Does anyone have anything positive to say about apartments?

Mad_maxx

kaymin wrote: »

I've only ever lived in a house but my concern with apartments is the risk of being landed with a fat bill due to fire regulation deficiencies or other high costs due to an insufficient sinking fund.

It's a risk but houses cost much more in annual repairs compared to apartments, you might not need to spend anything for twenty years, apartments are much newer yet usually cheaper than old houses with outdated design

Hal3000

My only complaint about apartment living was having people above me. The noise of even people just walking around was awful. Avoid 1st floor unless you know they're well built. Ours was like a treehouse.

Sunrise_Sunset

I'm considering a duplex apartment myself. We are in a rented house now and even though there is a back garden, my kids never play in it, they always want to go out onto the shared green to play with the other kids. We are not very outdoorsy people, so they only thing I'd really miss about having a garden is having a proper washing line. The front "garden" here is basically just a driveway.
One thing I would definitely recommend with an apartment/duplex is to have a parking spot quite close to your door. In a previous place I lived, it was difficult carrying shopping bags from the car to the apartment, and it required a few trips back and forth. I found that annoying.

Birdsong

kaymin wrote:

I've only ever lived in a house but my concern with apartments is the risk of being landed with a fat bill due to fire regulation deficiencies or other high costs due to an insufficient sinking fund.

If you own the apartment you should be getting involved in the management committee, and at the very least going to the AGM.

As an owner there should be no surprise. A lot of people forget that they are stakeholders in the management of the complex, the management company effectively workfor the owners.

mvt

Actually the owners are the management company.
If more owners admitted that they know this but feel that someone else should do all the work then you would get to the bottom of the main issue with living in an apartment building in Ireland.

kaymin

Birdsong wrote: »

If you own the apartment you should be getting involved in the management committee, and at the very least going to the AGM.

As an owner there should be no surprise. A lot of people forget that they are stakeholders in the management of the complex, the management company effectively workfor the owners.

I don't disagree but it is not as simple as that. You will need to bring in specialists to identify deficiencies.

'It is after a study by property firm KPW which has revealed fire safety deficiencies at "almost all" apartment blocks it manages.

The firm believes similar safety problems could affect between 70% and 80% of apartments nationwide.'

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/property-firm-believes-there-are-fire-safety-deficiencies-in-70-of-apartments-910389.html

Elessar

I would be much warmer towards apartments myself if parking was better. I don't know if you drive OP, but if you do you would ideally want to be able to park right outside your front door. Many apartment complexes have shared 'communal' parking where literally anyone can park there and in most cases there are always far more cars than there are spaces. The last thing I would want after a hard days work is to come home and find no space to park anywhere. Or getting involved in parking wars with neighbours. Even with dedicated parking you cant guarantee someone won't take your space.

On top of that I drive a plug in electric vehicle, so I would absolutely need a private driveway to charge the car. Most cars are moving to electric so I often wonder how people in apartments will work that one out.

I love mine.. 2 storey building..... All are dual aspect and mine is corner so has windows on 3 sides. Gas heating, designated parking space outside the door, door shared with immediate neighbour, green area, well maintained, gated.

Wouldn't fancy the hotel style jobs with electric heating, long corridors & car hundreds of metres away etc etc

OleRodrigo

Apartment in the city center with no car or parking. We cycle and have a go-car subscription instead. Great lifestyle option if you don't have kids.

Cars are a PITA unless you really need one, IMO. A lot of savings in time and money without one. Probably less feasible outside of the city center though.

ScallionAyter

How will apartment blocks meet the need for electric vehicle charging? If you're the only one with an electric car, will the management company spend money installing a charging point just for you? will other owners agree to that? What'll be the cost of installing multiple charging points.

JustAThought

Have lived and rented in both over the years but when buying would come down to definately only considering a house in Ireland.

Management companies/agents in this country are not regulated and are a law onto themselves. They can walk away from managing your appartment or decline to renew a contract and there is little you can do about it. Often they are set up or run by the families of the builders or estate agents. They have a vested interest in protecting themselves and have their own interests at heart first. I would no more tie myself to them for the lifetume of a mortgagae that I would opt to have healthy teeth removed without anisthetic.

