People who are loaded

I noticed the arrival of Baufritz in a road near us at reference 1.

I can now report that a very large hole has been dug on the site of what was a large and ugly house - probably both large and ugly as a result of insensitive makeover. I assume that the hole is much larger than the cellar it is intended to accommodate, as the cellar needs to be lined with substantial concrete walls.

I also assume that the cellar is a dodge to get around a planning rule which says that the new house must occupy the same footprint as the old and must be of comparable size overall to neighbouring houses. A dodge because the small print about size says that size means what you can see from the outside. Maybe lawyers could argue about whether you could see a cellar with independent access, along the lines of all those sub-ground flats in expensive parts of inner London? Is it really a granny cellar rather than a granny annex?

I grant that the new owners will probably be able to boast in the bar of their golf club about having the only cellar in the road and they might even be able to get their picture into the property section of the DT one day, but it all seems very odd to me. If I had the sort of money that must be involved, I think I might just give a lot of it to charity, to a worthy cause, rather than digging a large hole in the ground.

PS: presumably the new owners voted remain, given the large amount of money they are spending on materials and labour from continental parts of the European Union.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/08/wooden-houses.html.