housing estates

Meaning

1. 1nounpluralBritish

   Planned groups of homes built together in one area, often with their own roads, and usually on the edge of a town.

   Grammar: Plural of housing estate; the singular takes an or the: a large housing estate.

   Patterns

   • housing estates in somewhere

   New housing estates are spreading across the fields outside the town.

   Many families moved from the city center to the housing estates in the 1960s.

   The council plans two housing estates near the river.

Word forms

Common combinations

build housing estates

Developers want to build housing estates on farmland.

council housing estates

Several council housing estates were rebuilt in the 1990s.

large housing estates

Large housing estates often lack local shops.

live on a housing estate

She grew up living on a housing estate near Leeds.

new housing estates

New housing estates need schools and bus routes.

Synonyms and how they differ

housing developments

Housing developments is the usual American term and often suggests privately built homes.

subdivisions

Subdivisions is American and refers to land divided into lots for houses, with a narrower, planning focus.

housing projects

Housing projects in American use means publicly funded apartment blocks, which is narrower than housing estates.

residential areas

Residential areas is a broad, neutral phrase for any place where people live, planned or not.

Word family

estate noun

a large area of land or planned development

housing noun

homes provided for people to live in

estate agent noun

a person who sells property (British)

council estate noun

a housing estate owned by local government (British)

Commonly confused: housing estates or industrial estate?

Practice

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