Are Bungalows Nearing Extinction?

New research from over-50’s property specialists, Quickmove Properties, reveals that bungalow construction has dropped to account for just 1.2% of all new-build completions, creating a void in the market that modern luxury bungalow-style park homes are vying to fill.

Quickmove Properties has looked at the changing rate of bungalow construction between 2000 and 2020, the current market share of bungalows vs all dwelling stock, and the price of new-build bungalows compared to new park homes.

The latest available data (2021) shows that there are around 1.8 million bungalows in England, accounting for just 7.6% of the nation’s dwelling stock.

What’s more, construction of new-build bungalows is on a steep decline. In 2000, bungalows accounted for an estimated 6.9% of all new-build completions.

By 2020, however, the completion of just 1,833 new bungalows meant that this market share had dropped to just 1.2%, despite continued demand, particularly from downsizers who currently account for a third of all moves.

With so few bungalows being built, many buyers who want single-storey homes without having to modernise or pay a premium are instead turning their attention to the luxury new park home sector.

A modern new park home offers the lifestyle of a new-build bungalow, with high-end features, located on a peaceful and safe, rural, semi-urban or coastal development.

Despite offering an almost identical footprint, park homes are markedly more affordable than traditional bricks and mortar bungalows.

The average price of a bungalow in England is £338,769. Meanwhile the average park home is -36% more affordable at £215,493.

This price difference is at its greatest in the North West where the average new park home is -48% more affordable than a new-build bungalow, followed by the East of England (-39%), Yorkshire and the Humber (-39%), South East (-38%) and South West (-37%).

Sales Director at Quickmove Properties, Mark O’Dwyer, commented:

“You’d be forgiven for thinking that bungalows have simply gone out of fashion and that’s why so few are now being built.

But that’s not the case. In reality, demand for bungalows remains high but developers don’t see them as profitable enough to deliver in decent numbers.

They can, for example, make much more money by building multi-level dwellings or blocks of flats, so that’s where their focus largely lies.

For those wishing to downsize to easy, single-storey living with the autonomy and privacy of a standalone property, modern park homes fill the void that bungalows have left behind.

And due to state of the art building techniques in UK manufacturing facilities, modern park homes are more affordable to buy with high specifications, premium features, and durability.

On top of that, residential parks for over 50’s provide a tight-knit and secure community of like-minded people at similar stages in their lives, a neighbourly and friendly atmosphere that sadly is harder to find these days in brick housing estates.”