Relevant to your interests:
“Riba estimates the floor area of the average new three-bedroom home in the UK is 88 sq m (947 sq ft) – some 8 sq m (86 sq ft) short of its recommended space.
..
And houses are getting smaller. The average UK home – including older and new-build properties is 85 sq m and has 5.2 rooms – with an average area of 16.3 sq m per room.
In comparison the average new home in the UK is 76 sq ms and has 4.8 rooms with an average area of 15.8 sq m per room.
— ’Shoebox homes’ become the UK norm (BBC News, 14 Sep 2011)
Why on earth do we advertise and buy houses on the basis of how many rooms & bedrooms they have, rather than how much actual space they have?
We have two small bedrooms at the front of our house which would originally have been one massive master bedroom. I’d love to restore it back to that but I was advised that “losing a bedroom” would cost me tens of thousands, even though the floor space would be identical. Madness.