Why are some people sniffy about living in a semi detached house?

We live in a road of Victorian, 1930's and 1980's houses, detached and semi detached. It has never been discussed but I suspect none of us would want to live in the others houses, there is very little movement so I presume everyone is reasonably happy. I only look down on the people opposite because we all live on a hill!

I don't know it it still applies, but in the Glasgow area in the 1960s some people did feel the need to look down on those who lived in semi-detached houses.

A sort of, "are they so poor they can't afford a proper house and too snobbish to apply for a council house?"

Perhaps something similar is going on in your neck of the woods?

I would never live in a semi. We were nearly made ill when we lived in a flat
with a totally inconsiderate neighbour. We couldn't take the chancee of bad neighbours again.

Goidness knows what those kind of folk will think of people living in a rerraced property or a flat. In tthe south east a terraced can cost a fortune, never mind a semi or detached. If you are happy where you are, ignore the snobs.

I've never come across this issue. Our friends, family and acquaintances live in a mixture of detached and semis and flats. Never come across any snobbery. Maybe it's within certain counties.

I have a similar experience! We bought our house when our children were small and still live here now that we are retired have grandchildren! It's a large rowhouse, build in 1922. We have a garden about 7m. x 30m., 350 sq.m. living surface, a large cellar too. We live in a very nice university town in Belgium. Some people think we would want to move to a newbuild villa in the countryside, but we don't. We love it here, we have our terrasse and our garden, enough space for family gatherings and sleepovers of the grandchildren. I don't want a big villa far away from everything and everybody, I love it here and I want to stay here ❣️@mantaray We only have the one house, but still, we're not too poor to move to the countryside, it's just a personal choice!

Never heard such nonsense. Our home is a semi-detaced, with large grdens, been here for 52 years, near the sea, mountains and within 1 1/4 hour of Liverpool and Manchster, love it.

Having lived in terraced, semi-detached and detached, my preference would always be detached. The reasons being that there are no walls that are shared so you have no problems doing anything to them, no neighbours to complain. Also, you don't hear what is going on next door, people going up and down stairs, using the bathroom, even having a romantic evening in the bedroom. I have experienced all when is an semi and terraced. So, it is a detached for me with all the privacy it entails.

Never lived in a detached, always a terrace or semi. If people are sniffy then tough. My house.

What a strange notion about semi detached houses. We have moved house far more than I wanted to, and lived in every variety of home apart from a flat. Our current S/D is wonderful - I never want to move again as we have everything we need in the house and garden, an excellent location close to London and good neighbours all around - we feel extremely lucky. Those who are snobbish clearly know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Like other GNs here I'm not "sniffy" but was fed-up with the neighbours' noise - including a yappy dog. At least in our (small) detached, we'll be distanced from this if there are future problems. (Currently our neighbours are great.)

What ridiculous people.
Avoid them!

I've never come across comments like this before. We've been happily living in our semi for over 30 years now, having moved from a detached house and no one has ever passed any comment (negative or positive).

In fact, looking at some of the new build estates they're throwing up around here at the moment, I don't think their idea of "detached" tallies well with mine. You can barely walk between some of the so-called detached properties, so I don't think you gain anything.

People are generally 'sniffy' about semi-detached houses for a couple of reasons, a) They are worried about noisy neighbours, or b) They are worried that they themselves are noisy neighbours.

I know when my elderly neighbour died, my only concern was that the new neighbours would be noisy, they weren't. My neighour a few doors down had a very noisy neighbour attached to her and had to watch tv using earphones.

We lived in a 1930’s semi in the early years of our marriage before moving to a different part of the country. I loved it and still really like thirties houses. They were well built and solid and I have always liked bay windows. The rooms are well proportioned too.
In the fifties, my grandparents moved from a big, rambling house in the north to a thirties semi in a Birmingham suburb. The northern house had no electricity and gas lamps downstairs only. Cooking was done on a range and the bath was a tin bath in front of the fire. The thirties house had gas, electricity, hot and cold running water and a proper bathroom. All the mod cons of the day, in fact. I have often thought that it must have been wonderful for my grandmother.

