The design and planning of residential development: standard house types in the speculative housebuilding industry

Over 80% of new housing output is produced by private speculative housebuil ders. In this paper we will examine the employment of standard house types in speculative housebuilding. We will present new empirical data, gained fr om a number of interviews with high-level technical and design personnel in fourteen large-volume housebuilders (between them responsible for around o ne third of housing completions). The paper highlights what the housebuilde rs themselves see as a 'standard house type', the advantages of using stand ard designs (in terms of costs and in terms of skills), and the manner in w hich the portfolio of designs is continually appraised and updated.