What Is A Semi-detached House?

Semi-detached houses share one wall between them, so they are built in pairs. This is a half-way solution between a house that is detached, when they are on their own, or terraced, that is, built in a row. They are known as 'duplex' houses in the Americas.

Semi-detached houses became popular in the United Kingdom during the suburban expansions of the first half of the 20th century as they made it faster and cheaper to build two houses that gave a larger degree of privacy than terraced housing. There are two distinct types, one where the shared wall is between the receptions rooms and bedrooms of the two houses, or where the front doors of both houses are in the middle and the halls, stairs and landing are against the shared wall. The first type is easier to heat but noise is more likely to transfer between the houses.

Semi-detached homes fell out of favour in the United Kingdom during the housing boom of the late 1990's as they have a perceived lower value than detached houses. Developers instead built detached homes very close to each other to increase the potential profit from the land. One reason for this is the growing use of timber-framed houses where it is much more difficult to build a wall which will not transfer too much sound between the properties.

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