Lack of storage in apartment blocks

Shelga

I want to make an offer on an apartment I have viewed in Dublin. The only major hesitation that I have is that there is zero storage space. Why are so many apartments like this? My friend is a PM in construction and says it's because storage doesn't count towards an apartment's advertisable net internal area, so there's no advantage to a developer to provide it :rolleyes:

Lots of places have this issue though, so I don't want to write it off just yet. The living area is big and open so I could get some sort of floor-to-ceiling storage compartment put in I suppose.

The killer is having nowhere to put a bike though. The estate agent tried to tell me you can lock it to the railings in the carpark (which is still pretty sh*te) so I asked to go view the car park and sure enough, a huge sign saying "NO BICYCLES ALLOWED".

Has anyone found a way around these issues when buying an apartment? Ie joining the board of the management company and then lobbying successfully to use a portion of management fees to provide bike storage facilities?

You're usually not even allowed put your bike on the balcony, so what are people meant to do? I'd consider bike storage of equal, if not more importance, than a car parking space, for city living.

Caranica

How old is the development? Bike parking is usually part of the planning permission. We have bin sheds and bike sheds behind every block. Our apartments have decent storage too.

If the apartment doesn't suit your needs then I would suggest buying elsewhere rather than rely on getting changes made to common areas. If there was no demand for bike parking before, you're unlikely to be able to change that, in the short term at least.

This is an American article but gives good ideas for bike storage in small apartments

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-bike-racks-for-small-homes-and-apartments/

Gumbo

Shelga wrote: »

I want to make an offer on an apartment I have viewed in Dublin. The only major hesitation that I have is that there is zero storage space. Why are so many apartments like this? My friend is a PM in construction and says it's because storage doesn't count towards an apartment's advertisable net internal area, so there's no advantage to a developer to provide it :rolleyes:

Lots of places have this issue though, so I don't want to write it off just yet. The living area is big and open so I could get some sort of floor-to-ceiling storage compartment put in I suppose.

The killer is having nowhere to put a bike though. The estate agent tried to tell me you can lock it to the railings in the carpark (which is still pretty sh*te) so I asked to go view the car park and sure enough, a huge sign saying "NO BICYCLES ALLOWED".

Has anyone found a way around these issues when buying an apartment? Ie joining the board of the management company and then lobbying successfully to use a portion of management fees to provide bike storage facilities?

You're usually not even allowed put your bike on the balcony, so what are people meant to do? I'd consider bike storage of equal, if not more importance, than a car parking space, for city living.

Your PM friend is incorrect.

All modern apartments have minimum requirements as per the Development Plan standards. It’s based on the number of bed spaces / people etc.

Even new apartments come with dedicated storage units in the basement areas now a days.

Shelga

Gumbo wrote: »

Your PM friend is incorrect.

All modern apartments have minimum requirements as per the Development Plan standards. It’s based on the number of bed spaces / people etc.

Even new apartments come with dedicated storage units in the basement areas now a days.

Wasn't a requirement for bike storage only added in 2018 though? I appreciate the response but it's not much use to me. Most single buyers won't be able to purchase new-build apartments in Dublin. Surely there is more that can be done in terms of retrofitting.

I don't mean to just whinge, so I guess I will wait until a place comes up that has at least some storage.

Outkast_IRE

Its a shame , my brother lives in germany and most apartment blocks for the last 40-50 years have a basement storage locker for each apartment, great for keeping bikes, christmas tree etc.

spaceHopper

I rented an apartment build around 2007 that has good storage and bike racks in the car park.

Doop

Is the block city centre or further out?

Short of getting onto the board of management you could apply to the Council to install one of these near by
https://bikebunkers.ie/
@ €100 a year its not the cheapest but hopefully as they get more prevalent costs may become more reasonable.

I am in and out of various apartment development regularly all over Dublin as part of my day job and the lack of provision for bike parking is shocking, always an after thought, often a wheel lock stand thrown into a dark unsafe corner!

Shelga

Doop wrote: »

Is the block city centre or further out?

Short of getting onto the board of management you could apply to the Council to install one of these near by
https://bikebunkers.ie/
@ €100 a year its not the cheapest but hopefully as they get more prevalent costs may become more reasonable.

I am in and out of various apartment development regularly all over Dublin as part of my day job and the lack of provision for bike parking is shocking, always an after thought, often a wheel lock stand thrown into a dark unsafe corner!

Thanks for that, really useful. I came across that earlier and also thought they look ideal! The apartment is further out from the city centre which makes it even more annoying that they didn't account for these things- they had the space. Built in boom time I think.

I will think on it some more!