To rent; House or Apartment?

Azureus

I'm living in a 3bed semi with the boyfriend at the moment and really like it but as my lease is up soon, I'm debating whether or not to move. We were thinking of moving into an apartment because it'd be a bit cheaper, but I cant make up my mind whether we would suit apartment living.
The pluses for me are;
They tend to be very clean and modern
Cheaper rent and possibly bills

But then I think of the negatives;
No BBQs
No parties (including playing kinect etc-cant imagine people below would be happy with the jumping)

Im sure there are loads more pros and cons so can anybody give me some advice/personal experience of which is better for them? We are a young couple who like a bit of space.

All opinions welcome!

number10a

The last place I lived in was an apartment. The building was very well built, no paper walls between apartments like, they were concrete. But even still with all the noise, I just decided I'd never live in an apartment in Ireland ever again. Most of this noise was normal, some of it did come from parties and loud music, but most of it came from people going about their everyday lives in their homes (watching telly, radio, exercising - at least I think it was excercising). People in Ireland just aren't used to living in apartments compared to people from other countries where it's been the norm for years, so generally we have no concept of what is an acceptable noise level in an apartment. If you're living in a block, you have an apartment over you, under you, across the hall from you, next door (on the left and right). So with five potential noisy neighbours, chances are one of them will get on your tits.

Obviously, noise got to me. :pac::pac: But there are other little things that will annoy you too when you compare it to living in a house:

- Going out to the bins can be a five mins walk
- Just getting something out of the car takes a lot longer than you think
- When you're having a duvet day, you have to go out to get the post. it doesn't come to you. :mad:
- Just try hauling your groceries from the car through all those extra doors, up the stairs/into the lift etc. Sounds like something really small, but really annoyed the shìt outta me. In a house you open the front door, maybe you need to open the kitchen door too. Done. In my apartment block, I had to go through three doors (which all had to be pulled, not pushed), then the lift, then three more doors to get to the kitchen. Not fun when you have 15kg of shopping in your hands. Also, you'll end up cutting the hands off yourself trying to carry all those bags in one trip so you don't have to go down to the car again.
- Fire alarms!!! Apartment blocks have the fùcking things!! HATE THEM!! :mad::mad: They go off at all hours, and you have to stand out in the freezing cold waiting for the fire brigade to tell you there's no fire. And then the one time one of the neighbours had a fire in her bedroom, it didn't go off at all.
- They're not that much cheaper than a house really. They are easier to heat. But that's about it. In Cork anyway, an apartment and a house are usually around the same price, just depends on the number of bedrooms and where it is. My two-bed apartment was €800/month, and that was cheap for the area. A three-bed house in the same area could be around €850/€900. So house wins really.

Whoa! Needed that rant. In a sentence: I would recommend living in a house rather than an apartment.

murphym7

Totally agree with the above poster ^^^

I’ve lived in rented houses and rented apartments, I would never ever go back to an apartment again. Bin’s, noise, distance from car, loads of strangers everywhere, noise again and don’t forget about the storage. Box room in house used for storage, also had the use of attics. Storage in apartments has always been an issue for me. And don’t forget about the Sky TV issue. You may or may not be able to get SKY, that for me is a biggy too.

mikemac

Go for the house!
And get your haggling skills out and get the best deal you can.

Lots of issues with apartments.
If have a motorbike, you might not be able to park it where you see it. If you have a bicycle and don't have a front door outside you have to wheel it through corridors and listen to moaning from the management company about marking the walls

Might be issues over TV.
Definitly issues over storage.

If the people above have a fondness for walking on high heels on wooden floors, life can be hell
But then if you get up early for shift work you could be unintentionally wakeing up people around you and then they complain.
Lots of blocks have post thieves, scum

Get the house OP

magneticimpulse

Agreed with all of the above. Worse case was druggie guy moved in to flat next door and was having parties every night of the week. Because my appartment block can only be rented, he got kicked out. However I think where I live is very strict...not many places would bother.

