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

Doodledog

I think there are huge differences between some terraces and some detached, though. It really isn't a case of one is better than the other.

165 Eaton Place (Upstairs Downstairs) and 10 Downing Street are both terraced houses, and some of the little boxes on Brookside were detached.

Absolutely, Doodledog - there are some very sought-after 'terraced' houses in Edinburgh, for instance, which will cost you upwards of £1m, while the many housing estates which are being thrown up around the city are full of little white 'detached' boxes.

I think there are huge differences between some terraces and some detached, though. It really isn't a case of one is better than the other.

165 Eaton Place (Upstairs Downstairs) and 10 Downing Street are both terraced houses, and some of the little boxes on Brookside were detached.

My sister lives in a ‘link detached’ bungalow.

A ‘semi’ then.

For a long time we lived in a large 4 bedroom semi in the north west. It was fine, because the two consecutive sets of neighbours we experienced were considerate and quiet. One set had three children, so inevitably there was some noise, but it wasn’t troublesome.

There is some snobbery about detached houses. They are preferable, I think, and certainly more expensive. Perhaps snobbery is the wrong word. It’s just that most people prefer them, and neighbours are much less likely to be a problem.

Not snobbery at all. We loved happily in our semi for 42 years and brought our children up there. A very noisy family eventually moved next door into the non attached house. Very loud parties throughout the summer but we lived with it because we still loved the area. Then a young couple moved into the joining house. We could hear their conversations and swearing though the walls. The weekends brought noisy parties even through lockdown.
After a few months we moved into a detached house with a lovely garden

mantaray Has anybody else experienced this kind of snobbery?

Of course. Move far out from any town, into a very old farm home, people are very snobby to a farm home, detached is the least complaint.

It's not something that I would let bother me mantaray. We all live different lives in varying accommodation, as long as we are happy with what we have that's all that matters. Other peoples opinions are just that and would not influence my decision on whether to live in a detached house or not.

Only a snobbish person who already lives in a detached house will say ‘ Wont you like to be detached’ as a one-upmanship.

I am from the south east and left there 3 years ago to Northumberland. I never once encountered anyone who suggested I might like to live in a detached. (Our previous house was a three bed semi). I never encountered snobbery.

We moved from our new council house to a flat when our daughter started school.we only stayed 18 months Not that we had problems our neighbours were happy to come to parties but we often felt bad about closing the main door at 3 or 4 am after a long shift at work and maybe disturbing them .Our lifestyle has always been odd hours and shedloads of friends and loud music so a detached suits us best.We even moved our living room to the other side of the house where there are no neighbours so we wouldn't disturb anyone .Well that was the plan until our daughter asked to move bedroom as she could still hear music from her bed.
I still like my music LOUD and my OH will sometimes go into the street to check if it can be heard ,33 years here and no complaints yet.Not snobbery just being considerate

At the end of the day anyone can look up, down or sideways at anything, if they desire to give offence or are insecure themselves.

I can remember someone being dismissive with us because we did, at the time, live in s small detached house, suggesing such affluence meant that we couldn't begin to understand the average person's life. We started in a terrace house.

As nanaDana, says, life is too short to worry about such things. People like that are showing themselves up not you.

Not experienced that. Some people are sniffy about the most trivial, irrelevant things. None of my friends, though, or we'd part company. Life's too short etc.

Kate1949

People can be sniffy about areas too. Our friend who moved to the coast from here, now asks me 'Aren't you scared living in Birmingham?'. I'm not sure what we should be scared of.

I'd like to say 'only of speaking Brum' - hope the joke comes across on here as I don't like sniffiness about accents either!

LRavenscroft - I am so sorry that you feel you can't invite people back. I think that if anyone showed any sign of disdain, most of the members would disdain them! However, I also understand not wanting to expose yourself.
When I was a NCT mum in the 70s, we met in all sorts of homes, council flats (there were still around) and static caravans - and yes, my new detached! I heard from others that NCT mums could 'look down' on some, but not in our groups.
Quite apart from it being common courtesy, those folk never know where they might end up in the future!

Kate1949

People can be sniffy about areas too. Our friend who moved to the coast from here, now asks me 'Aren't you scared living in Birmingham?'. I'm not sure what we should be scared of.

