Whats a maisonette?

[Toanswer2025]

I have noticed recently on social media many people see maisonette/flats/bedsits/studio flats differently to other people.

For me a maisonette is a property that has an upstairs and down stairs but there's the same above or below you.

A flat is a property that's all on one level

A studio flat is where you have a separate kitchen and bathroom but your living room and bedroom is in one .

A bedsit is a room . That may had a small kitchenette within the room. Shared bathroom and possibly kitchen

I have seen people calling a studio flat a 1 bedroom flat . Or a maisonette without stairs . Its bugging me 🤣

The only bedsit I’ve ever been inside in my life was a tiny room with a bed and countertop cooker, but a self contained small bathroom (not communal)

A studio is bigger with a bigger kitchen area and it’s own bathroom

a maisonette is a small house with another house below or above

A flat has no stairs, all on one level with another flat below or above

So almost the same as your definitions with a slight difference to the bedsit.

I would describe a bedsit as having part e.g. toilet or kitchenette outside your lockable front door, possibly shared. A studio has everything contained behind the locked door, apart from maybe laundry. I wouldn't expect a studio flat to have a separate kitchen anymore. Where I am, that would make it a 1 bed because it would have a bedroom + living, even if you can't sit in the kitchen! Depending on city a studio might be a sofa bed or have a mezzanine with a futon rather than a normal bed. Maisonette has a street level entrance with its own number (not 55a,b,c). If it's a multilevel appartement accessed from a gallery or internal staircase, it's a duplex or an apartment.

how about cottage?

in my ametican tv tainted vision an cottage is a small dwelling, free standing, in the arse of the world.

For home insurance definitions, a maisonette has its own private entrance with no shared internal spaces. It can have one floor or two, or more.

A studio is just estate agent speak because bedsit has pejorative connotations. There’s no particular definition of how a studio should be laid out.

A maisonette has its own front door, can be duplex or single storey. A flat usually has a single shared external door and internal door from a hallway or a single external door to a staircase ie. Above a shop.

I would still calL a 2 storey dwelling that’s part of a converted house a maisonette even if it has a shared front door. A flat is all on one level.

I think a studio has a separate shower room but kitchen, sitting room and bedroom are all in one.

I've owned two different types of flats both with accommodation on one level- one had a communal entrance with 5 other flats and one had its own private entrance in a smaller block, it was a flat and wasnt a maisonette just because it had its own main door access.

I'm another one in a Victorian conversion. I am on the lower two floors and have my own entrance so mine is regarded as a maisonette (French word for little house).

The person above has a totally separate entrance and is all on one floor so theirs is a flat.

I grew up on a street with houses and maisonettes... the maisonettes were half houses, on on top of each other, with a staircase up the outside.

I agree with a PP who said that a bedsit has some of its facilities, usually the bathroom, separate from the ‘room’ and often if not always shared.

So a studio flat is one in which the living and sleeping area is the same room, which might also include the kitchen though it could be separate, and has its own bathroom.

A one bedroom flat has separate rooms for sleeping and sitting / eating, as well a bathroom and proper kitchen somewhere - either in the living area or a separate room.

Flats have a shared entrance but are self contained behind their own front doors

Maisonettes have their own entrance, not shared with other properties even though they may in a block of 4 or 6 or whatever.

I think it depends where you live. I used to live in a maisonette. It was on the first floor but had it's own front door and stairs leading up to the rooms. Once up the stairs all the rooms were on one level. It was in a block of 8, 4 up and 4 on ground level. We all had our own separate gardens.

Well abroad I guess definitions could be wildly different but to say a flat cant have its own private entrance is not correct in Britain.

@JoyDreamer86 from the outside of the maisonette I lived in, it looked like a semi detached house. There were 4 maisonettes in total. 2 on each side of the building. My front door opened into a private hall, with stairs to a first floor all-on-one level dwelling. It was bought and sold as a maisonette, not sure why you don't think it's a maisonette?

That’s what I picture when the word maisonette is mentioned…they were popular in the 50/60/70s based on properties in places I’ve lived. They look like a house, but have four or 6 properties all with their own front doors. They might or might not be over more than one level.

@JoyDreamer86 maisonettes open up directly onto the street with a private door - flats tend to have a communal entrance and then open up into a walkway with another entrance.

I didnt say whether or not your own property was or wasnt a maisonette I disagreed with your definitions of maisonettes and flats.

That's simply not true. I work in the residential surveying industry.

I lived in a maisonette but it was all on the ground floor. It was in a block of 4, 2 on the ground and 2 above. We each had our own porch and front doors. The ground floor maisonettes had their own gardens accessible from the property, the 1st floors had to come downstairs. out their front door and walk down the side of the building to get to theirs.

I would call this a flat?

That's what I wasn't sure about.

I would call it a flat, but it has got it's own entrance to the outside.

Yes as far as I can tell that's a flat! But flats dont all look like that!

No.

Because flats can have a common front door, internal stairs and internal front doors off the internal stairs.

I would call it a flat because its on one level regardless of where the front door is .

But when I was just looking there are maisonette that is a house with separate entrance that was advertised as a maisonette i guess in the case of a maisonette they can be different it's confusing though.

If I was doing a council swap I would be so pissed of if I was looking for a maisonette traveled 100 miles and it's a flat with door on balcony 🤣

Yes that is also another type of flat.