Hi, need some advice here... when I put in the various search engines that I am searching for a single family house... I would expect I get... well detached houses. Instead I can get everything from a detached, semi-detached, row house, and an apartment.

Why is this so difficult? Is it because Single houses are so rare that for advertisings sake the definition can be stretched? Or is single family house just anything which is not technically shared with another family?

Thanks!

It means a house for one family .. so I would expect it to throw up terraced, semis and detached houses but not appartments when used in a search engine.

It is quite common in CH for houses to be for more than one generation/family .. hence the description of "single family house" as it generally means there will be no Granny annex etc.

Real estate agents and marketing-speak are the same the world over; never believe a word they say or write.

My favorite term is 'freistehende Einfamilienhaus, einseitigangebaut'.



(Free-standing single family home, connect to another home on one side.)


Bottom line, read the ad, subtract the creative language, divide by 2 - and veryify for yourself what the property actually is. Or isn't.

Good luck with your search.

Single family homes are so scare in Geneva that your search results will give you like 4 homes. People who do this know that you'll only have a few results so they want their property in that short list.

It's not really because a "single family home" is anything different. It's just some are purposely using a deceptive description to get their ad in front of those most likely to be searching for a "single family home" specifically, ie. expats.

in the US a SFH would include detached, semi-detached, duplexes and townhouses. It would never include condos or apartments. That's just nonsense.

Thanks --- I thought I was a bit losing my mind, because everything and anything comes up under 'single house'.

If you conduct your searches (with Homegate.ch for example), sort by most expensive first. That should bring the truly detached houses to the top of the list.

Fixed that etc etc

isn't that the same thing?

Especially if you select Wollerau as the location.


But then people who live there are more educated.

I am Swiss and for me a single family house is a free standing house (i.e. you can walk around it and never leave your yard) for one family, too

Not necessarily

To me, a "single family house" is anything which isn't an appartment or an appartment block.

Nor a boat nor a trailer.

As usual in CH- it just depends... but in this case not on the K/Canton!
If there is plenty of land around, a single family house means a detached house with a bit, or lots as around here, land around it. As soon as you move nearer to Geneva, Zurich or some lake or other - the meaning changes to the 'anything which is not a flat' version.

The 'highest price' does not apply here either. You can buy a massive house with some land here, for much less than the price of a concrete attached box in the above named locations. You takes your choice...

In Geneva they get even more creative. To me a Villa is free standing detached (not sharing walls with neighbour). However, when you look at them they are jumelle's (two connected houses).

They do everything to get people interested these days, as I mentioned in another post the market is stagnating completely here. Houses for sale 6 months ago are still there en masse.