular with young families and, due to the large supply, they are comparatively affordable.”

Government statistics show that almost three million homes were built in Britain in the 1930s. The construction frenzy peaked in 1936 when builders put the finishing touches to 370,000 houses, more than double the number built in 2006. Wealth and improved transport links enabled a burgeoning middle class to leave crowded inner cities for space and peace in the suburbs. The northern affluent headed for modern utopias such as Headingley in Leeds, Allerton in Liverpool and Whirlow in Sheffield.

Yolande Barnes, head of research at Savills, said: “1930s houses have been selling at a discount because they are unfashionable. One of their great drawbacks is that they have tended to be associated with suburbia, which has almost become a dirty word. The other factor is that new properties tend to decline in popularity for the next 70 or 80 years after they are built before they start to rise in value again. Now that we are in the 21st century, 1930s homes are starting to be regarded as period properties.” Barnes predicts that 1930s houses that rub shoulders with older properties will appreciate faster than those that do not. “In London there are a lot of 1930s houses bordering recently gentrified areas that are set to rise in price.

It’s a case of buyers getting priced out of the older period properties and ending up with 1930s homes.” Among these buyers are thirtysomething professionals who colonised inner cities in their twenties and are now looking to raise their families somewhere with more space. Having gentrified run-down areas in the centre of town, they are following in their grandparents’ footsteps and are swapping urban for suburban. The attraction is the same as it was then: a decent house, with a good garden in a respectable area.

Many 1930s houses are two-storey semis with a bathroom and three bedrooms upstairs; the sitting room, dining room and kitchen were downstairs. Those who live in them say that the design is more amenable to modern life than, for example, an 18th-century cottage, which can feel rather dark and cramped, or a tall Victorian terraced house with three or four flights of stairs.

Many owners of 1930s houses have modified their property over the years. David Hussain, of the estate agent Dacre, Son and Hartley in Leeds, says: “Most 1930s houses in this area tend to have three bedrooms, so a lot of people are converting the loft to add a fourth. Many also survived the 1970s, when people were panelling over doors and banisters.

But these are good solid houses in their own right. Although Victorian properties cost more, 1930s houses are spacious and light and hold their value well because they make good family homes.”
Susan Emmett

Source: ' Times Online '

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