Hello dear members of the homebuilding forum,
We have finally found a plot of land! I’m very excited to become active here from now on and hope to gain a lot of collective and practical knowledge. We are still at the very beginning. We plan to build a semi-detached house with a larger side for us (about 11x8m (36x26 feet)) and a smaller side (about 7x8m (23x26 feet)). Now we need to decide which side of the plot we should take. Does anyone have any tips?
It is a corner plot, and I have attached a sketch. The small black square at the top is the neighbor’s garden shed, and the large corner on the right is the neighboring house. The street to the west has a sidewalk, and the plots along that street generally have lower fences or hedges. I’m not sure if there are any regulations (such as a maximum height of 1.5m (5 feet)) regarding this. Opposite this street is just a pasture (farm). The street to the south has no sidewalk, and the plots there are very overgrown with tall hedges – usually there is a carport, a wooden gate to the property, and tall hedges along the street.
The corner plot itself is not perfectly rectangular; to the southwest there is a small public parking area (3 parking spaces). We would, of course, like to have as much of a “single-family house character” as possible. We would have the largest garden and more “quiet” if we position our side of the house to the north. However, this means for access either a very long, narrow driveway past the smaller house side (starting at the sidewalk) or a southern driveway, which I don’t really like because I don’t want the mail carrier to be able to look onto the terrace. If we choose our house side to the west, our garden is restricted by the public parking and possibly more overlooked (even upstairs), but this would allow a normal parking space and a normal front yard, and we would have neighbors on only one side, which can also be an advantage. What would you do?
We have finally found a plot of land! I’m very excited to become active here from now on and hope to gain a lot of collective and practical knowledge. We are still at the very beginning. We plan to build a semi-detached house with a larger side for us (about 11x8m (36x26 feet)) and a smaller side (about 7x8m (23x26 feet)). Now we need to decide which side of the plot we should take. Does anyone have any tips?
It is a corner plot, and I have attached a sketch. The small black square at the top is the neighbor’s garden shed, and the large corner on the right is the neighboring house. The street to the west has a sidewalk, and the plots along that street generally have lower fences or hedges. I’m not sure if there are any regulations (such as a maximum height of 1.5m (5 feet)) regarding this. Opposite this street is just a pasture (farm). The street to the south has no sidewalk, and the plots there are very overgrown with tall hedges – usually there is a carport, a wooden gate to the property, and tall hedges along the street.
The corner plot itself is not perfectly rectangular; to the southwest there is a small public parking area (3 parking spaces). We would, of course, like to have as much of a “single-family house character” as possible. We would have the largest garden and more “quiet” if we position our side of the house to the north. However, this means for access either a very long, narrow driveway past the smaller house side (starting at the sidewalk) or a southern driveway, which I don’t really like because I don’t want the mail carrier to be able to look onto the terrace. If we choose our house side to the west, our garden is restricted by the public parking and possibly more overlooked (even upstairs), but this would allow a normal parking space and a normal front yard, and we would have neighbors on only one side, which can also be an advantage. What would you do?
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nordanney4 Feb 2026 08:53jolovyn schrieb:
(By the way, we currently live right next to our own landlords; the only thing that bothers us is the noise from other tenants walking overhead. Therefore, we definitely want our own semi-detached housing units and not a basement or granny flat.) Who says apartments have to be arranged one above the other? And one more thing – check out the forum for posts like “Noise from the owners in the other half of the semi-detached house is really annoying, how do we get rid of it?” Also posts asking “How high can I build a wall on the terrace between the semi-detached units because the neighbor is always so loud?”
You never know who lives in the other half. I would be cautious with general statements like “that doesn’t bother us”…
jolovyn schrieb:
But I already mentioned in the opening post that we are a family with two children. Sorry for the upset. Sorry, not in the first post exactly, but I found it.
jolovyn schrieb:
Can someone tell me how to find the function to reply directly to posts here? Highlight the post or sentence, then the quote button appears and you can insert the quotes.
Okay... I don’t really see it as a problem if you’ve thought it through and can finance it when you choose close neighbors. I’m not sure if the thing pays for itself though. Ultimately you still have to pay taxes and tenants can move out quickly since it’s only temporary living. Then there will be renovations again, and yes, you can deduct those.