NO. I also live in the South East in a THREE bedroom semi, and couldn't care less what other people thought about my property. I'd be a hundred times more upset if they thought it needed a deep clean!!!
mantaray, perhaps you should ask yourself if choosing to communicate this as a problem isn't also a form of snobbery? I say that with no ill intent - just a gentle nudge.

We live in a large terrace Only once in 35 years has anyone been “sniffy” about it and I sniffed them out of my life pdq 😂😂😂😂

Quite a lot of detached houses, especially new builds, only have about a foot between them which is ridiculous. However when watching Escape to the Country I’m always struck by the number of people saying they want detached, along with wood burner, kitchen island, Aga, stone floor etc etc. I’ve lived with all of that in the past and all of those things have many downsides so I think it’s just snobbery.

Yes have come across it Mantaray. I live in a large Edwardian 3 storey semi in south east, and trying to sell it harder as comments from agents and others ppl want / prefer detached. Yes snobbery exists definitely. It’s a great home and I expect someone will buy it eventually! Hopefully.

Not sniffy but after living happily in a semi for years we had one set of truly horrendous noisy inconsiderate neighbours. At the time I was not working, at home with a new baby and it really impacted on my mental health. Fortunately we could afford to move to a detached house and have never regretted it. I’d rather live in a detached box (luckily we don’t) than a big semi.

No, I think it is possibly deep-down a sense of inferiority complex. It just depends on location and the house itself. My friend lives in a detached “box”, which is really nice inside but doesn’t really have much kerb appeal.
We downsized from a nice detached house and we were fortunate to be in a very small Lane with quiet neighbours, but if we’d had rowdy or difficult neighbours, I don’t think it would have made much difference if it had been semi-detached.
We now live in a semi-detached grade II listed cottage, but it really just partially attached to our neighbour’s next door in the middle bit of the house plus they are elderly and we don’t hear them at all.
It’s down to what type of neighbours you have and also location. In the south east, you would be lucky to pay less than £450,000 for a semi-detached and double that for the outskirts of London whereas in other areas, you could probably get a detached house for that or less.

Lots of people are just happy to have a home whether owned or rented and thats enough for them. I prefer detached but only because I have 3 small grandchildren children living with me and they are noisy, I have had sniffy neighbours in the past and they complained about my children when small so I now have a horror of this happening again.

I’ve not come across anyone being sniffy.
I have lived in terraced houses but now live in a detached bungalow.
I’ve had great neighbours and I’ve had horrible neighbours.
I prefer to live in a detached now because my TV is loud, I listen to heavy metal rock music - and it’s loud. I bought detached because I didn’t want to have anyone attached to the house that I would upset with my music.
My neighbours are great and have assured me they cannot hear anything from inside the house unless the back door is open and then it’s only for a few minutes.

Yes, oddly the opposite, when we had a big detached house when the kids were younger a number of other school gate parents were very snotty about it, presumably because they couldn't afford a bigger house. When my oldest son left we moved to a flat, which I loved until a new neighbour moved in and set out to make our lives miserable because of her mental health issues. We moved on to a terraced house, it's lovely and very friendly in our street. The houses are lovely and in a good school area, and people don't seem to aspire to detached property here due to the benefits of the area and very few such properties available. It's a bit small minded to assume detached is the only way to go IMHO - should say I spent a lot of my childhood on an isolated farm so perhaps I'm biased. Generally I like to be around other people and while the neighbours were friendly probably preferred the flat to a big house.

As neighbour problems are very common, perhaps this is why detached us seen as better.
O had a detached new build bungalow a few years ago and loved the fact that I could hoover at midnight, play music until late, use the washing machine etc. The houses were quite close though so in the summer a lot of noise from dogs, children, parties..
Location really is the key and second space. Detached are probably bigger mainly.
I'm in a 2 bed semi now with 2 noisy neighbours! TV is wall mounted on a party wall especially to annoy me!