Humble, once daggy semi-detached homes are back in fashion and addressing housing affordability

Once out of favour and regarded as lacking in class, humble semi-detached homes are making a comeback and addressing housing affordability.

A semi-detached dwelling project.

When Cathe Stack and Steve Watson spotted an ad for a single-storey home ripe for knockdown they knew it was for them. But the auction was happening that instant.

The couple raced to the address, but they were too late – it was over. They were turning on their heels to head home when they discovered the house had been passed in. Some hard, fast and savvy negotiating followed and the house was theirs. Everything happened so fast. And then it didn’t.

Cathe Stack and Shaun Carter, principal of Carter Williamson Architects.

First they were hit with a year-long planning approval process and then came Covid. But in May 2021 they achieved their dream to turn a tired three-bedroom brick single-storey house into two beautiful four-bedroom, double-storey semi-detached homes.

From the outside, their semis are not identical as so many are, resulting in them being nicknamed Fraternal Twins.

Connected indoor and outdoors spaces create abundant light in each semi.

But inside they are a mirror image of each other; both L-shaped with a single car garage at the front followed by a fourth bedroom (or home office), open plan living areas and three outdoor spaces, two more bedrooms and a master suite upstairs.

While many people confuse a semi with a duplex, a true semi is where two homes share a common wall, yet each retain a Torrens Title. It’s a style that was popular in Australia in the early 1900s but fell out of favour in the inter-war period as it was associated with a lower socio-economic demographic. But today it’s back in vogue, says Archicentre director Peter Georgiev.

Bright, light and fresh living spaces.

“These days a semi is seen in a not dissimilar way to a freestanding home,” he says.

“Unlike a multi-dwelling property where people are living on top of one another, a semi allows you to have your own piece of dirt and title.

“It’s a happy medium (between freestanding and multi-dwelling) in many ways and with family expenditure and the cost of land and housing being what it is, there is a natural tendency to break up bigger blocks.

Timber and whites abound in the semi-detached homes, reflecting light and creating warmth.

“Semis lend themselves very well to this modern housing challenge.”

This is particularly the case in high-demand council areas where land is at a premium.

A spokesperson for Sydney’s Waverley Council says there has been a significant increase in development applications for the demolition of single dwellings and the construction of two-storey attached dwellings such as a semi over the past five years. It is a trend that is fuelled by a substantial increase in land values.

The price of an average block of land in Sydney jumped by more than 27 per cent in the 12 months to July 2021 with a median lot now priced from $546,500, according to HIA CoreLogic.

The challenge of having enough space is solved by going upwards.

Shaun Carter, principal of Carter Williamson Architects who designed the Fraternal Twins semis, says he wanted the homes to each have their own personality and bring variety to the streetscape, which he says he achieved through the different balcony treatment.

“This house feels like it has a much more usable garden even though we went from one three-bedroom house to two four-bedroom houses,” he says.

“And the reason is that the upper storey overhangs the bottom storey which provides more living area in the top storey as well as more landscape area.

“In semis, normally there is a dark side where the party wall is and the other side is the light side.

“So we moved the bedrooms to the external walls where the light is and we created a pop-up above the stairs to elevate the roof and bring in natural light.”

There’s even a cool balcony.

The owners initially wanted to sell one semi and live in the other and for this reason sought to complete the build with a high level of finishes. But a mixture of Covid and financial consideration forced them to sell both.

“I’m a sculptor so I really believe there should be a lot more interaction between art, architecture and interior design,” says Cathe.

“It was great working with Shaun because he really welcomed my input and it was a real collaboration.”