Townhomes for Rent in Alexandria, VA: What to Know Before You Sign

If you are searching for a townhome to rent in Alexandria, the hardest part is not price — it is supply. Most rental townhomes in the city are individually owned condos and houses listed one at a time by private landlords, which means no leasing office, no maintenance team and lease terms that change from listing to listing. Townhome floor plans inside a professionally managed apartment community are genuinely uncommon. At Foxchase of Alexandria in Seminary Hill, two of the three two-bedroom plans are townhomes, which is an unusual ratio and the reason the property is worth a look if this is your search. It is also a small number, so availability is thin.

What a rental townhome actually is

A townhome is a multi-level home that shares side walls with its neighbours but nothing above or below. In practice that produces four differences you will feel every day.

Your own front door. You enter from outside rather than from a shared interior corridor. There is no lobby, no central hallway and no waiting at a lift with your groceries.

Vertical living. Your space is stacked across floors rather than spread across one. Bedrooms upstairs, living space downstairs is the typical arrangement, and it gives you a genuine separation between where you sleep and where you host.

No one overhead. The single most common apartment complaint — footsteps above you — structurally does not apply. You still share side walls, so this is not silence, but the noise you do get comes from beside you rather than on top of you.

More square footage per bedroom. Townhome plans tend to run larger than flat plans with the same bedroom count, because the stair footprint comes with extra floor area rather than replacing it.

Why rental townhomes are hard to find in managed Alexandria communities

Townhomes are expensive to build per unit. A developer gets far more homes onto the same parcel by stacking flats, so purpose-built rental communities overwhelmingly contain flats. The townhomes that do exist in a rental community are usually a small legacy portion of a larger property rather than the main product.

That is why most of what surfaces when you search for a rental townhome here is for-sale housing stock being rented out individually. Someone bought a townhome, moved, and now lets it. The home is real, but everything wrapped around it — who fixes the boiler, how the lease renews, what happens to your deposit — is improvised per landlord rather than standardised.

Private landlord or leasing office: the difference that actually bites

This is the part renters underestimate, and it matters more than a hundred dollars of rent either way.

Maintenance. A managed community has staff and a ticketing process. A private landlord may be excellent, or may be one person with a day job and a plumber they sometimes reach. When your heating fails in January, the difference is not theoretical.

Lease terms and renewals. Managed communities run standardised leases and a published renewal process. A private landlord can decide to sell, move back in, or simply not renew, and you find out when you find out.

Deposits. Both are bound by Virginia law, but a managed operator has a documented move-out inspection process and a repeatable standard for what counts as wear and tear. Recovering a deposit from an individual owner more often turns into a negotiation.

Amenities. A private townhome rental comes with whatever the house has. A managed community comes with whatever the community has, which is usually considerably more.

None of this makes private landlords a bad choice. Plenty are better than plenty of leasing offices. But you are choosing a management model as much as a home, and the search results will not tell you which one you are looking at.

Where Foxchase fits in this picture

Foxchase of Alexandria sits at 766 N Howard Street in Seminary Hill. As verified against the property's live floor-plan feed on 1 October 2026, the community publishes seven floor plans: four one-bedrooms and three two-bedrooms.

Two of those three two-bedroom plans are townhomes. The Gadsby Townhome Premier is 1,180 square feet with two bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. The Jefferson Townhome Premier is 1,050 square feet with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The third two-bedroom plan, The Gadsby, is also 1,180 square feet but is not designated a townhome in the feed, so we do not describe it as one.

Two of three is a high proportion by the standards of this category, and it is the specific thing that makes the property relevant to this search. Be clear-eyed about the other side of that number, though: two plans is a small inventory. These are not units sitting empty waiting for you.

One more point worth understanding before you compare listings. At Foxchase, Premier denotes a renovation and finish level, not extra space. You can see this plainly in the one-bedrooms, where The Lee and The Lee Premier are both 580 square feet and The Washington and The Washington Premier are both 460 square feet. Identical footprints, different finishes. So when you see Premier on a townhome plan, read it as the interior specification, not as a bigger home.

What the two townhome plans cost, in bands

Rents here are repriced frequently, so the useful thing to publish is the shape of the pricing rather than a number that will be stale by the time you read it. All of the following was checked on 1 October 2026.

The townhome plans start in the low-$2,400s and run into the upper-$2,400s. The non-townhome two-bedroom sits in the mid-$2,300s. One-bedrooms start in the high-$1,400s and top out in the upper-$1,600s, which means the townhome plans run roughly $700 to $800 above the top one-bedroom.

For outside context, RentCafe's Alexandria market-trends page, accessed 1 October 2026, put the citywide average for a two-bedroom apartment at $2,455 per month. That is a third-party figure for flats across the whole city, not a like-for-like townhome comparison, but it tells you the townhome plans here are priced around the general two-bedroom market rather than at a steep premium to it.

Confirm the current figure before you plan around it — Explore floor plans and pricing at Foxchase for what is live today.

On the rest of the cost picture: as checked on 10 September 2026, the published recurring fee schedule lists no additional recurring fees. Utilities are billed separately by usage, and deposits and one-time charges are quoted individually by the leasing office. Ask for those in writing before you sign, as you should anywhere.

The stairs question, and who should skip a townhome

A townhome means stairs. Every day, several times a day, including with shopping, laundry and anything you ever buy that is heavy.

For a lot of renters that is a non-issue or even a positive. For others it is a genuine disqualifier, and it is worth being honest about who.

