Houses in Britain

How many houses do you have? What type of house do you live? It might be a strange question if I ask to Japanese people, but it tells me their social class positions or their jobs if I ask to people in the UK. I would like to tell you main 6 types of house in the UK, and residents who live in each type of house.

The first type of house is Tower blocks. This can vary 10-20 stories high and each story contains 5 or 6 flats for families. Tower blocks are usually found in the center of the city, but the rich and the Upper or Middle class people don’t live in it, because many British people don’t like living with other families in apartment house like this.

The second one is Terraced houses. This is built in long rows and often found in inner cities. Some industries build it near the factories for their workers, so residents of terraced houses are mainly working class or lower middle class people.

The third one is Semi-detached houses. It usually has a small garden. Semi-detached house could be called the house of “Mr. and Mrs. Average” because it is the most popular type of house in the UK.


Next, the fourth one that is more expensive than semis is Detached house. It stands by itself with a well-kept garden. It is often found in suburbs, and owned by professional people.


More rich people and the Upper class people live in cities, but they have a second house in country called Cottages. Wooden beams and a thatched roof are the features of cottages.


The last one is Mansion. It is far from “mansion” Japanese people say, the mansion in the UK look like castles. It is a huge house for the royal family and extremely wealthy people. It has about 5 bedrooms, and as I researched on the internet, the price is ￡1,000,000 (about　150,000,000 yen) at least. Click HERE to check prices and pictures of British mansions for sale.

REFERENCES:
Clare Lavery, (1993) Focus on Britain Today, Macmillan