Explain the difference to me please

Just to add confusion to the definitions - bungalows in India where word originated were not necessarily single storey!

Blasted predictive text - it doesn't pay any attention to what you type
Elegran; it assumes that you are paying attention to what you type! I always re-read my posts and that works for me!

The difference between a cottage and a bungalow is ££££s

If you preface cottage by the word 'mews' those ££££s increase again

Firstly let me say I live in Australia
SueH49; Nothing to be ashamed of! So do I- Melbourne , in fact! My long-cherished memories of a "cottage", climbing roses, wisteria etc all over the front, thatched roof no matter which hemisphere it's sited in have taken a bit of a battering reading through some of these replies.
If you could please give us a run down on a "Queenslander", OoRoo

Sussexborn I bet you wish you hadn’t asked now SueH? Very confusing with regional differences. More so than I realised.

You may be right. LOL. I'm not sure I'm much wiser although the consensus does seem to be that a Bungalow is a single story building so at least I've worked that one out. - I think!!

Thanks to everyone for their replies I find them all interesting.

I've just returned from my first trip to Australia. I saw many bungalows near Melbourne, when a friend took me to St Kilda. That area resembles the Kent coastal town of my childhood, with its bungalows and 30's style architecture. It was quite a throw-back, which I hadn't expected!

What a lovely country Australia is, we've had a wonderful time.

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Rufus2 I certainly am not ashamed of living in Australia. In my opinion it's the best country in the world. I too am in Melbourne in the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges.

A Queenslander is a style of house seen in Queensland. It is a single detached house made of timber with a corrugated iron roof located on a separate block of land. They are all high-set, single-storey dwellings with a characteristic veranda that extends around the house to varying extents but never entirely surrounds it. Being built so there is space underneath helps with the cooling of the houses as it allows air flow. The wide verandah sheltered the house from torrential downpours which were frequent and allowed for indoor/outdoor living.

I think all sorts of properties are referred to as cottages by estate agents, because it sounds good.
In actual fact, could be anything from a twee thatched country dwelling with roses round the door and wisteria on the wall, a rather grand country estate type property, or a newly built town house.
Can mean a bit more on the asking price.

I certainly am not ashamed of living in Australia. In my opinion it's the best country in the world
Sue; Fully agree! Hope my comment came across as intended, i.e. tongue in cheek!
Sometimes remarks get lost in translation over the "cybernet", but I'm sure your Aussie humour will let me off the hook?
Fancy that; we're in the same time-zone and barely 10km apart as I'm in Glen Waverley, the "posh" side of Mel.! ; in what the estate agents describe as a "Colonial-style" bungalow, just to confuse the terminology!

Are you a born and bred Aussie? I'm a hybrid; born several years ago (Mancunian) and the second half Melburnian.
Now that we've been introduced, courtesy of GN we'll be able to hold our own "meet-up"; how about The Cuckoo or Mt. Dandenong restaurant, (my shout!) for a delicious Devonshire tea, preferably before the European wasps emerge from hibernation?
There's a thought! With Brexit on the horizon will they become "British" wasps? Whatever, they'll still be damned pests!
Anyway, nice to "talk" to you Sue
Good Health OoRoo

Here in Canada, by comparison, a detached house is a single-family dwelling and a semi-detached is called a duplex. Terraced houses are commonly known as town houses. Generally, duplexes and town houses are considered to be more "starter houses" and are sometimes considered to be lower-cost housing. Some of them are set up similar to how I understand council housing to work in the UK (here we call it affordable housing). Housing costs are MUCH lower in Canada.

A bungalow here is a house that has only one storey above ground, though it may also have a basement. We live in a bungalow with a basement. The term "cottage" or "cabin" is usually used to refer to a vacation home. For example, one might own a cabin or cottage in the town site of a national or larger provincial park.

Thank you Agnurse for letting me know what a duplex is.
I had always thought that it was some kind of flat.

Another thank you for the definition of 'duplex' . That one always puzzled me , I thought it was a maisonette!

Rufus, yes I am born and bred Aussie - 4th generation actually and not a convict in "my pedigree".

