Would you buy a semi if you can afford detached?

[Maybemabel526]

We have been trying to buy a house for a while now and struggling to find a place with not much on the market until last week. We can afford a detached house in our budget. That said we viewed a “wing” of an Edwardian home yesterday - read: semi-detached. It’s slightly smaller than we want (therefore cheaper) but felt very homey with lovely old features. And the garden is AMAZING and big. But…it’s semi-detached with a section of flying freehold.

Opinions please? Poll below!

(For anyone from last thread the modern one we tried to buy the sellers haven’t found a onward property so are waiting for that so it’s not an option currently)

We lived in a detached house for 18yrs, when we downsized in 2021, we only viewed detached bungalows. We would not have considered a semi/terrace etc. I don’t like other peoples noise, so living in a detached home is best for us. If you require a mortgage, sometimes flying freeholds can cause issues, worth bearing in mind. Good luck with your search.

I think it can depend on a number of factors really - you may get more property/garden if you get a semi.

I think a big deciding factor for me would be the age of the property. Older properties can often be much better for sound insulation so you won’t hear neighbours, whereas some newer builds may as well have paper divides!

This sounds like the mystery house on Escape to the Country. It does sound lovely.

We downsized last year from a 3 bed 3 bathroom detached. Our preference was a detached bungalow and we viewed several within our budget. Most required extensive renovation and major work on the garden.

We viewed a semi detached bungalow at the head of a cul de sac ( corner plot) which met our criteria and the outdoor space was perfect and had been beautifully landscaped and maintained. We offered the asking price and bought it.
Amost a year on we have put our stamp on the garden and renovated the interior. We did worry about being semi detached after living in a detached for over 25 years.
Honestly we rarely see the couple next door and never hear them. So glad we didn’t let being semi detached put us off. Love living here.

Big decision though isn’t it. Hope you find exactly what you are seeking. Sometimes it’s about that feeling when you walk in.

Edwardian or Victorian, yes. Particularly if the connection is hallway to hallway. You won’t hear anything then. I had this set up in my old Victorian end terrace - flying freehold above the passage downstairs so the only place we were actually attached was the upstairs hallway. Never heard a thing in 5 years.

I wouldn’t buy a modern semi - the sound proofing is awful

Thanks for the opinions so far - so helpful.

Yes sorry should have said it is an Edwardian property.

Yes I agree @24Dogcuddler it was exactly like that, off market so didn’t have any info apart from the agent saying we should see it!

I’ve moved into a house which is attached to my neighbour. However it’s an older property and the layout means I cant be overlooked by them. I also get very little noise from them - even when they’ve told me in advance they’re having a bit of a do.

Is it a big house that has been divided by two and does the flying freehold meen you have someone upstairs / downstairs in one of your rooms?

Id be worried about noise to be honest if that was the case.

If it was always built as two homes and its just two stairwells joining i would think it fine.

We’ve just moved from an Edwardian semi to a Victorian detached. Before the Edwardian we lived in a new build semi and, like a previous poster said, the walls might as well have been paper. It was hellish.

The Edwardian semi was a definite upgrade in terms of noise from next door, but it was an elderly couple so might have been different if it was a big family. Their experience of us would have been of a crying baby, then a noisy toddler! They assured us that as they were going deaf they couldn’t hear anything 😁 The walls were better, but my daughter’s bedroom was next to their bathroom and we could hear the man having his night time wee 🤣

I guess in answer to your question I’d always pick detached if I could afford it, because I like the quiet. The house sounds lovely though, and I’m a sucker for original features and old houses so I could be swayed! Sorry, that’s not much help!

I only ever see on Mn the assumption that a detached house is some kind of acme of desirability. Buy a house that suits you! Our last three houses were detached, mid-terrace and semi-detached/end of terrace (where we live now).

It sounds lovely - but solicitors get anxious about flying freeholds…

Yes we definitely need to look more into what the flying freehold means for the lawyers and mortgage, it is a small bathroom that’s above their utility room.

Like @Roselilly36 we'd lived in a detached for many years (in our case 24, across several period houses we'd painstakingly renovated), so when we were looking to downsize a little in 2024, we ideally wanted to buy another detached property.

However, we were selling in a cheaper location (Carmarthenshire) and buying in a more expensive one (West Sussex) in order to return 'home' to be closer to family, so we knew this would be a tall order, especially as we'd only consider characterful older houses!

Having viewed a couple of too tiny detached properties, we knew we'd have to reconsider semi-detached houses/bungalows. Eventually we found a Georgian semi-detached cottage that was just big enough that we thought could work for us...albeit with some major work.

Eighteen months in and we're about half way through the (DIY) renovations. We were mostly concerned about noise, having spent so many years not needing to worry, but it's actually fine. We've reconfigured the cottage so that our two main living areas (one with TV, the other a book-filled snug) are on the opposite side of the building so that our TV doesn't annoy the neighbour and his (single middle aged guy) doesn't disturb our quiet reading time. Being an older house makes a huge difference imo. Our kitchen is now adjacent to his living space which works better for us.

