A British couple who met on a dating website turned out to be neighbours who had lived only a few houses apart for 17 years, a local news report said.

Teacher Julie McIlroy began emailing electrician Allan Donnelly after seeing his picture on a dating website, an increasingly common way of meeting people with the rapid rise of broadband internet access.

It was only after several weeks of online contact that the 46-year-old phoned him - and realised they lived seven houses apart on the same street in the Welsh capital Cardiff.

"While we were chatting I said I'd just been to the shop. He said that was the shop he always went to," she told the South Wales Echo.

"When he told me he lived in (the same street), I thought it was a wind-up.

"I was stunned... He asked me over for a cup of tea, and that was that," she said, while Mr Donnelly, 53, added: "We've got the perfect compatibility. I'm a very lucky man."

The couple are now planning to marry.

- AFP