I'm having a total hip replacement in a couple of weeks so will be confined to quarters so to speak for a while.

Traditionally IMHE a cottage was mainly a country dwelling of the type which is often portrayed on biscuit tins and chocolate boxes, not always thatched - a pretty but humble little house with roses by the door and hollyhocks by the gate.In reality it was probably not much more than a hovel.

Nowadays the word cottage has changed a bit in its meaning - a small terrace in a town is now sometimes called a cottage.

A bungalow is a single floor dwelling but sometimes a 'chalet bungalow' has had the attic space turned into a bedroom which turns it into two floors. It's still referred to as a bungalow as that was the original intention.

I always thought a duplex was a flat or apartment with two levels

SueH49, as I said before, I've just returned (three days ago!) from Australia and I loved the type of houses you have in your photo. I was also interested to see that lots of older homes have little plaques on the front or by the gate, explaining their provenance. I was reading one of them when the owner came out to water her garden and we had a lovely chat. She did say that while the houses are lovely, there's always something falling off or breaking or requiring other attention and that there isn't a straight line in the place, when it comes to decorating!

Cottages tended to be thatched in areas with a lot of reeds eg Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. In areas where slate is plentiful you don't see thatched rooofs. My MiLs cottage was originally thatched but the thatch was replaced sometime in the early 20th century, long before she moved in. There are still one or two thatched roofs in the same area but they suffer from a lack of people skilled in thatching and so more expensive. The whole thing needs to be replaced every forty or so years but the roof ridge about every seven years or so. Also more prone to fires.

Oh and on the subject of houses what we call the ground floor is the first floor in the US and what is the first floor in the UK is the second floor in the US which can lead to confusion. Does Australia follow the UK or US storey-naming convention?.

I suspect we follow the UK convention. Although probably more likely to say upstairs or downstairs.

I think that single story homes are more common here than in the UK although as our blocks of land have become smaller the number of double story homes have increased. Personally I would never live in a double story house as I hate steps but to many they are a status symbol - the McMansion reigns supreme is some areas.

The standard block of land in the outer suburbs was 1/4 acre
(1000 sq metres) up to about 20 years ago but that has now dropped to about 600 square meters or less so people build up instead of out.

A bungalow has no stairs so all on one level. Often older people prefer these as allows them to still access all rooms. A cottage is usually an older residence with two floors and often but not always smaller rooms and traditionally found in rural locations.

I wonder if single storey homes are more common in Australia because most people live in coastal areas? I tend to associate bungalows with the seaside in the UK. This might be because older people often retire to the coast in the UK tand don't want stairs, but that's a guess not based on any hard information.

Cottages can and very often do have 2 floors. The staircase is very, very narrow and sometimes curved. They are usually made of stone.

the McMansion reigns supreme is some areas.
Like Glen Waverley, Sue! We have several good private schools which draw many of their students from so-called zones in which house prices have sky-rocketed due to serious bidders at auctions, mainly from Asian families who need a home address in a zone. They prize the so-called "good" education for their off-spring. As you know, a 50 year old "bungalow" on that standard block can sell for around $2m, be knocked over and replaced by a 2-storey M'cmansion, built from fence to fence, no garden to speak of! Retired owners pocket the cash, head North to Queensland and move into retirement villages or buy a "Queenslander" if they can afford it!

Sorry about your dodgy hips; you'll need sturdy ones if you wish a "meet-up" on Mt. Dandy so all good wishes for a complication-free procedure. I can loan you a couple of crutches, relics from my dual TKRs some years ago. OoRoo

Easy to confuse. Both could have a similar description.

Photo of our cottage - built in 1880s. Photo taken a few years ago before I attacked the garden around it.. It has a vaulted ceiling. Small living area. Mezzanine level for tiny bedroom -that's the dormer window.

I moved from from living in a brick bungalow built in 1960s.. Bungalows are always single storey but some have made use of the roof space. You find absolutely them anywhere. I lived in a town in the middle of the UK.

Should have read my posting.

Errors - errors - must use PREVIEW in future but that's no guarantee I'll spot the slip-ups.