Buying a house or apartment? Pros and cons.

JackieChang

I'm leaning towards an apartment.

I do have a few conditions:

Not ground floor.

Has a balcony.

Minimum 2 rooms.

Secure private parking.

Not storage heating.

Not in a ghost town / waste land area. Needs a few pubs and shops around.

Note: I am a sole buyer with no kids.

Here are the pros:

Cheaper to heat if you're sandwiched between other apartments.

More secure. Harder to break into. Can head off on holidays and leave the windows open. Car less likely to get robbed if it's in secured parking, preferably underground.

Fewer things to maintain.

Cons:

Noisy neighbors.

Could have been thrown up in the celtic tiger by the hungover breakfast roll patrol (my friends were all tradesmen back in the day and the absolute state of some of them heading to the sites on a Monday lol. Still coming down off all sorts of drugs)

May not see the sun for the rest of your life depending on which way your apartment is facing.

Annoying rules, for example no hanging clothes outside.

I'm aware of management charges. Doesn't bother me, depending on what's included.

Current or ex-apartment dwellers - any other cons?

What are your thoughts?

ittakestwo

Think the main ones you said. Cons is noise. Pros is heat. Also major pro for apartments is they're cheaper. A major con would not having a private garden and service charge. Another con would usually not having natural light in bathrooms or kitchens but some do. Also no attic storage.

I live in what you would say is a hybrid between apartment and house. Official description is an apartment but it feels very much like a little house. Own front and back door. Fire place in sitting room and GFCH. As development is all own door with no eletric gates the service charge of €770 which includes building insurance and bins which is what a house would pay o recon. I would have preferred a little a house but ones the same size in area would be about 25% more expensive I would estimate. I am not as security conscious as you. Personally hate developments with big electric gates to front. That would put me off. Always think it looks prison like. A development you can just drive in park and go to your own door without the need of going through communal building space and lifts. Development i am in is 20 years old and asked a neighbour who was here since the beginning and she remembers hearing of no break ins. I think break ins are less common these days as a crime.

Btw I am also single. I think apartments for single people in good locations are no brainers.

Faith

At the end of the day, the main thing that matters is that you buy a place that you can afford, and that you’d be happy to live in in 10 years if the market crashes and you end up in negative equity/can’t sell.

Once those criteria are met, then you can think more about more superficial things like heating costs and security of parking. If you’re happy to live in an apartment long term, then it sounds like it might suit your needs.

Del2005

Under ground car parks are not secure. The thieves or vandals can be working away with little chance of being interrupted or seen.

Another issue with under ground parking is they increase the management fee as they need pumps for flooding and electric gates, maintenance and running costs aren't cheap for these.

notAMember

In an apartment, not owning the "shell" of the building can be a pro or a con, depending.

It's handy and a lot cheaper not having to maintain the outside of a place. It's an absolute pain not being ABLE to maintain the outside of a place when it badly needs it and the management co don't do it.

Neighbours being noisy isn't the worst problem you can have. Ceiling came down once in an apartment I have, from a neighbour's leak upstairs. But dodgy neighbours are something you can have in houses too. You just have more of them usually in apartments.

Depending on your personality, or where you lived before, and the place you find, apartments can sometimes be characterless or a little bit too easy to maintain! Probably sounds mad, but I found living in a newish apartment kinda boring after being in an old ramshackle place for my childhood. I like having a few DIY / repair things to tick away on. Twas the opposite when I lived out of ireland though, european apartments can be ancient, loads of quirks and I loved it.

JackieChang

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119853650#Comment_119853650

Jaysis. Who paid to fix the ceiling?

notAMember

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119855406#Comment_119855406

Their insurance.

JackieChang

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119856785#Comment_119856785

Good. And is it good as new?

notAMember

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119858108#Comment_119858108

Not as good as new, but you'd want to be looking up in good light to see the marks. It's fine. Took 6 weeks I think at the time to get trades organised, no idea how long it would take these days

dotsman

Would it not be the block insurance paying for that?

Which brings another pro of apartment living - your insurance is much, much cheaper as you are only insuring your contents - the building/block insurance is covered by the management fees.

For me, the only con of apartment living (lived in apartment for 14 years now) is lack of garden, which really only was an issue during the pandemic lockdowns.

In terms of you not wanting storage heating - is there a reason? Do you work from home regularly? I find it very handy & cheap. I just have a single heater in my living room turned on from early December to early March and my apartment is constantly warm. I have other storage heaters in the living room and hallway, as well as standard electric heaters in the bedroom and the office (formerly bedroom 2), which only get turned on at very rare times for an hour or so when there is a serious cold snap in the weather etc.

JackieChang

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119858358#Comment_119858358

I do work from home regularly. I'm living in an apartment now with storage heating and would just prefer on demand heating. It seems like a waste of energy and you need to be watching the weather all the time and plan your heating for the next day.

There are times when it's actually warm (for winter) outside but the storage heating is letting out heat full blast and I don't need it. I'm just sick of checking the forecast every night before bed in winter and adjusting it "hmm I'd say it'll be about this cold tomorrow".

The constant hot water is nice though heating up overnight.

mickdw

As an Engineer who works with residential property, I would never ever buy an apartment.

Too much control given over to other parties and too much chance of block wide issues that may need sorting at untold cost.

Buy a small house with parking, own entrance and own roof. At least it yours then and you can extend, repair or not depending on finances at any given time.

With house, you can have a comprehensive survey done pre purchase to know what you are buying. That is not so easy with a large block where a distant roof issue might suddenly be your problem in a couple of years.

Apartment is just all risk imo. Fire detailing issues, general construction standards, lack of overall control of your property, unknown repair costs at random intervals, management companies behaving like landlords, clamping running out of control, it's all nightmare stuff.

JackieChang

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119858542#Comment_119858542

When I first made this thread I didn't know about those fire regulation issues. You're right it's a bit risky. Apparently 100,000+ apartments in the country need upgrading to meet the standards, which the apartment owners will have to pay. Some of the bills are up to €60,000 per apartment.

Honestly if there's a decent enough balcony and green area and a bit of sunlight I'd still go for one, IF the fire issues have been sorted. I've been living in an apartment for the last few years so I have experienced most of the complaints here around noise etc.

dotsman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119858495#Comment_119858495

Fair enough. It might be different in different apartments. For me, I just have it on constantly for 1 heater in living room for the 3 months of winter. It's cheap enough that I don't ever turn it on/off on a daily basis. And when you are home most/all of the day, you really get the benefit of it.

Chris_5339762

House. Don't buy an apartment. There are too many cases of terrible building and firestopping issues with apartments, and the owners getting saddled for thousands and thousands of euros. I owned an apartment and it was all fine, but the complex had a major fire just after I'd sold and everyone was kicked out by the fire brigade. They were having to rent and pay their mortgages. Took 18 months to sort out.