You have to decide for yourselves how you react if half of the property used as a rental isn’t cared for like it was your own. But there are also good tenants.
Regarding the location itself: I once had an end-terrace house with a west-facing garden. Not every house will be south-facing, and not every house looks well-oriented at first glance. Everything has its pros and cons. And everyone has different demands for their house.
Our garage back then was 200 meters (650 feet) away. Yes, the houses only had sidewalks, with parking spaces located in front of the rows. At least that meant quiet living without cars in the front yard, but with a hand truck at the front door. Even now in a single-family home, a hand truck has advantages. That doesn’t mean I don’t understand wanting to avoid having to transport small children and groceries in a wagon. However, by the time the house is built, the children will be outgrowing that stage. And the lot isn’t that large anyway.
But it’s not a big deal and perfectly normal to have some distance between the front door and the carport. Paths belong to a house just like the patio or a garden shed/garbage area.
What I want to point out is: Don’t make everything too tight. Even one car might get bigger, you want to open doors on both sides, and there’s the fleet of two-wheelers that doesn’t move automatically from the shed to the street but has to be pushed with a backpack. Some extra space is good, also for the entrance platform—a benefit compared to an extra meter of lawn.
But I think there’s still plenty of time to consider these things, make changes, and shift things around.
jolovyn schrieb:
Noise from other tenants walking overhead. That will be the stairs next door then.
ypg schrieb:
Highlight the post or sentence, then the quote button will appear Thank you very much!
Also, thank you for the insights and experiences; that really helps a lot. Of course, there’s always some risk – in fact, acquaintances of ours are moving out of their newly built single-family house after only two years because of the neighbors! That is definitely an extreme case.
Thanks to the discussions here, we have made significant progress with our considerations! We have decided that the tenants will definitely use a different entrance/facing a different street. Basically, there are only two options, see attachment (and please ignore the reference numbers I jotted down). We’re leaning toward the first version, and honestly, it’s purely a gut feeling; we just find that street somehow nicer than the other one, haha... The tenants can then choose to get a hand truck or anything else they want 😉 And if we really get annoyed by the neighbors on the terrace, at least we have the option to slip around the corner and enjoy the evening sun in peace. I am taking to heart the advice not to plan too tightly and will now create floor plans for the interior for both versions again.
jolovyn schrieb:
My statement that it’s not that simple was mainly directed against ant’s wagon cart idea; as long as I can avoid that in the planning stage, I would like to do so. My "wagon cart idea" was simply a response to your complicated way of thinking about placing the owner-occupied half of the house next to the parking space because of a short carry distance. By the way, 11ant, dear vyn ;-)
The aardvark has nothing to do with ants, even though the avatar images are currently not visible here.
jolovyn schrieb:
We are building a semi-detached house because land prices here are absurdly high and the development plan allows semi-detached houses. Since the smaller half should roughly pay for itself, we can reduce the price of our side by a six-figure amount and at the same time build equity, possibly providing living space for one of our children later. After suffering from the housing shortage ourselves for several years, we want to make use of the space for that reason alone and help other people have a roof over their heads. That is noble and economically sensible in terms of housing. However, for building equity, small-scale rental involving just one housing unit is a case of much ado about nothing and realistically amounts to a break-even scenario. Providing housing for children might be more attractive the other way around: having the children as builders and owners right from the start, which saves, among other things, inheritance taxes later on. Then you would be tenants yourselves—but of your children (or a family trust). Children are legally capable (including for tax purposes) from birth; my former tax advisor rents his office building from his children.
jolovyn schrieb:
(By the way, we currently live right next door to our own landlords; the only thing that annoys us is the stomping of other tenants above us. Therefore, we definitely want our own semi-detached housing units and not a granny flat.) nordanney schrieb:
Who says an apartment has to be arranged one above the other? And another thing—take a look here in the forum for posts like "The stomping by the owners of the other semi-detached house is extremely annoying; how do we get rid of the noise?" Oh, and also posts like "How high can I build a wall on the terrace between the semi-detached houses because the other neighbor is always so loud?"
You never know who’s in the other half. I would be cautious about general statements like "That doesn’t bother me"… Correct; there are many posts here about noise issues caused by mortar droppings and stair anchoring sound bridges between row houses. By the way, my suggestion was about tenants living below and next to you—neighbors stacked vertically are rarely heard stomping.
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