What is the difference?
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"Semi-attached" is a term I haven't heard in US real estate. If it's two houses connected it's a duplex. If it's a string of properties (terraced in the UK) It's a townhouse. If it's an end terrace it's on the corner or the end, but not referred to as an end.
I haven't heard that either. Sounds like a guy who's having trouble making a commitment.
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I never have understood the distinctions in English real estate, despite hearing terms like "detached", "semi-detached" and "walk-up" in imported British television. But I was heavily involved in real estate in the US for years before doing the writing thing full-time, so maybe someone could translate US terms into Brit-ese (or other EU countries) :
"Apartment" = a building (generally multi-story) with side-by-side dwellings having common walls--e.g., the west wall of one dwelling is the east wall of the next.
"House" = a freestanding dwelling with or without a garage.
"Duplex" = a freestanding building separated into TWO dwellings, having one common wall and often a common garage.
"Townhouse" = a freestanding building separated into up to EIGHT dwellings, all on one level, with common walls, and no garages (but sometimes with a common underground or connected garage structure or parking lot.) More than eight, at least in Colorado and Texas, turns a townhouse into an apartment building.
So, how do those compare across the pond?
"Apartment" = a building (generally multi-story) with side-by-side dwellings having common walls--e.g., the west wall of one dwelling is the east wall of the next.
"House" = a freestanding dwelling with or without a garage.
"Duplex" = a freestanding building separated into TWO dwellings, having one common wall and often a common garage.
"Townhouse" = a freestanding building separated into up to EIGHT dwellings, all on one level, with common walls, and no garages (but sometimes with a common underground or connected garage structure or parking lot.) More than eight, at least in Colorado and Texas, turns a townhouse into an apartment building.
So, how do those compare across the pond?
Two family means it's a house, you own it, but it is set up for two families to live in seperately. Two family houses are from long before the terms duplex and townhouse. Usually one family owns it, and rents the other unit. It often used to be a convenient set up (especially in the outer boroughs of NYC), family lived upstairs or downstairs, grandma and grandpa lived in the other apt.
Semi-detached means a wall is shared with the house next door. Separate owners, properties, etc.
I grew up in a two family, semi-detached brick example of hideousness in Brooklyn.
Semi-detached means a wall is shared with the house next door. Separate owners, properties, etc.
I grew up in a two family, semi-detached brick example of hideousness in Brooklyn.
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Thanks Cathy. Here in the UK my understanding is
Apartments = Flats here
Apartment, can describe an upscale unit in the high priced bracket
Duplex = Semi detached (common wall seperating the homes)
Townhouse = now the same here, but used to be called a Terraced House.
End House = (guessing) would be called Semi-detached
As we've always bought what you call 'fixer-uppers', and what is called 'ripe for renovation' here, and lived in this one for 25 years, I'm well out of touch with modern terminology
My FMC lives in NYC, I've been recomended to put her in Staten Island, so went searching online, and came across the terms queried on a realtor's site.
So anyone living in that area please step forward
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Two-family sounds crowded. Semi-attached is a nice way of saying there's a common wall. Both, IMO, are the same thing. Duplexes.
Oh, my gosh!! Another guy on the romance thread! Welcome, welcome.
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