Semi-detached: the neighbour who thinks he bought a ranch

Semi-detached: six families, thin walls and a workshop at home

The semi-detached house is sold as the dream of a home with a street door and a bit of patio of your own. The X-ray of certain Levantine neighbourhoods is far less epic: rows of homes joined by thin walls where six families live less than ten metres apart. The problem is not the floor space. It is what each buyer believes they have acquired when they sign.

Why does the semi-detached end up in neighbour disputes?

The most repeated diagnosis points to a misunderstanding of ownership. A door to the street is interpreted as a ranch deed: the house becomes a workshop and the concept of a community of neighbours dissolves as soon as someone believes their boundary ends where their dignity ends. Add to that the textbook frictions —barbecues and paellas, pruning that invades the adjoining patio, children and doorstep conspiracies woven with artisanal patience— and a use of domestic space that clashes with those who just want to sleep.

Some argue that noise understands neither metres nor price. A case cited in Rías Baixas describes a 300-square-metre chalet on an 8,000 plot, surrounded by identical properties: at dawn the small tractors start up, trinc by chainsaws and rototillers, and the dogs do the rest. Respectable distance does not filter sound. The rural setting, that testimony suggests, replicates the same problem as the row of semi-detached houses.

Noise as an undeclared variable

The uncomfortable conclusion is that part of the analysis describes Spain as an acoustic hell where the square metre protects you from nothing. Some joke about the neighbour who starts up the quad bike at five in the morning in summer, with windows open because of the heat, and others argue that even in expensive chalet areas you are not spared. And in parallel the opposite thesis circulates: that the problem is not the type of housing, but the specific area where it is built.

With these elements, the decisive variable —who the neighbour will be— still does not appear in any land registry extract or any developer's brochure.