What is cottage housing?

by Brian Huie on 7/16/2024

“Cottage housing” refers to a type of multi-unit development, not an architectural style.

Although the term cottage probably elicits a certain image in your mind of a charming small, older home. Today, it is more often used to describe a type of development in which several individual homes share some common areas. On the Eastside, this is becoming a more popular concept in a market that is out pricing more traditional single family home buyers.

In the Seattle market this most often occurs when a developer wants to build additional homes on a property that already has one home. They may build a few additional homes, and setup the yard in such a way that each of the homes will share the space in common. This concept of building encourages a sense of community and affordability. Some proponents of this home model also find this to be a more sustainable way to move the industry of home building into the future.