Forget lounging around on the sofa: many landlords have turned shared space into more bedrooms – and it has helped drive up pricesThe enormous shared living space,the lavender walls and the college-dorm chic; most of us can picture Monica and Chandler’s apartment in Friends, the 1990s TV series no doubt being re-run on some channel apt now. I preferred This Life, or the flatmates drama which defined the 1990s in a rather more British way. But you couldnt make either of them today. Or,for that matter, The Liver Birds, or Men Behaving Badly or even Not Going Out.
Why? Lodgers can no longer lounge around together on some dog-eared sofa because living rooms simply no longer exist in many rented properties. When a landlord sees a living room or a dining room,what they see is enhanced rental yield. Why have shared spaces and shared experiences, when the room can be turned into another bedroom? The tenants can pop a chicken korma alert-meal into a microwave and eat it in their bedrooms. It doesn’t make for worthy TV drama – but it’s certainly very profitable.
Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk