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Different types of housing in the UK: houses, flats, bungalows, maisonettes and what each costs

Different types of housing in the UK explained: detached, semi, terraced, flat, bungalow and maisonette, with August 2026 average prices by type.

4 min read
Last reviewed 4 November 2026
By Your Property Check team

Part 1 of 6

The types and their averages

General information, not advice. Read our Terms. The prices below come from the UK House Price Index for August 2026, released on 21 October 2026 by HM Land Registry and the Office for National Statistics, and held in our data file. They are averages for the whole UK, so a flat in one town can cost more than a house in another.

Type	Definition	Usually freehold or leasehold?	UK average price (August 2026)
Detached	A house that stands alone and shares no wall	Check the title; houses can be leasehold	£443,846
Semi-detached	A house joined to one other house	Check the title	£278,675
Terraced	A house in a row, sharing walls with neighbours	Check the title	£232,505
Flat or maisonette	A home within a larger building	Most flats are leasehold	£194,148
Bungalow	A single-level house, a style not a legal type	Check the title	Not recorded separately

GOV.UK's guidance on the Price Paid Data says HM Land Registry records detached, semi-detached, terraced, flats and maisonettes, and other, and that it does not separately identify bungalows. That is why no bungalow average appears: it would be an invention. A bungalow sits inside one of the first three groups.

Part 2 of 6

What each type means

Detached, semi-detached and terraced describe how many walls you share. They are houses, and GOV.UK says houses can be leasehold, and usually are if bought through a shared ownership scheme. Always check the tenure on the title, which our guide to checking freehold or leasehold explains.

Flats are homes within a larger building. GOV.UK says most flats are leasehold, which means you own the home for a set number of years and ownership returns to the landlord when the lease ends. Flats come with ground rent and service charges, covered in ground rent and peppercorn rent.

Maisonettes. A maisonette is a self-contained home within a larger building, usually over two floors, with its own entrance that opens directly outside. A duplex apartment is a flat over two floors linked by an internal staircase, and the glossary notes the term overlaps with maisonette.

Flat or apartment? We found no official definition separating them. HM Land Registry groups flats and maisonettes together. Treat apartment as an agent's word for a flat. A penthouse is also a marketing word for a top-floor flat, not a legal category.

Part 3 of 6

Which type is cheapest?

Across the UK, a flat. The gap to a detached home is £249,698, or about 2.3 times the price. The same is true in England, Wales, Scotland and the two English regions in the table, but not in Northern Ireland.

Area	Detached	Semi-detached	Terraced	Flat or maisonette
England	£472,671	£291,962	£247,371	£218,563
Wales	£336,551	£215,812	£174,317	£130,206
Scotland	£365,984	£226,592	£184,396	£138,886
Northern Ireland	£312,624	£204,283	£145,980	£148,475
London	£1,164,439	£730,580	£648,650	£427,310
North East	£289,630	£173,327	£140,358	£103,648

In Northern Ireland the average terraced home (£145,980) was slightly cheaper than the average flat (£148,475), so the cheapest type is not the same everywhere.

Part 4 of 6

The gaps between types

Step by step, the UK averages in August 2026 fall by £165,171 from detached to semi-detached, by £46,170 from semi-detached to terraced and by £38,357 from terraced to a flat. The biggest step is the first one, between a home with no shared wall and one with a single shared wall. Land and size drive much of that, but the index does not say how much, so we do not attribute the gap to any one cause.

Part 5 of 6

What to check for each type

Any house: the tenure on the title, and whether the boundaries and any shared access match what you are told.
A flat or maisonette: the lease length, ground rent and service charge, because GOV.UK explains that with leasehold you own the home for a set period set by a lease.
A bungalow: treat it as a house for tenure and as its own style for layout. Because it has no official price series, compare it with sold prices nearby.
A new type to you: read the glossary entry first, then ask the agent for the tenure and the council tax band before you view.

Part 6 of 6

Using the averages

An average is a starting point, not a valuation. A flat's price depends heavily on its lease length, and a house's on its condition and location. For a real figure, look at sold prices on the same street. Our guide to the property check before buying covers the checks, and the sold prices tool shows recent sales.

This page is general information, not advice.

Our take

Compare like with like when you read an average

In August 2026 the UK average was £443,846 for a detached home and £194,148 for a flat, so the type you choose changes the price more than most people expect. Bungalows are not recorded separately. We think an average by type is useful context, but it is no substitute for sales of similar homes close to the one you are looking at.

Our free sold prices tool shows real HM Land Registry transactions for any postcode, so you can filter your search to the same type of home on the same streets and see what they actually sold for.

Search sold prices

Our opinion, drawn from the facts on this page: not advice and not a forecast. We earn from OfferCheck reports and from introducing sellers to cash buyers, so weigh it with that in mind (see our disclosure). We are not authorised or regulated by the FCA.

Questions, answered

Frequently asked questions

What are the types of houses in the UK?

Detached, semi-detached and terraced houses are the main types, plus flats and maisonettes. HM Land Registry records these four groups and an other category, and does not separately identify bungalows.

What is a maisonette?

A self-contained home within a larger building, usually over two floors, with its own entrance that opens directly outside. Check whether it is leasehold or freehold before you offer.

What is the difference between a flat and an apartment?

We found no official difference. HM Land Registry groups flats and maisonettes together, and apartment is generally an agent's word for a flat. The title and lease matter more than the label.

Which type of property is cheapest?

Across the UK in August 2026 a flat, at an average £194,148, against £443,846 for a detached home. In Northern Ireland the average terraced home was slightly cheaper than the average flat.

What is the average price of a bungalow?

There is no official figure. GOV.UK says HM Land Registry does not separately identify bungalows, so the averages for detached, semi-detached and terraced homes include them.

Where this comes from

Sources

Last reviewed 4 November 2026 by the Your Property Check team. This page is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. For your own situation, speak to a conveyancing solicitor or another qualified professional.