Another concern was the garden being overlooked, but - due to the layout of the surrounding properties - we aren't overlooked at all. Coming from a rural location with no close neighbours, this is great.

I definitely wouldn't rule this property out @Maybemabel526 as it sounds brilliant in so many other ways, although if you're getting a mortgage, the flying freehold could well be an issue.

Their master bathroom backs onto one of the bedrooms - worried about this now!! 😂

The house ticks every box and felt very nice but ultimately if we are hearing the neighbours all the time I don’t think I’d feel the same. So impossible to know if it will just be quiet like some of the others have said (and our last end of terrace) or a different experience. Agent said it was a young family with 2 kids so would be families both sides

I’d take a chunky Edwardian or 1920s-1930s semi over a new build detached any day. The walls are usually really thick with high ceilings, lovely features, and just the feeling of a lot more space and substance.

Detached over a semi every time if I had the option

We went from detached to mid terrace. Soundproofing was a real worry for us; it’s a modern build but the builders included high quality sound proofing between houses. It’s a quiet estate and we barely hear anyone. It’s very much variable.

It depends. In some semis you don't hear neigbours, in some it's like they live with you... Depends not just on age but also what alterations were done.
I am in detachdd now after long time in apartments and semis and there is no way I get anything attached to other again. It's not just freedom from hearing others, often just normal living noise, but also freedom that no one can hear me.

Yes and I did. My current place is a weird semi that has another house attached to its back. There were detached housss for the same price but this one had charm - quiet cul de sac, massive garden and garage, Victorian character, high ceilings. And our butt-neighbours are lovely.

The walls of Edwardian houses might be single brick. They could be cavity but what they rarely are is “thick”. They won’t have the thermal properties of a modern house. However most are attractive to look at and the garden is a bonus here. Caring for it will cost more and probably heating it too. However I’d not want a detached if it was squeezed into a modern estate and of average build quality. Area would matter too. A spacious estate built 50 years ago usually are attractive. An Edwardian street with no parking, less desirable maybe?

Yes, I did. The semi was bigger, had nicer features, a bigger garden. The detached was more modern, a bit smaller. If I’d wanted a detached Edwardian villa of the same size it would have been a lot more and at the time i couldn’t afford that.

I only ever see on Mn the assumption that a detached house is some kind of acme of desirability.

I don’t get it either. Plenty of semis & terraces have little neighbour noise & detached can still be overlooked & with attached gardens or 1ft gap between houses. I would always choose the nicest house & location.

Yes it’s definitely not going to be energy efficient! Something my dad loves to go on about, he definitely wants us to wait for a modern property but we do love the old features!

This is low end of our budget, we could afford a detached house on the same/ surrounding streets but just haven’t seen any that suit. So it’s wait or go for this one even with the compromise of being attached…

We have an old semi 4bed and when we looked we could have got a detached new build but only 3 beds and the 3rd bedroom was more office sized and with very small gardens. 3 have 3 kids so it wouldn’t have been ideal.

We have a lot more space, the bedrooms are all double sized, we have a separate dining room which when the kids were smaller we had as the playroom and a really nice outdoor space. The previous owners when they
re-plastered, had soundproofed the adjoining walls and so we get zero noise from next door so it works for us but the neighbours are a couple their kids are older and live away now.

I guess it depends what you need? The area and what is available.

We chose more space over being detached and the kids having their own rooms.

I would prefer a detached to a semi- detached, (surely most people do???) But there are exceptions. eg, we are in a semi now, with a huge garden (end plot) and a view over the hills and woodlands, from the front and moreso the side... Not overlooked either, and elevated, (5-6 feet above the road.) It has a 4 car driveway, and a garage.

A detached property 6 doors down (same size as ours) came up earlier this year, and DH said 'shall we go for it'? but it has a garden that is around a third of the size of ours, a shared drive, (fits 2 cars, so 1 for each property,) no garage, and not elevated as the road goes downhill. No view to speak of, and overlooked back and front. The 'front' door is at the side, and when you come out of it you are facing next door's 'front' door. Just 2 car widths away.

If I could have our exact plot - and make the house detached - I would, but we have too much to give up. I love our elevated, not-overlooked, big 'end plot' overlooking the woodlands. Also, our neighbour (joined on) is a young mum with one child, and her partner. We hardly ever hear them. They are very considerate, and never play loud music. The little girl is quiet too, and her bedroom is on the other side of the house, so we never hear her in there. We have had a couple of noisy neighbours before she moved in 6 years ago, but we just got a sound bar, for the TV, and a white noise machine for the bedroom. We also get on really well with her, and a good neighbour is like gold dust!

It depends entirely on the house

A detached box on a new estate wouldn't interest me, compared to say an elegant Regency/Victorian/Edwardian semi or terrace