Sink funds for appartments. As the years go on and the newly built celtic tiger fast build low cost appartments get older their materials, lifts, infrastructure and exteriors will need more and more financial input. This comes or should come from a sink fund which is saved from the management fees and unvested over the years. Has your appartment got 150 or 200k saved for repairs? Or is it a scramble every year to collect basic fees for services like bins and communal cleaning. As the years go on this is going to be the next ticking bomb for basics -and it is those owning that will be left with the bill - the renters will just walk away and rent elsewhere.

Fire, safety and structural faults. We have already seen several expensive and high profile cases of appartmwnt owners left holding the can when their builders walked away or closed their cimpanies leaving appartment owners totally screwed - having to continue paying their mortgages and with appartments and appartment blocks that have been condemed and shut down and everyone moved out by the fire brigage. These people who owned these appartments still have to pay their banks but cannot live in their own condemned appartments.

Structural flaws. Pyrite, building regulations ignored, fire traps without compliant safety features installed as per regulations. Despite being signed off by the council inspectors and banks loaning on them, appartment owners are left with properties no bank will loan on as they are known to be problem appartments - some cannot get insurance - which means banks will not loan on them. Not only will you be left hilding the repair can but you also run the risk of it being unsellable in the future when you want -or need - to get out.

Block renting. Housing charities and block renting - you have no idea who you will be sharing your corridor at night with nor what you will be facing into. Might be nice,might not.

Criminals leaving prison are housed by the council - remember the outcry when Larry Murphy was released - and housed. How would you like your wife or teenage daughter coming home on a dark night in a stairwell with that - or sharing an enclosed lift. Apparently paedophiles are entitled to be protected and unlike in the uk or usa we as law abiding citizens have no rights to know or be able to protrct our families from the monsters who are put amongst us. Again - personally I like to know who is outside my sitting room door at night or who has access to my children and family in interior corridors where I live and where we think they will be safe.

Noise. Antisocial behaviour in other closeby corridors. Dirty people leaving leaking bins on stairwells or dragging them down along corridors. Who is responsible and how quickly are communal corridors cleaned and lights replaced,leaks fixed, etc

And as peoples families grow and they are unable to trade up or move to accomodate their growing families needs where are the prams,bikes, pushcars etc all stored and who cleans up after them on the carpets/corridors etc. Ditto managing noisy teenagers.

Smokers and vapers in communal areas and on the balcony next to or above or just below yours.

Students or whemever,cost saving and living far beyond the capacity of the 2 or 1 bed appartment. No regulation of the humdreds of appartmwnts with far too many people living in them and putting pressure on everyone around them.

Etc

House all the way. Its not perfect - but it mitigates much of the above. And you can always get your garden paved.

Roisin76

House living may be as bad as the above poster described if you buy in a dodgy estate. Good apartments are clean, safe and properly managed.
You can't generalize like that. Apartments are usually cheaper and smaller than houses, so having a fixed sum of cash to spend one can often buy an apartment in better location than a house. Comparing 300k apartment with 600k house in the same location is like comparing apples to oranges.

Roisin76

ScallionAyter wrote: »

How will apartment blocks meet the need for electric vehicle charging? If you're the only one with an electric car, will the management company spend money installing a charging point just for you? will other owners agree to that? What'll be the cost of installing multiple charging points.

EVs aren't really a practical option for apartment living at the moment.

Caranica

ScallionAyter wrote: »

How will apartment blocks meet the need for electric vehicle charging? If you're the only one with an electric car, will the management company spend money installing a charging point just for you? will other owners agree to that? What'll be the cost of installing multiple charging points.

It's a planning requirement for new builds but can't see them being installed retrospectively. In our development for example, parking is unallocated. Putting in charging points would effectively allocate spaces which is contrary to our leases with the management company.

Irish_rat

baby and crumble wrote: »

I hate - HATE - gardening and all the outside maintenance that comes with owning a house. It honestly sucks half the joy out of owning my own house. I know that might seem silly but it really, really does. When we bought I was high on having a great garden and everything but honest to God if you don't have kids to use it, or don't have a huge interest in maintaining a garden it very very quickly just becomes a pain in the arse. Likewise having to paint the outside walls, wash windows, clear gutters, mow the lawn... I hate it.

I agree and I bought a house! I spent a good chunk of money putting in artificial grass and a nice patio so that was one problem taking care of! It's actually not too bad when you take that massive maintenance issue out of the way.

