Open plan vs broken plan

The trend for open plan living has lasted for decades, but ‘broken plan’ is the new kid on the block

Open plan living is all about increasing space, light and flow of movement within our homes. Taking a sledgehammer to dividing walls – usually between the kitchen and under-used dining room – has never been more popular.

Broken plan is an alternative concept that aims to keep the light and spaciousness of open plan living while at the same time splitting rooms into areas for cooking, dining, socializing or simply being alone.

Pros and cons of open plan

It’s easy to see the benefits of open plan from enabling multiple activities to be carried out in one area to creating a sense of sociability and allowing light to flow. If the multi-functional room includes a kitchen, it stops the cook feeling isolated while preparing meals. But as more and more of us remodel our downstairs from a series of small rooms into one huge space, the drawbacks as well as the advantages of this kind of layout can become obvious, especially if you open up all your ground floor. One interconnected space for cooking, dining and relaxing may appear the dream but the reality can be different,

Families who spent months in lockdown together juggling home working and home schooling realized the value of doors they can close behind them. Open-plan houses can lack privacy and quiet areas. Having nowhere to entertain friends while the children watch TV or play can be a problem. Sound travels in open plan homes, so they can be noisy. If the kitchen is in full view from the rest of the ground floor, any mess is visible as you eat your meals, relax on the sofa or entertain guests.

How is broken plan different?

Broken plan interiors have more in the way of pockets of privacy and coziness. Instead of zoning the room with changes of wall color or floor materials as you might for fully open plan layouts, broken plan divides the space using structural elements, such as split levels and sliding doors. For example, you could have an open plan kitchen and living room next to each other separated by steel-framed glazed doors to be opened or closed as required. This can reduce noise and cooking smells to enable a better sense of relaxation without totally shutting off one room from another.

Or, if you are just starting your project, consider knocking down half a wall between the kitchen and dining room and leaving the top open, allowing views through while at the same time giving you more wall-space to play with to solve dilemmas like hiding kitchen clutter which can be a problem in open plan layouts. While hatches are definitely a thing of the past, widening a doorway between a kitchen and dining room is a workable, modern solution.

Ways to make it work

There are many ways to achieve a broken plan interior. Key considerations include how to create the same flow of light and social aspect of open plan. Below are some suggestions:-

• Split levels – changing floor and ceiling heights is a great way to create broken plan interiors without sacrificing the social aspect or amount of light. For example, a few steps could divide a kitchen from a cozy snug. The kitchen is often a hub of activity, so it’s important to have a different space for relaxation.

• Glazed partitions and internal windows - by dividing a room with glazed panels to the ceiling you can solve the noise issue without blocking any light, carving out a quiet study area, for example. None of the sense of space of a large room is lost as it would be with a solid partition wall.

• Pocket, sliding doors – can offer the option of creating separation when required but slide back invisibly inside interior walls when you want to join the two rooms.

• Half walls can divide a space but without reducing sociability or flow of light. They can be teamed with shutters to give the option of closing a kitchen from a dining or living area, for example.

• Bespoke fireplace with chimney – which can be viewed from either side can neatly divide an open plan living area. It’s another way to create a cosy, private atmosphere without losing the sense of space. For example, between a main seating area on one side and a smaller snug on the other.

• Extra wide ‘doorways’ – downstairs rooms can be connected via oversized room openings instead of doors, which allow spaces to be visually connected and feel larger while still giving pockets of privacy in each room.

• Open shelving – can divide living and sleeping areas, for example in a small apartment, while at the same time providing valuable storage. This is a low-cost way to achieve broken plan when making permanent, structural changes is not an option.

• Mezzanines – can create separation between areas that serve different purposes. This approach works especially well for kitchen and living areas where the cooking/dining space is on the lower level and the relaxing/sleeping area is located above. Glass balustrades could keep the spaces linked.

What does the future hold for open plan?

Over the last few decades, millions of interior walls have been demolished as homeowners have wanted to update poky rooms and cramped interiors. Open plan layouts can work well, especially if you know which walls to remove to allow light to flow. But it needs a truly good design or else homes can end up feeling cavernous and unwelcoming as well as being noisy and difficult to heat.

Broken plan offers an alternative, more flexible approach which divides internal spaces without totally shutting off one room from another. This option is likely to appeal to those who love the light and airy feel of open plan but want some separation and cozy areas too.

Source: Myhomeextension

UK house prices up as buyers lured back.

House prices rose for the fifth month in a row in February as would-be buyers were tempted off the sidelines by cheaper mortgages.

On average, prices rose by 0.4 per cent last month compared with January, according to Halifax. The high street lender estimates that the average house price in the UK is now £291,669, 1.7 per cent higher than at this time last year.

“These figures continue to suggest a relatively stable start to 2024 and align with other promising signs of increased housing activity, such as mortgage approvals,” Kim Kinnaird, director of Halifax Mortgages, said.

Halifax’s latest measure of house prices tallies with Nationwide’s reading last week, which estimated that prices had risen by 0.7 per cent in February. Nationwide thinks that prices have not fallen since last August.

