Housing estate

From ArticleWorld

A Housing estate is the term used for usually a low to medium cost residential area where all the houses are planned and built at the same time. Housing estates are typically located in the suburbs of big towns of developed countries. They are quite popular in England and other countries of Europe because of their high density of population as compared to the USA and Australia, where the population density is comparatively low.

Beginning

Housing estates first gained favor when community housing initially came into vogue after the World War II, when people had more expendable income available to indulge in better spaced and large houses. They were also developed as suburbs for new towns and usually had a commercial centre and a few parks and clubs and built in a manner that they did not interfere with traffic flows.

Housing estates are preferred over high rise apartments and terraced houses (known as town houses in America) by a certain section of the society because their detached and semi detached status provide some degree of privacy as well as individuality. Of course, these days most housing estates ( especially in developing countries of the East ) have high rise apartments and terraced houses along side separate houses – an ingenuous mix – for prospective buyers to choose from.

Although, most housing estates project a very uniform look at first glance with houses that seem like photo copies of each other, typically there are a few design changes between houses, though, most of them have been built by the same contractor. Usually any distinction that they have reflects the taste of the first owner of the house.

Drawbacks

Because of rising population and a growing demand for homes, there has been an indiscriminate rise in the development of housing estates, especially in UK where housing problem is extremely acute. These housing estates have made inroads in the rural green belts (those areas that had earlier been reserved as parkland or agricultural property) having a grievously damaging effect on the environment.