One massive bonus I will say about apartment living is that you can live a private life whereas in an housing estate it's a different issue. Also the peace of mind that you don't need to constantly think of the place while you're away. Personally if I ever went back to apartment living I would pick the duplex type with my own front door over sharing common stairs and lifts.

pwurple

ScallionAyter wrote: »

How will apartment blocks meet the need for electric vehicle charging? If you're the only one with an electric car, will the management company spend money installing a charging point just for you? will other owners agree to that? What'll be the cost of installing multiple charging points.

Depends on the management company. I am on the board of a management company, and when requested, we get them fitted.

Sunrise_Sunset

Irish_rat wrote: »

I agree and I bought a house! I spent a good chunk of money putting in artificial grass and a nice patio so that was one problem taking care of! It's actually not too bad when you take that massive maintenance issue out of the way.

One massive bonus I will say about apartment living is that you can live a private life whereas in an housing estate it's a different issue. Also the peace of mind that you don't need to constantly think of the place while you're away. Personally if I ever went back to apartment living I would pick the duplex type with my own front door over sharing common stairs and lifts.

I agree. I'm looking to buy at the mo, and will seriously consider a duplex. The pros for me are no garden to maintain, a good price for a turn-key condition 3 bedroom property, own door, designated parking outside the front door. The major con for me is considering balcony safety as I have 2 young kids. A lot of people put up balcony fences for safety and privacy. I think I would still worry though, so I really need to think about that.

Buying house2020

Like anything in life, there are pros and cons, you have to weigh it up and conisder what you can live with and what suits your situation.

If you have your heart set on purchasing a property in Dublin then it might be the only option available to you with the budget you have in mind.

The management fees can be the real killer and can fluctuate greatly. Anti-social behaviour can be another issue.

It depends on the type of block that you buy in and the type of clientele living there. If there are a few bad eggs living there, it can bring down the overall place, even with the management company working to improve things, it can be an uphill struggle to turn around a block.

Caranica

Caranica wrote: »

It's a planning requirement for new builds but can't see them being installed retrospectively. In our development for example, parking is unallocated. Putting in charging points would effectively allocate spaces which is contrary to our leases with the management company.

Allocated parking can be arranged....no problem.

Caranica

Augeo wrote: »

Allocated parking can be arranged....no problem.

Would require an egm, tried and failed. The design of the car park makes it impossible to allocate parking fairly and so will fail again.

IAmTheReign

kaymin wrote: »

I've only ever lived in a house but my concern with apartments is the risk of being landed with a fat bill due to fire regulation deficiencies or other high costs due to an insufficient sinking fund.

But are you really anymore likely to get hit with a large maintenance bill in an apartment than with a house?

My parents recently had to get major work done on one of the walls of the house as it hadn't been properly damp proofed when an extension was done 20 years ago.

Unexpected costs happen, and if I was to guess I would say a house is likely to cost far more in both money and time in maintenance than an apartment.

Caranica

Caranica wrote: »

Would require an egm, tried and failed. The design of the car park makes it impossible to allocate parking fairly and so will fail again.

If residents require EV charging in sufficient numbers it will happen.
It's common sense.
Fair allocation of parking is a nice to have, EV charging might be a must have in years to come.
I say might as I reckon a one or two hour charge might do loads of folk for a week or so in the not too distant future

Gumbo

Caranica wrote: »

It's a planning requirement for new builds but can't see them being installed retrospectively. In our development for example, parking is unallocated. Putting in charging points would effectively allocate spaces which is contrary to our leases with the management company.

Its not about allocated charging spots. Its access to charging facilities for all spots. What we have designed in the past, is a charging point on the wall beside your spot and the cabling is ran back to the meter unit for your particular apartment.

So you get billed directly for your useage. There's also a lock on the charger to stop unauthorized use.

Caranica

kceire wrote: »

Its not about allocated charging spots. Its access to charging facilities for all spots. What we have designed in the past, is a charging point on the wall beside your spot and the cabling is ran back to the meter unit for your particular apartment.

So you get billed directly for your useage. There's also a lock on the charger to stop unauthorized use.

But we don't have allocated spots We also don't have walls at about 80% of our parking spaces

Caranica

Caranica wrote: »

But we don't have allocated spots We also don't have walls at about 80% of our parking spaces

Charging point doesn't have to go on a wall, it can go in the space, they can be quite compact and spaces are longer than most cars.
Spots can be allocated if required..........in your case it's not actually required so they aren't.