Duplex House Design

A duplex is a multi-family home that has two units in one building — regardless of how those homes are arranged. Units can be side-by-side or stacked on top of each other.

Duplex buildings also have two separate entrances for each unit. This means each tenant has their own entrance. An example of a duplex is a house with two doors side-by-side that enter into different living spaces in one home, one upstairs and one downstairs. These two separate units are typically similar in size.

There are other types of housing that have multiple homes within one building, like a triplex and fourplex. But the term duplex is reserved exclusively for multi-family housing with two homes.

Duplexes can also sometimes be confused with a twin home. Twin homes are basically half-homes on their own respective lot. A duplex is a property on one lot. You can have duplexes that have different owners, but they have a condo ownership interest, meaning there is shared lot ownership.