Also kids lived downstairs and could hear running back and forward most nights a 4am. Either that or someone decided to train for a marathon in their appartment. Didnt mind one night...but night after night.

People smoking in their appartments...goes into the communal hallway and then into your place. Even if they smoke out the window...the smoke still gets blown into your place.

I really miss a garden in summer.

Noisey couples banging away each night from all directions. I mean you get used to it. But one place where my ex boyfriend lived, you could hear all the moaning and groaning from the couple upstairs. (now i live on the top floor and too be honest i dont get much noise...but still hear those sounds). I mean i know its "normal" but I rather not have to listen to couples at it every night.

Also some people have pets and thats just as bad...with dogs barking. Doesnt matter if your not allowed pets, people are still silly enough to keep animals locked up in a flat.

Or people playing musical instruments/mates having a band night/opera singers/piano....ive had all of these (this i dont mind ....but if the band play after 11pm it is annoying). We are talking practising...so lots of repetative scales/repeating.

I agree with the bins, shopping etc. Sometimes to lift breaks down and youve to carry shopping up at least 4 flights of stairs.

Also my place doesnt have a propper size kitchen. I cant cook because all the smells go into the bedroom. There are not enough windows to let the smells out of the kitchen...even if i have a fan extractor hood it doesnt work. No windows in bathroom...ie really bad for putting on makeup as natural light is better for that.

Again with the kitchen. I dont have a washing machine, we have to use the communal laudry room downstairs which is 2.50euro a wash and 50c for 10 mins on dryer. Both keep breaking down or are used by everyone else in the building. Drying clothes is a pain, they actually smell worse then before you washed them. Bedsheets/towels etc go mouldy if you dont have them aired correctly...difficult to do in appartment.

Coming home at night alone into the appartments bit scarey if someone follows you in...you dont know if they live in the appartments or not. Because most likely you dont know who your neighbours are.

I find there is more cleaning involved in an appartment, because you have limited space and storage and its gets messy very quickly. I find im constantly cleaning it compared to a house. In a house you have more wardrobe space etc, so clothes on your bedroom floor dont look so messy and easy to put them away. The rooms are more seperate. You can have a "clean" room for guests in a house...but in an appartment you have to make sure your kitchen and living room are always spotless as the guests have to come to your "living" space, as oppose to the "guest" front sitting room in a house.

Without a doubt....living in a house has about 50 million good reasons why to live in it compared to an appartment. Appartments should only be for students, who are out partying in pubs 90% of the time and just need somewhere to kip for the night.

queenm

Ok a lot of negative from previous apartment dwellers, I live in an apartment currently and don't find it that bad. I go to the bins in the morning on my way out so I'm going that way anyway, I've only once had a problem with noise and I've often had WII parties, I tell the lady who lives below me and ask that if she is disturbed by us to let me know but so far she never has. She says she never hears and noise from me, and I'm clumsy so drop things on the floor with alarming regularity. I used to hear kitchen chairs being pushed back from the table from the apartment above me, you can identify that sound immediately and kids running occasionally but rarely.

Yes, carrying shopping is a pain but I rarely have bags and bags and my place doesn't have a lift just stairs! I find my biggest problem is lack of space, it sounds silly but my Christmas tree lives in my spare room as I have nowhere else for it. I like baking and had to put in extra shelves just for my food processor and that. I have a washer drier and a clothes horse which I put on the bed in the spare room so it gets some natural light. I also invested in a Dri-buddi, basically a rotary clothes line with an industrial hairdryer on the bottom that you turn on and zip a cover over to dry a load of wahing.

I love that there is so little cleaning - so you think I'd do it a bit more often and find it a great place to live. Ultimately up to you but just so you have another opinion too...

