Would you move back to a terrace/semi vs a detached

[Louieee]

I absolutely appreciate the space our detatched house provides but thinking of downsizing back to a semi/terrace in a more expensive locale for other reasons.

DH thinks ive forgotten all the cons of terrace/semis and we'd go crazy if we went back to something similar to our previous Victorian terrace especially now we WFH more and chances of
future lockdown/isolation (family of 4 in a 3 double bedrooms 1 box room about 1500 sq ft and 40 ft mostly patio garden). I think it's far more easily maintained and we had the same size dining table, furniture, things... but much less privacy in terms of noise (I could hear the neighbour's kids all the time and sure they could do ours). But a street of terrace was also more community minded, I missed that.

What do you think?

We had flats in London (noise noise noise - I particularly hated the dull thud of drum and bass through the walls), then a semi-detached (neighbours were lovely but could still hear them and worried a lot about our kids' noise disturbing them). We are now in a detached house and I would move heaven and earth to remain detached in the future - it really has made a huge difference not hearing neighbours through the walls and not worrying about the noise we are making (three kids = pretty noisy).

I've only ever lived in semi's and that's bad enough there's no way I'd choose a semi or terraced if I could afford detached.

I get chills thinking about it! I would rather live in a tent.

Not if I could help it.
Only semi we've lived in started fine and we spent lots improving the place then awful neighbours moved next door and we moved in a flash. Had to buy in a cheaper area to get detached but it was definitely the right thing for us. All our properties from that point have been detached.
Judging by so many of the threads on MN about noisy neighbours I'll stick as I am unless circumstances dictate otherwise.

As someone living in a semi detached I think you're crazy.

I actually miss the noise. And feeling of people being close by. Knowing the neighbours and having friends on the same street. I felt connected to something (not quite sure what). Though it was inner city and there was too much crime, sirens, crazy things going on sometimes. Where I live now is peaceful and houses are set back in their own land. There's not much sense of community, people very much keep themselves to themselves and I miss the buzz of things going on.

Yes i'd go back to living in a terrace, and get used to the noise again. Maybe a sound proofed (as much as possible) small garden pod for WFH.

Nope, not a hope in hell's chance. It's not just the noise of everyday living, it's the risk of being attached, literally, to neighbours from hell. I've had both, and never again. At least when detached, you can build a fence around you to give some protection from extreme neighbours.

Yes, I know the chances of being stuck with noisy/toxic neighbours is small, but it's still a risk I am not prepared to take.

But even if your neighbours are "normal", you're always going to have the noise, even from "normal" day to day things like the washing machine, vacuuming, television, and just the general creaks and groans of a property from people walking around.

After living in a detached house where there literally is no noise from neighbours, I find myself constantly jumping and waking in the night when other people do pretty normal things, when I've been overnighting in someone else's house or in a holiday home etc. I just know I can't get used to that again.

Nope.
We moved to a detached a few days ago and i am so happy, my 4yr old can just be a normal kid without me stressing i'm annoying the neighbours, they were a young couple so stayed up later than us and we'd here the tv/their get togethers when we were trying to sleep. I can also hoover any time i like without worrying i'm waking next door

@BrilliantBetty

I actually miss the noise. And feeling of people being close by. Knowing the neighbours and having friends on the same street. I felt connected to something (not quite sure what). Though it was inner city and there was too much crime, sirens, crazy things going on sometimes. Where I live now is peaceful and houses are set back in their own land. There's not much sense of community, people very much keep themselves to themselves and I miss the buzz of things going on.

Yes i'd go back to living in a terrace, and get used to the noise again. Maybe a sound proofed (as much as possible) small garden pod for WFH.

I think that's more a matter of your community rather than generally.

I live on an estate entirely of detached houses and we mostly know each other well, will often pop into each other's houses of close neighbours, stop to chat with people living further away etc. I think a lot of it is because we're in a "leafy" area close to a canal etc., so lots of residents are often walking around for dog walking, exercise, etc.

When I lived in a terraced area, I barely knew any of the neighbours despite being in closer proximity. We had no nearby shops or other amenities, so there was nothing to walk around for, so everyone just seemed to hop from front door to car and back. I can understand a better community cohesion if there were shops, school, park, nearby I suppose, but not all terraced areas have that.

I went from a 4 bed detached to a larger 4 bed semi. Noise is less now than it was in the detached. Current house is 1930s and we don't get any sounds from nextdoor. Lots of space between the pairs of semis.

