What is an ensuite?

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An ensuite is a bathroom that opens directly off a bedroom and serves only that bedroom. There is no access from a hallway. The word comes from the French *en suite*, meaning in sequence, and in Australian real estate it almost always refers to the main bedroom's private bathroom.

What makes it an ensuite rather than a second bathroom

The single door. If a bathroom is also reachable from a corridor, it is a shared or Jack and Jill bathroom, not an ensuite. Agents stretch the term, so check the floor plan.

How much space it needs

A workable ensuite with a shower, toilet and single vanity starts around 3.5 square metres. Add a double vanity or a bath and you are closer to 6. Below roughly 3 square metres the door swings and clearances stop working, and the room feels like an afterthought because it was one.

The detail most people miss

Ventilation and acoustics. An ensuite shares a wall with the room you sleep in, so the extraction fan and the cistern are worth specifying properly. Quiet fittings cost a little more once and are noticed every night.

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