Azureus

Thanks for all the opinions-raised a lot of stuff I wasnt even thinking of

I think storage would probably be the biggie for me; I'm not a hoarder but I do like my clothes and at the moment we have different rooms/wardrobes for our clothes etc, and then the spare room for junk/xmas decoration box etc. I suppose I just think its a little wasteful having a three bed house all to ourselves and imagined there' be a big drop in price for an apartment; but looking at daft theres only about €50p/m in the difference between a three bed house and a two bed apartment in my area!

I think I'd just like the place im in now to be a lil more modern. I love the location and the price isnt bad (I dont think? Is €970p/m bad??). But the carpet is dowdy and the kitchen is very old.. Kinda makes me want to move to a nice fresh modern apartment. But maybe a dodgy kitchen is worth it....

I dont really have parties just the odd social gathering as such, but even that in an apartment would be inconvinient to neighbours by the sounds of it. I also work shift work so wold be up and ungodly hours and wouldnt want to be inconsiderate to the neighbourinos.

echosound

I would take an old-fashioned house over a slightly more modern looking apartment any day of the week! especially when you say that there isn't much of a difference in price where you are looking, anyway. 50 quid extra for a whole spare bedroom, bigger rooms in general, and probably your own garden and driveway if you go for a house? No competition there in my mind.

I lived in flats/apartments before while living in Dublin, and swore never again to do so, for many of the reasons outlined in previous posts above.

Noise from even considerate neighbours, let alone the awful ones. People could be working different shifts to you, different days off, etc, so comings and goings 24/7, doors slamming, showers going, TVs blaring, parties at odd hours, kids playing/babies crying, couples rowing or riding, and constant noise from somewhere in the building with someone always knocking about doing stuff (can you tell I like my peace and quiet :P).

Smoking smells, cooking smells creeping into your space from others, via open windows/hallways etc. Nothing quite like the smell of a greasy deep-fat-fryer cooking away to perk up your nostrils! On the whole "smells" issue, many apartments will have bathrooms without any windows, just the extractor fans (depending on their layout), and I absolutely hated that you couldn't open a window to freshen the bathroom up after someone created a bit of a stink :pac:

Shared hallways. I don't like the idea that my one access route from my "domain" could be blocked by some lunatic wandering the halls (have had that before). With a house you at least have two doors/two escape routes:), and no shared stairwells that could be even slightly creepy late at night (especially if a lightbulb goes). One place I lived in, a TV came sailing down from the floor above as the couple living there were in the throes of a very dramatic row, and the damn thing shattered all over my tiny little outdoor area :rolleyes: (I had a tiny patch of concrete outside that was all mine as I had a basement flat facing into the courtyard, rather than out onto a street and the bloomin' TV shattered right outside my door, had to ring the maintainance guy to come clear it away so I could get my front door open). Nutcase neighbours can have far more of an impact on you in an apartment than they might do in a house on the same street as you!

Car-parking spaces faaar away from your front door (not for reasons of laziness - for reasons of being able to keep an eye out on it to make sure some little gurrier isn't scraping chunks out of it or breaking a window in it or something).

Walking your shopping/anything "new" in through front doors, halls, up stairs, etc. If you buy even something small like a new coffee table or a standard lamp, can you imagine lugging that up a few flights of stairs?

No chance of outdoor space for the summer, bar perhaps a small balcony, or some communal courtyard area which you probably won't be allowed use freely anyway. I couldn't imagine not having my own private teeny tiny patch of grass to sit out on. As it is, I have a pretty huge garden that could easily hold every single one of my family and friends all at once and a driveway that could cope with 10 cars before we began ran out of space. I could not cope with having to go to a park during the summer to get a bit of outdoor time, as I tend to spend most of the summer eating every meal sitting outside on our patio I also would hate to have to dry clothes all year round indoors.

Storage as you mentioned yourself. Even beyond the likes of clothes, xmas decorations, random junk etc.
I like to have decent storage space in a kitchen, plus room for a table and chairs for having friends over, and any apartment I have ever been in have kitchens that are on the small side at best (galley kitchens), and at worst, are basically a fridge, cooker and cupboard stuck against a wall in what is ostensibly your living room.

