This paper addresses the experience of soft densification of areas of single-family homes. Even if the soft densification does not radically transform the morphology of the neighbourhood, it is often contested by the neighbours who experience it as a loss of quality of life. Building on a case study in France and in Germany, the paper shows that soft densification processes can take different forms, depending on the legal framework and the local socio-economic dynamic. It analyses different forms of negative experiences of the densification and makes suggestions on how they could be tackled by planning policies that consider densification not only as an individual concern but as a matter of neighbourhood development.