Who knew that it was more desirable to live near the railway station in a London suburb, therefore the nearer the railway, the more expensive the property?

Riverwalk

I don't know what you mean by a 'curse of the South East'.

I live in London and would be flabbergasted if anyone I know bought a detached house these days, unless it was in the outer suburbs.

Even back in "those days" we couldn't afford a detached house in a nice London suburb.
Now even some semi-detached houses sell there for well over £1.3 million.

Before we knew we had to relocate, we viewed the 'right house in the right road', detached and full of character (apparently, according to the estate agent - who knew some roads weren't?!) and I fell in love with it although it needed total refurbishment. We put in an offer. Apparently there were several other offers.
Then it got taken off the market and went on at an extraordinary price.
Then we were relocated anyway to somewhere where house prices were more reasonable.

No, it doesn't bother me I gave up a detached with a large garden in a sought-after area. To move into a barn with a small walled garden attached to the farmhouse.
I wish I could move further away from the ones over the wall. They are like the Maggi Smith character in "Tea with Mussolini". The lads next door are lovely as are their parents they hold our key and come around and help if asked even if it is a text from the other end of the country when our burglar alarm went off.

People can be sniffy about areas too. Our friend who moved to the coast from here, now asks me 'Aren't you scared living in Birmingham?'. I'm not sure what we should be scared of.

mokryna

I think British people in general tend to look down on flat dwellers.

Really, that's a rather large generalisation. Not sure it is correct Two of my family live in flats, one in Germany, where rules are stricter and tenants are expected to deal with anything wrong, inside the flat, themselves. I would have a flat myself, but am not prepared to pay the extortionate maintenance and other fees that go with it.

No, but I understand where the comments are coming from. If you have great neighbours fine, but if they are not so good lives can be made a misery. We had neighbours who lived in harmony in a semi for 60 years and then horrible people moved in next door who had this elderly couple in tears. I can see why even a tiny detached can be desirable.

There are flats for sale near us and in the south east more generally that sell for well over £1million. Not sure why one should look down on a flat dweller. Their footprint is much less, which is something to be desired I would have thought.

mokryna

I think British people in general tend to look down on flat dwellers.

That may have been true in the past because there simply weren't many flats outside council estates - which some people did look down on - or above shops. Unlike places like Germany and inner cities in the US where many people live in flats. Now flats are being built all over the place in the UK, and many people recognise that for certain lifestyles they are ideal - no children, don't want or can't cope with a garden, don't want maintenance that comes with a house... Near us a few ex-department stores are being turned into flats. Sadly they keep turning them into 'luxury, prestige' flats that cost a fortune instead of ordinary, nice flats that the less well-off can buy.

The poshest house we have owned was a four storey terraced house with high ceilings, elegant plasterwork and a grade 2 listing which meant no double glazing and approval for any changes. It sold recently for well over £1 million - in Bristol, not London! Much less work to manage a 1967 detached box in a village despite considerably less class.

Blimey! I’m sure that many of our grandchildren would give their eye teeth to own/live in any sort of house.

Most houses are ‘detached’ here but they are building some new ones that are joined. I think they’ve only just discovered them! Even in the retirement villages many houses are small but stand alone. The thing here used to be whether you had a brick house or a weatherboard one but that seems to have gone by the way now. We used to have a weatherboard but you do hear neighbours and noises more so we moved to a brick house 30 plus years ago now.

We started married life in a modern terrace house, moved to a similar sized 19th century detached house, then a modern detached house.

- and then back into a semi-detached house. Much bigger than our detached house, 19th century with 13 inch thick walls. When we asked our neighbours to complain about our children's music which was deafening us. They said, they couldn't, they hadn't heard any of it.

25 years ago we moved again, 15th century house, a much bigger house divided in two, so we are still semi-detached. But again very little noise transfer. The bedroom DGC use sharea a wall with next doors mnin bedroom. I told them to let me know if the children were too noisy. They said they couldn't hear a thing.

I have certainly not met any snobbery over semi-detaced/detached and we have happily movd from one to the other - and back again.

I have also spent my whole house owning life in the South East. The south east, and London in particular is predominantly flats, terraced housing and semis, You really have to get to outside edges, beyond Reading to the west, and i am sure similar towns as far out as Reading in other SE counties, before a detached house is within the means of other than the very affluent..