Previous house was in a small development of detached houses all built quite close together so usually just a narrow path between each house. Always seemed to be lots of music and noise going on all around us.

You can get lots of space in a semi. We live in a large semi- 3 stories, Edwardian. It has stupid amounts of space- lots of rooms that are very large, extensions and a large garden.

I love it but recognise we do not need all the space - even with 3DC, but we might when they are teenagers.

You could keep the space and live in a semi or terraced house. There are some beautiful 3 and 4 story terraces not far from us that are huge- 6-8 bedrooms, basement kitchen/family rooms, 2 additional reception rooms etc.

No way. No, no, no, and no. All you need is one neighbour to do an extension and boom! Your mental health mushroom clouds.

Sounds snobby
But depends on areas

My old terrace… In a beautiful part of south east prices >£600k absolute minimum - yes. It was an exquisite place to live.

In a rough area? Bottom end prices? No

I love our semi. It's a corner plot so just one neighbour, and more importantly all our neighbours are nice...

no-one CHOOSES to live attached to someone else, in an ideal world of course everyone would love to live in a detached house with lots of garden around so you couldn't see/hear neighbors!!
BUT in reality cost/location/being near family or school or work/needing a particular type of house means that being attached is the compromise that needs to be made.
So I don't really think your question has any point because of course no-one would choose to go back to being attached if they didnt have to

I chose a mid terrace over 2 detached houses. It really does depend on the house for me. One detached was massively overlooked at the back and in a noisy crowded area. The other was more isolated but offered much less floor space than my 4 bed terrace. I did a lot of research into the area and the neighbours. The majority are late 50s and 60s. Neighbours on one side we never hear and the other side we occasionally hear their dogs.
The only downside is the small garden. We have made it pretty and full of colour but it is very small.

I think some of it depends on whether you've ever had noisy or difficult neighbours, because if you have then one's tolerance of noise and perspective of what is reasonable can be distorted. Detached all the way!

I disagree.
My Dad wants to be around people. He used to live in a 4 bedroom detached house.
As he is own he prefers his 2 bedroom flat.
It's not about money.
Equally we could probably afford a detached house, but we are happy where we are and like our neighbours.

When I look at my dream, lottery-win houses on Rightmove, they are more often terraces than detached houses. I don't have any particular dislike of detached houses, and I do like a nice Arts and Crafts villa, but whether a not a house is detached is very, very low on my list of house priorities.

@DaisyWaldron

When I look at my dream, lottery-win houses on Rightmove, they are more often terraces than detached houses. I don't have any particular dislike of detached houses, and I do like a nice Arts and Crafts villa, but whether a not a house is detached is very, very low on my list of house priorities.

Me too!

Down a beautiful mews in west London

Not a chance. We loved our old semi detached house, and to be fair our neighbours were normal and only made a normal level of noise etc., but it was still bloody annoying being in such close proximity to them at times. Living in a detached house has been fantastic.

It depends, there are terraces and terraces. A poky new build with paper thin walls or 70s ex council on a rough estate, no. Victorian terrace with high ceilings in a nice area, or cute cottage, yes. We have the latter and it's great. No issues with noise as the walls are so thick, we don't hear a peep from the neighbours and they say they don't hear us despite our noisy toddler and dog. Very rural location so no overlooking at either the front or the back, just country views. We also viewed detached houses that on paper were "better" houses, but in reality had far less privacy due to being built so close together and overlooked from all directions. In one of them you could hear the neighbour's dog from inside the house. Location also matters, for me terrace/semi in a nice location trumps detached in a not so nice location.

It depends. For us it was house vs location and location won.

We live in a very big end Victorian terrace with amazing views. We could have afforded a detached somewhere else but we wanted the village life and location.

Also, "community minded" often means nosy, busybody neighbours. Couldn't think of anything worse. I already have friends and family, I don't need my neighbours to be my community.

It depends what you like, but I love my terrace.

We have friendly neighbours: retired couple with dog on one side, family with young adult kids who quite often have friends round for drinks in their garden on the other. So we do get noise but I actually quite like it - it makes the place feel friendly, cosy and safe to me. I'm quite an extraverted person and have always lived in cities. I appreciate some people will disagree and that's fine for them too.

Ours is a postwar, ex-council house and the walls are not paper thin - you can't hear actual conversations through the walls or toilets flushing etc.

We have a lane at the back with off street parking and access to our back garden, so that is one of the major disadvantages to some terraces that we don't have to deal with. It's cheap to heat too, and is one of the cheaper houses in our lovely area.

I grew up in a detached house but genuinely prefer where I live now.