Can you tell I really didn't enjoy apartment living :P

RRoger

whoah, lots of anti-apts voices here.

I'm currently renting a house and thinking about moving into the apartment (like the OP) closer to work. I too hate the paper walls so it's been good few months since I started apt hunting as most of the ones I've seen were utter carp: the walls, the ceilings, floors etc. were way beyond the acceptable "thinness" I was used to when living abroad.
I do agree the apts in this country were a one big experiment - you shouldn't really be able to hear a fart next door which seems to be the case, so the night "exercise sessions" by various couples can sound like you were watching a blue channel inside on a loud speaker..

Anyways - so I then revised the concept and thought - what about the penthouses?? Sure they're more pricey and I'm not even looking at the Aloe Vera glass apts for 2k/mth.

Northwood in Santry seems to have penthouses in 1k-1.3k brackets - my mate used to live in there and I know the noise and security aren't a problem as the MGMT company is very strict (they clamp all strangers cars right up) also I've seen some apts there and the walls in between the apts were made of concrete (yay...)

Anyone have any experiences in living in those?? I'm interested if there were many fire alarms alerts and true noise levels hearable from the neighbors if you lived on the very top floor.

not concerned about the bin trips (as someone noticed just grab the bag on a way to work)

not worried about the mailbox trips (just grab your post on a way from work)

can live with carrying the shopping bags in two turns (say I do shopping once a month so the extra +10mins monthly ain't really a problem)

the truth about the storage space is the more room you have the more useless carp you keep, I have way more stuff than I need

I'm not fixated about having to check out if my car is still there, isn't is why we buy a car insurance..

no BBQs on the balconies a plus - you don't want a smoke getting into your lounge when you have opened window

I think there's less spiders since they can't climb that high?? (excuse me if I'm talking bollix on this one, I've always had a lot of back garden insects knocking my windows if can they drop in, they would always let themselves in if you leave windows open and refused to leave)

not to worried about the lunatics wandering around, I dont know, it's always been amusing rather than frighting me

jd

RRoger wrote: »

Northwood in Santry seems to have penthouses in 1k-1.3k brackets - my mate used to live in there and I know the noise and security aren't a problem as the MGMT company is very strict (they clamp all strangers cars right up) also I've seen some apts there and the walls in between the apts were made of concrete (yay...)

Anyone have any experiences in living in those?? I'm interested if there were many fire alarms alerts and true noise levels hearable from the neighbors if you lived on the very top floor.

If you are talking about Temple Gardens/Lawns/Court
Rarely hear anything. One fire alarm going off in 7 years. The reset key had disappeared from where it was kept, so it took a while to reset the alarm..
The owners have control of the management companies, which is a plus.The don't tolerate much messing, though you do get the occasional problem tenant (junkies/skangers etc)

hellyeah

to the op. i never lived in a apartment untill i bought mine 2 years ago ( big mistake). i live in a small developement (6 apartments) all with own entrance. everything was fine untill my neighbours moved in above me.
you can here them walking around all hours of the day and night.
this can be heard over the tv. at night to get a goodnights sleep you have to use earplugs. people slamming front doors is a pain.
dont understand this as i can close mine with out making a sound.
people flushing toilets in the middle of the night sounds like a waterfall coming down through my apartment. people above dropping things will
actually make you jump. can here people talking above aswell.
what can you do? tell your neighbours not to walk across there floor( think not). imo the quality of apartments and insulation in ireland is very poor. management fees suck €1250 per year.
if you value your peace and quiet plus your sanity rent a house.
if i wasnt in negative equity i would be gone in the morning.
as poster above said apartments are for students etc not for long term living.
i rented a room in a house for 4 years and can honestly say i never had one nights sleep disturbed in all that time. plus i miss having a garden and somewhere to sit out with privacy on a nice day.:D