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Semi-detached housing (often abbreviated to semi in the UK, as in "three-bedroom semi" and known as a duplex in the USA, Canada and Continental Europe), consists of pairs of houses built side by side as units sharing a party wall and usually in such a way that each house's layout is a mirror image of its twin. This style of housing, although built throughout the world, is commonly seen as particularly symbolic of the suburbanization of the United Kingdom and Ireland .
This type of housing can be thought of as being a half-way state between terraced or row housing and individual (detached) houses.
Terraced housing is constituted by continuous row houses with open spaces at the front and back, semi-detached houses have front, rear and any one side open spaces and individual detached houses have open spaces on all sides.
In the British housing boom of the 1920s and 1930s semi-detached houses sprang up in suburbs throughout the country, and were popular with middle class home owners who preferred them to terrace houses. The design of many of these house, highly characteristic of the era, was heavily influenced by the Art Deco movement, taking influence from mock Tudor, chalet styles and even ship design. |
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In the immediate post-war years many council houses also followed the 'semi' format, giving many Britons a first experience of private garden space.
In Australia , townhouses are generally found in complexes. Large complexes often have high security, resort facilities such as swimming pools, gyms, parks and playground equipment. A townhouse is typically a different form of real property title from a detached or semi-detached house. A townhouse has a Strata Title i.e. a type of title where the common property (landscaped area, public corridors, building structure etc.) is owned by a corporation of individual owners and the houses on the property are owned by the individual owners. A semi-detached house sits on a single property, owned in its entirety by the owner of the semi-detached house. Semi-detached houses only come in pairs, whereas townhouses may number more than two, attached together.
During the house price boom in the years to 2004 many UK property developers found they could create value by demolishing semi-detached houses and building two detached houses on the same site, often with a very narrow gap between the new units.
In Canada , some semi-detached homes have linked basements, such that the houses do not have individual basements. These are called linked semi-detached homes.
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