First Time Buyer - Appartment or Small House?

ShriekingSheet

Hi,

Looking for any general advice from anyone with experience in this area.

I'll soon be buying my first place, and I'm not sure whether to go with an appartment or some sort of house/dormer/terrace.

Relevent info: I have no kids. I'm big into music, guitar playing, music production etc. I would like to have the odd late party.

Is appartment living just not for me? I wouldn't be the type to move in somewhere and just wreck everyones head with music & parties. But those two things are half of what I'm looking forward to in having my own place.

Are there some appartments that are built well enough so you can do what you wanna do, when you wanna do it and not disturb all your neightbours? Or do I really have to look for somewhere at least semi-detached?

As I said, any views on this would be welcome.

listermint

Your looking for detached

. But realistically any small new builds in the last 10 years have deplorable sound proofing. this goes for both houses and apartments.

I think a house would suit you more, and you would most definitely need to have one room as a music room with sound proofing otherwise you will not make friends easily of your neighbours. It just invites hastle and you will only annoy the people around you.

Apartments I would steer clear of. both on the noise aspect and any resale value you hope to achieve.

ShriekingSheet

listermint wrote: »

Your looking for detached

. But realistically any small new builds in the last 10 years have deplorable sound proofing. this goes for both houses and apartments.

I think a house would suit you more, and you would most definitely need to have one room as a music room with sound proofing otherwise you will not make friends easily of your neighbours. It just invites hastle and you will only annoy the people around you.

Apartments I would steer clear of. both on the noise aspect and any resale value you hope to achieve.

Thanks for that. And good point on sound-proofing. The plan seems to be veering towards something semi-detached, with a room on the detached side with soundproofing for music.

odds_on

listermint wrote: »

Your looking for detached

. But realistically any small new builds in the last 10 years have deplorable sound proofing. this goes for both houses and apartments.

I think a house would suit you more, and you would most definitely need to have one room as a music room with sound proofing otherwise you will not make friends easily of your neighbours. It just invites hastle and you will only annoy the people around you.

Apartments I would steer clear of. both on the noise aspect and any resale value you hope to achieve.

I'm in the same position myself (though not my first property - just moving).

Apartment disadvantages are the service/maintenance charges which are already expensive and I can only see them going up and up - and over which you have very little control. Over several years, this expense mounts up; a charge of 2,000 over 5 years will be in excess of 10 grand in 5 years time with increases. Part of the problem (as I see it) is that some owner are in the richer category and are not too worried about the annual costs while other owners (or would be owners like me; retired and on a very small pension) are on a much tighter budget and have to consider the cost of increasing charges.

Small house with a small garden to me seems a better bet, no excessive maintenance charge and house insurance is not too expensive. I've seen a breakdown of an apartment service charge and their building insurance per apartment was nearly 1,000 euros.

Having said that, I seem to be leaning towards an apartment as I have cancer of the one marrow (Multiple Myeloma for which there is no cure) and at least in an apartment I should have neighbours close very at hand.

athtrasna

Research your developments, our fees have come down year on year. Houses in new developments pay fees too, especially in developments with a mix of houses and apartments.