2008-02-18 Family homes: Supersize my house

2008-02-18 \income disparity/UK\real estate\suburbia\McMansion\demolish-and-build Telegraph.co.uk Caroline McGhie http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3360485/Family-homes-Supersize-my-house.html Family homes: Supersize my house &ldquo;...the knock-down-and-replace phenomenon is creating a new tier of "supersize" homes with "supersize" price tags for those who want the best of the suburbs, where the plot is worth more than the house that stands on it.&rdquo;  Across the most exclusive suburbs large family homes are being pulled down to make way for mini-mansions. ... It has yet to be shown whether the slump in share prices will stop the bulldozers. But in the meantime, the knock-down-and-replace phenomenon is creating a new tier of "supersize" homes with "supersize" price tags for those who want the best of the suburbs, where the plot is worth more than the house that stands on it. Buyers see the new house next door and ask the builder to make them one too. They might as well be paving the roads with gold. At the end of last year, Savills drew up a league table of the most expensive suburbs in the country, exclusively for The Sunday Telegraph. Now it has looked more deeply into the demolish-and-replace fad spreading through these pricey pockets, particularly in Britain's richest suburb of Oxshott and Stoke D'Abernon. The findings show that a full compliment of homes being "super sized" in one year could add £60m to the value of the housing stock of a single suburb.   