P Pros and Cons of an Attached Vs Detached Homes

What is an attached home? An attached home is considered as a dwelling that shares a common wall or walls with another unit. For our purposes in our article, we will not be talking about condominiums, which are attached property shared by common walls above and/or below and/or beside the unit. An attached dwelling can be a townhouse (multiplex), duplex, triplex, fourplex.

W What is a detached home? A detached home is considered as a dwelling that does not share any walls with another unit. A detached inner-city infill is a new home that is built in an older community where the original structure has been removed.

N Newer inner city developers understand the disadvantages of sound travelling through the walls of attached homes, and therefore the builders are adding extra precautions to insulate and drywall between the units to make sure that sound is dappened and minimal noise travels through. Often, builders use a type of material like Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) to dappen the noise between floors or walls.

The benefit to an attached home is that it is often more affordable than a detached home. The other benefit of an attached home would be that the increased home’s efficiency to reduce the cold/warmth of the home – therefore decreasing your utility bills. Another benefit would be less maintenance of yard or exterior of a home.

Attached inner-city homes are often in desirable communities close to downtown, shopping, schools thus making it a great point of entry to the real estate market (often from consumers that have lived in the suburbs for a few years).

D Disadvantages of an attached inner-city infill includes: less privacy, less windows (on one side of the home), and many homes become long and skinny.

A Advantages of a detached inner-city home would be the benefit of living in an established community in a rebuilt home. The ability to have a larger footprint compared to homes built 50-100 years ago.

D Disadvantages of a detached inner-city home would be the cost. Sometimes individuals venture to purchase a large plot of land and develop their own property, however that is costly and time consuming. Looking for a developer to execute the development of an detached home can be costly with cost-overruns, poor time management and miscommunication from a builder and buyer expectations.