However, economists believe that the housing market’s recovery could be running out of steam already. The rise last month was the smallest that Halifax had recorded since September, suggesting that “the boost to house prices from the decline in mortgage rates since last summer is over”, according to Andrew Wishart, senior property economist at Capital Economics, the consultancy.

“With mortgage rates now edging up, house prices are likely to lose momentum in the near term.” Kinnaird agreed that it “remains a possibility that there could be a slowdown in the housing market this year.

Even with growing wages and inflation falling back, raising a deposit and affording a sizeable mortgage remains challenging, especially for those looking to join the property ladder.” Halifax’s data shows that prices have risen most rapidly in Northern Ireland, where they are up by 5 per cent over the past year.

Prices in the northwest of England are 4.4 per cent higher they were than 12 months ago and prices in Wales have risen by 4.1 per cent. In London, the most expensive part of the country to buy a home, prices have increased by 1.5 per cent over the past year, the first positive annual reading in the capital since the start of 2023. Prices in eastern England have been under the most pressure, slipping by 0.8 per cent over the period.

It has been a volatile few years for house prices. They rose sharply during the pandemic amid a lockdown induced “race for space” and the stamp duty holiday. The market came to a standstill, however, in the autumn of 2022 immediately after Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget, which sent mortgage rates spiraling.

The decline has not been as steep as many had predicted and Halifax thinks that prices are now less than 1 per cent below their June 2022 peak. With employment low, there have been few forced sellers and a shortage of homes on the market has propped up prices, even though demand has been subdued. 

Source: The Times

Global house prices rebound as economists predict turning point

Across the 37 industrialized OECD countries, nominal house prices grew 2.1% in the third quarter of 2023

The widespread drop in global house prices that hit advanced economies has largely petered out, according to a Financial Times analysis of OECD data, leading economists to predict that the deepest property downturn in a decade has hit a turning point.

Across the 37 industrialized OECD countries, nominal house prices grew 2.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2023 compared with the previous three months, up from near stagnation at the start of last year.

Only about one-third of those countries reported a quarter-on-quarter decline in the latest period, down from more than half at the start of the year, according to the FT analysis.

“The most recent data suggest that house price falls have now bottomed out in most countries,” said Andrew Wishart, senior property economist at Capital Economics. “I think we’ve had the house price correction that we’re going to get.”

Housing prices took a hit in late 2022 after central banks in most economies raised interest rates at the fastest pace in decades to curb inflation. In OECD countries, house prices grew by just 0.6 per cent quarter on quarter at the end of 2022, the lowest nominal rate since 2012.

However, that decline has eased or even reversed in many economies as expectations that central banks will cut borrowing costs this year have helped mortgage rates to decline. A shortage of properties for sale has also helped to prop up valuations and real prices across the OECD returned to growth in the latest quarter.

House prices are increasing or stabilizing in most advanced nations, while other countries are seeing falls at a slower rate. Prices are likely to fall further in some countries such as Germany, Denmark and Sweden, which have larger rental markets, “but even in these economies we think that most of the fall in prices is already behind us”, said Wishart.

House prices are “close to the bottom in many places and recovering in a lot of places”, said Tomasz Wieladek, economist at investment company T Rowe Price. He said that migration and restrictive planning permission had kept the pressure on house prices in many countries, including the UK, Canada and Australia.

Households will continue to face higher mortgage costs as they come off fixed-rate deals, but many face better terms compared with last year. While UK and the US mortgage rates have ticked up in February, they remain well below national peaks reached in 2023.

House prices have held up best in the US, where solid economic and job growth helped nominal house prices to rise 5.2 per cent in the year to November.

Germany, by contrast, where economic woes, property overvaluations and a large rental market weigh on the sector, saw a 10.2 annual contraction last year — the worst of the EU economies excluding Luxembourg.

In Australia and New Zealand, house prices are growing again, national data shows, while in Korea they have stabilized after hitting a trough in mid-2023. In the EU, they rose at a nominal rate of 0.8 per cent quarter on quarter in the three months to September, reversing the fall seen at the start of the year, Eurostat data shows, though they were still 1 per cent lower on an annual basis.

“We believe that the correction in housing prices in Europe is not over yet, but we have probably seen the worst of it,” said Sylvain Broyer, chief economist of EMEA at S&P Global Ratings. He expects the price correction to continue in some countries, as mortgage payments remain elevated and high building costs that have kept prices high are expected to decline.

However, the remaining correction “is going to be a moderate one”, said Broyer.

The global house price decline has been generally milder than expected. Fitch now estimates nominal prices grew 6 per cent in the US last year, down from a previous forecast of up to a 5 per cent contraction, while in the UK it predicts a milder 2 per cent contraction in 2023 compared with a previous estimate of up to 7 per cent. The better forecasts are partly because high inflation hid the scale of the decline, economists said.

In some economies, including the US, Australia and the UK, the market has shown unexpected resilience and the house price correction has not wiped out the large gains seen during the coronavirus pandemic, either in nominal or real terms.

But in some countries outside the OECD the picture is different. In China, which has been experiencing an acute housing downturn, Fitch forecast house prices would continue to fall for the next two years, warning that investment demand “has mostly vanished” following a 7 per cent price contraction over the past two years.

Source: Financial Times