Most families in Great Britain prefer to live in houses (over 70% of people) rather than flats. About 35% of people own the houses they live in or buy them with the money borrowed from a bank or building society. People buying their property almost always pay for it with a special loan called a mortgage, which they must repay, with interest, over a long period of time, usually 25 years. As well as preferring houses to flats, for many people a garden is also an important consideration. The average family moves once every 7 years. The size of a house or flat in Britain still tends to be measured by the number of bedrooms rather than the area in square metres.

     There are different types of housing in Britain. Terraced houses are attached to each other in a long row where each house is attached to the ones on either side. They are usually found in towns and cities and many of them were built in the 19^th or early 20^th century as houses for workmen and were placed near the factories. The back of this type of  houses faces the back of another identical row of houses, so they are often known as “back to backs”. In earlier times terraced houses were also called town houses. In recent years many terraced houses have been renovated, so today Victorian terraced houses are very popular city homes. Terraced houses have 3 or 4 storeys and very large rooms, so now they are very expensive and fashionable. One of the major advantages of terrace housing is that it is relatively cheaper than a semi-detached built in the same location. One great disadvantage is that there is typically no yard or garden that comes with a unit. As two walls are shared, there is less privacy, too.

     Since the 1930s when Britain’s towns and cities expanded into suburbs, a large number of  semi-detached houses have been built. Each house is a part of a pair and is joined on one side to its partner, thus sharing the central wall. The two houses are built to mirror each other. Typically a semi has a small garden in front of it and a fence divides a larger garden at the back. There are 3 bedrooms and a small bathroom there. It’s the most popular type of houses in Great Britain and could be called the home of “Mr. and Mrs. Average”. Towns in Britain have streets and streets of semis, often with well-kept gardens. One advantage of living in a semi-detached house is that there is some privacy even if one wall is shared by the two houses. A disadvantage is that you are responsible for the upkeep of your side of the house. Another disadvantage is that you cannot just plan repairs or renovations as you have to consider your twin house.

A detached house  stands by itself, usually with a garden all around it. These houses are much more expensive than semis and they are to be found in affluent suburbs. More and more modern homes are detached, although in areas where building land is expensive, the houses may be very close to each other. Some large cities have a “commuter belt”, it is called so because people who live there travel (commute) every day to work into the city by train or car. London is surrounded by miles and miles of “commuter belt”. Some commuters travel up to 3 or 4 hours a day to get from their homes to the inner city. One advantage of a detached house is the fact that the free space surrounding the building belongs to the family. You can do whatever you would like to do in your house. The disadvantage is that all repairs in the house should be made by the owner.

Some of the detached houses are cottages and bungalows. Britain is famous for its country cottages, which are often old stone buildings that used to be part of a farm. The workers on the estate rented the cottages from the landowner and worked on the land. Some country cottages are very old and may even have a thatched roof, low ceilings, wooden beams. Today many people who work in the cities buy cottages so that they have a place to go for a weekend.

     A bungalow is a house where all the rooms are on the ground floor. As there are no stairs, many old people dream of going to live in a bungalow when they retire. Neighbourhoods of only bungalows offer more privacy than similar neighbourhoods with two-storeyed houses. With bungalows, strategically planted trees and shrubs are sufficient to block the view of neighbours. There can be ranch and chalet bungalows in Britain. A ranch bungalow is a bungalow organized so that bedrooms are on one side and “public” areas (kitchen, living / dining rooms) are on the other side. A chalet bungalow is a bungalow that has a loft, which is extra space, for organizing extra bedrooms.

     A block of flats. In the 1950s and 1960s local councils cleared a lot of slums in the inner city areas and knocked down terraced houses in very poor areas. The people were re-housed in blocks of flats on the outskirts of the city or in the centre of the city. Block of flats or tower blocks can vary from 3-5 storeys high up to 10-20 storeys high. Each storey contains 5 or 6 flats for families. But people don’t like to live in them because there are a lot of social problems. Some tower blocks in large cities like London can be dangerous at night and they have been criticized for their long corridors, which encourage crime and vandalism.

     The country mansion is a very large and expensive house, which has specially designed rooms meant to accommodate leisure activities of a particular kind. For example, they may have a conservatory or greenhouse, an indoor swimming pool, an Arts and crafts room with huge windows. At the beginning of the 20^th century a true mansion had to house a private library, whereas in the 21^st century the presence of big room designed for a home theatre or cinema is a must. Besides, many mansions are built with integrated domotics, sometimes to excess. Frankly speaking, very few of the British live in country mansions. Today many mansions are used as restaurants, hotels, old people’s homes.