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Homebuilders slam door on rooms for eating‚ studying and domestic workers

Dining rooms‚ studies‚ swimming pools and rooms for domestic workers are biting the dust.

Only 13% of homes built in the last two years have accommodation for domestic workers‚ compared to 64% of those built during the apartheid years of 1955 to 1959‚ FNB data revealed on Friday.

Swimming pools are even less popular‚ with only 9% of new homes having one. By comparison‚ 38% of homes built in the late 1970s and early 1980s have pools‚ though FNB acknowledged some may have been added later.

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The demise of the study is partly to do with homes getting smaller but also due to computers and laptops replacing bookshelves‚ filing cabinets and desks. “This has greatly reduced the need for such study space in the modern home‚” said FNB property analyst John Loos.

“It is thus not surprising that the percentage of homes with studies that were built in the 2015 to 2017 period‚ valued by FNB‚ was a mere 14.1%‚ well down from the 27% high reached in the 1980-84 period.”

As for dining rooms‚ only 55% of homes built since 2015 have them‚ compared with 78.8% built between 1980 and 1984.

Garages are slipping in popularity‚ but only slightly. Some 60% of homes still have one. But carports are passé: 38% of 1975-79 homes had one‚ but this is now down to 13%.

 

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