A townhome is probably the wrong choice if you have a mobility limitation or anticipate one during the lease; if you are moving a piano, a treadmill or anything else that has to go up a staircase; if you want a single-level home you can cross without thinking; or if you simply do not want to carry groceries up a flight after work. If any of that describes you, the one-bedroom flats here start in the high-$1,400s as of 1 October 2026 and will serve you better than a townhome will.

Two more honest limits. There is no three-bedroom inventory at this community in any format, so if you need three bedrooms this is not your property. And the townhome plans are two-bedroom only, so a townhome here is not a route to more bedrooms — it is a route to more space and a different kind of living.

What is inside the home and what the community adds

Homes include an in-home washer and dryer, quartz countertops, designer cabinetry and stainless steel appliances. The in-home laundry matters more in a multi-level home than it does in a flat, because the alternative is carrying baskets down stairs and across a car park.

The community side covers a resort-style pool, a 24-hour fitness centre, a tennis court, a playground, a secure on-site dog park, a study lounge and a conference room. Wi-Fi is available in common areas, and there is a discounted Xfinity offer available to residents — that is an offer you can take up, not a service bundled into your rent, and you should price it as a separate line.

The study lounge and conference room are a quietly useful pairing with a townhome. If you work from home, you have a multi-level home for separation and a bookable room downstairs for the call you cannot take from your kitchen. See all amenities at Foxchase for the full list.

Getting around from Seminary Hill

Seminary Hill is interior Alexandria rather than waterfront, which is a large part of why the pricing works.

Van Dorn Street Metro is roughly 8 minutes away and King Street-Old Town Metro roughly 9, with direct bus service to Metro available. Mark Center is about 6 minutes and the Pentagon about 12. Inova Alexandria Hospital is around 3 minutes, which is worth knowing if you work there. For everyday errands, Harris Teeter and the Shoppes of Foxchase are both about 3 minutes, and Taney Avenue Park is roughly 6 minutes on foot.

Two Metro stations on different lines inside ten minutes is a meaningful hedge if your job location might change during your lease.

Timing a townhome search when supply is thin

With two townhome plans in the community, availability is a timing problem rather than a choosing problem. The realistic approach is to treat it the way you would any scarce inventory.

Start earlier than feels necessary. Sixty days out, not thirty. A townhome that comes available and goes in a week will not wait for you to be ready.

Ask to be told, rather than checking. Leasing offices keep interest lists. Being on one for a specific plan is worth more than refreshing a listings page.

Know your second choice in advance. Decide now whether a 1,180 square foot flat or a one-bedroom at a lower band is acceptable if no townhome opens in your window, because deciding that under time pressure goes badly.

See it in person. Stairs, light, how sound carries through a shared side wall — these are things you learn in ten minutes on site and cannot learn from a floor plan. Schedule a tour at Foxchase and walk one.

Floor plan names, bedroom and bathroom counts, square footage and rent bands were verified against the Foxchase of Alexandria property feed on 1 October 2026. The recurring fee schedule was checked on 10 September 2026. The citywide two-bedroom average is from RentCafe's Alexandria market-trends page, accessed 1 October 2026. Rents at this community are repriced frequently and the bands above will move — confirm current pricing, availability and any deposits or one-time charges directly with the leasing office before making a decision.

Frequently asked questions

How many townhome floor plans does Foxchase have?

Two, as verified against the live floor-plan feed on 1 October 2026: The Gadsby Townhome Premier at 1,180 square feet and The Jefferson Townhome Premier at 1,050 square feet. Both are two-bedroom.

What is the difference between a townhome and an apartment when you are renting?

A townhome has its own exterior entrance, spans multiple floors and has no one living above or below you, though it shares side walls. An apartment is on a single level, usually entered from a shared interior corridor, and typically has neighbours overhead.

Why are rental townhomes so rare in Alexandria?

Townhomes use land less efficiently than stacked flats, so purpose-built rental communities are overwhelmingly flats. Most townhomes available to rent in the city are individually owned homes let out one at a time by private landlords rather than managed properties.

Does a townhome at Foxchase have more square footage than an apartment there?

Yes. The townhome plans are 1,050 and 1,180 square feet, against one-bedrooms that run from 460 to 580 square feet, per the feed checked 1 October 2026.

Does Premier mean a larger home?

No. Premier is a renovation and finish level. The clearest proof is in the one-bedrooms, where The Lee and The Lee Premier are both 580 square feet and The Washington and The Washington Premier are both 460 square feet.

How much do the townhomes cost?

As of 1 October 2026, they start in the low-$2,400s and run into the upper-$2,400s — roughly $700 to $800 above the top one-bedroom. Rents are repriced frequently, so confirm the current figure with the leasing office.

Are there three-bedroom townhomes available?

No. The community publishes no three-bedroom inventory in any format. The townhome plans are two-bedroom only.

Is internet included in the rent?

No. Wi-Fi is available in common areas, and a discounted Xfinity offer is available to residents, but that is an offer residents can take up rather than a service included in rent.

What are the recurring fees on top of rent?

As checked on 10 September 2026, the published recurring fee schedule lists no additional recurring fees. Utilities are billed separately by usage, and deposits and one-time charges are quoted individually by the leasing office — ask for those in writing.

How far is the nearest Metro station?

Van Dorn Street Metro is roughly 8 minutes away and King Street-Old Town Metro roughly 9, with direct bus service to Metro also available.