Advice to everyone: Don't buy these 5 types of house layouts. They are hard to live in and difficult to sell, and have already become real estate liabilities.

As home prices keep rising, the pressure on ordinary people to buy a home has only increased. Some families even have to empty out more than half of their savings just to take out loans in order to afford a place to live—especially families living in major cities, where each square meter can cost tens of thousands of yuan. So, when choosing a home, we should not only focus on the price; the layout and location are also things that cannot be ignored.

Many people don’t understand this: when buying a home, they put the price first. As a result, the home you end up getting is actually very hard to live in!

Therefore, as someone who’s been through it, I recommend everyone: don’t buy these 5 types of layouts. They’re not easy to live in and you can’t sell them—please don’t follow the trend. Since they’ve become real estate, I hope you’ll think twice.

A layout with no entryway

Some layouts have no entryway—when you walk in, you immediately see the living room or the dining area.

For layouts like this, if we can avoid buying them, we should. Back then, it didn’t seem like a big deal, but once you move in, you’ll know how uncomfortable it can be.

When a home doesn’t have an entryway, it means your house has no designated area for catching dust. When you come home and bring the dust from outside with you, it all follows the air into the interior, making your home feel dirty all the time.

What’s more, without an entryway, shoe storage also becomes a problem. For households with lots of shoes, putting all of them at the door takes up a lot of space and makes the place feel messy and cluttered. In hot weather, it can also create odors.

Many families have no choice but to place a small shoe cabinet along the wall, but the storage space is far from enough…

Long, narrow layout

A long, narrow layout is easy to understand: when you enter to view the home, the interior layout is a rectangle.

For example, its hallway is very long, while the other functional areas are relatively small. When you live in such a layout, you’ll definitely find that the lighting is uneven. Even if you buy a south-north cross-ventilated layout, it will still be affected.

Also, when you renovate, you’ll notice that in this kind of long, narrow layout, space utilization is very limited—some areas simply can’t be used properly.

Secondly, because the living room, dining room, and bedrooms are relatively far apart, the layout looks large on paper, but in real life it brings us a lot of trouble. Living in it for a long time can also make you feel very stifled and oppressive.

A layout without a balcony

When buying a home, we must check whether it has a balcony. Personally, I think the balcony is a very important area in the home.

Usually, balcony space is an extra gift and is not counted into the property area. When the balcony area is large, it means we have more usable space.

And because the balcony gets the best natural light, after moving in you can treat it as a drying area. After washing clothes, you can hang them out here to dry—the result is even better. It can also help with sterilization.

Besides that, once you enclose the balcony, the space here effectively becomes part of the living room. Then you can design the functional areas according to your needs.

But under these conditions, there is a balcony. If there’s no balcony, you’ll always feel like something is missing from the home—like you don’t have the drying area—which instead becomes a burden.

A layout where the bedroom is right next to the elevator

A layout where the bedroom is adjacent to the elevator is something people often overlook, but as someone who’s been through it, I advise everyone to avoid it!

If the elevator is designed right next to the bedroom, after you move in you’re bound to be disturbed by noise. The elevator is only separated from the bedroom by a single wall, so the sound insulation is not very good. In addition, the elevator is always running—whenever someone uses it, you can hear the sound.

At first, the noise may be relatively small, but as time goes on, the elevator components age and you may also hear buzzing sounds, with even vibrations in severe cases. Even if you do soundproofing during renovation, it won’t help.

So when buying a home, everyone must avoid this kind of layout. Otherwise, you’ll regret it after you move in—and it will be too late.

A mixed-use residential-and-commercial building

Mixed-use residential and commercial buildings were fairly popular back when. In such buildings, the first floor is for business, and the second floor is residential living space.

Many people think living in this kind of place is very convenient—after all, downstairs you have a supermarket, restaurants, and barbershops all in one place. Whenever you need something, you just go downstairs.

However, I want to tell everyone that this kind of layout has many drawbacks. For example, the population density is high, so noise is inevitable, and so on.

The unit my family lived in before was this kind of layout. The barbecue shop downstairs was open every day until the late night—sometimes when people outside had had too much to drink, they would inevitably make all kinds of noise. It truly affected our rest.

What’s more, the businesses on the first floor use open flames and gas very frequently. If a safety incident happens, it could threaten your personal safety.

Written in closing:

When buying a home, the layouts above are the ones we should avoid. They’re really not pleasant to live in—what do you think?