There's no place like home

About 80 per cent of British people live in houses. Detached houses are usually in expensive suburbs, quite far from the town centre, near to the countryside. Semi-detached houses are often in suburbs which are nearer the town centre. Terraced houses and blocks of flats are mostly found in town centres. They can either be very small two-storey houses with one or two bedrooms or large houses with three to five floors and four or five bedrooms.

About 68 per cent of the people in Britain own their houses or flats. Most of the rest live in rented accommodation, including a small number in sheltered accommodation. People in Britain buy houses or flats because there is not enough accommodation for rent and it can be expensive.

1

Copy and complete the sentences.

a  Most British people live in a ... .

b  Most people in Britain ... their house or flat.

c  Most British homes have a ... .

d  Detached houses are usually in the ... .

2

Make a list of the differences in housing types between your country and Britain.

Michael Vaughan-Rees, Geraldine Sweeney, Picot Cassidy: In Britain. 21st Century Edition, Cornelsen Verlag, 2000, page 32