Tag:building=semi
 building =
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A semi-detached house. 
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| Group: buildings |
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| Status: in use |
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![[W]](./Tango_style_Wikipedia_Icon_no_shadow.svg.png){kind=icon}
Semi-detached houses are the most common type of house in the United Kingdom, but are also found throughout the world. They consist of a pair of houses sharing a common wall (the party wall) and usually have an identical layout which is a mirror of the other half. Semis can vary in size from small houses built for social housing (2 bedroom, 1 living room) to vast Victorian villas with 6 or more bedrooms spread over 3 or more floors.
In Britain, semis usually have 2 floors, but semi-detached bungalows are common in some areas. It is not clear whether the semi tag or building=bungalow should be preferred in this case: indeed, perhaps building=bungalow_semi may be a suitable alternative.
Synonymy
There are a number of synonyms for this tag (see listing below). The only ones with widespread usage are building=semidetached_house and house=semi-detached (used with building=house).
building= probably accords better than semidetached_house with standard usage in Britain, but it may be non-obvious to mappers from outside English-speaking areas where the term is commonly used.
house=semi-detached always had more uses than building= except between 2019 and 2022.
building= had more uses than building=semidetached_house until December 2013.
building= peaked at around 55,000 uses in 2022 and has been in decline since. The declines are step-like which suggests regions are being retagged en masse.
As of March 2025, house=semi-detached has 100 times more uses than building=, and building=semidetached_house has 400 times more.
Tag usage history up to 2025
Similar tags with low usage
Examples
