Why two storey houses, Why?

[bigelaine2]

A visitor from New Zealand has observed that the majority of houses in the UK are two storey whereas in New Zealand they are mostly bungalows.  He is wondering why we  build 2 storey houses and what the history behind it is? Can any one help please?

Thank you

[Quizmonster]

This presumably came about on the basis that there is room for twice as many dwellings on a given area of land, if you build two-storey houses. Thus, when cities started to expand during the industrial revolution, building 'high' would have made sense in order to accommodate the country folk pouring in. In places such as Australia and New Zealand, there never was such a need.