2 narrow single-family houses vs. duplex - are there other options???

If you build the semi-detached house well, you will not hear anything from each other. That would be the only fundamental disturbance of privacy. Outside, you will notice no difference compared to two detached houses on the property – you live just as privately or separately in a semi-detached house as in two separate houses – the semi-detached house even offers the possibility that each has a little more garden.

I can only agree with the previous speakers. Build a semi-detached house. When houses are so close together, each 3m boundary distance, you always have the curtains etc. closed and hardly any sunlight comes in. Also for the carport planning e.g. you then have it more spacious because you don’t need the boundary distance on one side. On the other hand, there is more space on the other side.

Thank you very much for your replies!

: We want to have the plot divided before building. Exactly, with the word "terraced house" I was thinking of garage/house/garage/house. Access is definitely from Sportplatzstraße.

: I had already considered your argument about looking into the windows before my post. Of course, you are right that this would not necessarily be the optimal solution. My approach was just that with a single-family house you have your own four walls – and around it your own property.

: Yes, my sister can very well imagine a semi-detached house with me. In terms of width, my sister was thinking between 8 and 9 m.

: Unfortunately, I’m not an expert. I had googled and found that in villages the floor area ratio basically amounts to 0.6. Then that was probably incorrect information or I simply misunderstood it – I don’t want to rule that out. The plot is really great, especially since the garden can be nicely enclosed. To the west borders a bike path, right behind it is a very quiet dead-end street with a turning circle. You definitely have your peace there. The plot is between Freiburg and Karlsruhe, you really need a lot of luck to be able to buy such a plot at all. Do you need any more information?

and : Thank you – I fully understand your arguments.

Maybe I just didn’t want to face it – but it seems to me that a semi-detached house is the most sensible solution.

I always thought you could build a normal single-family house on about 550 m2, but our plot is too narrow for that.

Thanks again for your suggestions, I’m grateful for every post.

Best regards Daniel

@11ant: Unfortunately, I am not an expert. I googled and found that in villages the floor area ratio is generally 0.6. So that was probably wrong information or I simply misunderstood it - I don’t want to rule that out. [...] The property is between Freiburg and Karlsruhe, you really need a lot of luck to be able to buy such a property at all. Do you need any more information?

The marked building area - which, by the way, surprises me a lot - certainly never utilizes 60% of the plot area by far. Other information that is always helpful are the following: first, a cadastral excerpt that DOES NOT place the image cutout just behind your own fence, but includes two rows of neighboring plots; secondly, the development plan (in this forum not as a link, but for example "Posemuckel No. 234 Alte Gärten"). Thirdly, aerial photos are also good, or other photos as well. Scale-indicating details are helpful here (many people show gigapixel zooms of flaws in their door frames here, unfortunately without, for example, a folding rule or a disposable lighter in the picture to give an indication of the scale at which you are seeing the detail at all). So: never retouch shabby caravans out of property pictures!

: Thank you very much for your reply! :) The development plan is called "Am Rothweg", the first result on Google. Plot No. 1471, I have attached a picture with a larger radius.

I always thought that you could build a normal single-family house on about 550 m2, but our plot is too narrow for that.

Normal... what is normal? Back then, single-family houses were allowed to touch garages offset, so they would pass the development plan - you would never see that they are "semi-detached houses."

Divide the plot so that everyone gets roughly the same amount of the building envelope, and also the same quality in orientation, from east to west. Keep in mind that you can also make a boundary development to the north through a garage. If you live side by side, row house or semi-detached house, then that is the option with the least possibility of looking into each other's houses of all building options.