Buying an apartment rather than a house

harpsman

FURET wrote: »

Kids play in the garden for how many days per year for how many years? Suppose they play in the garden for 50% of the days of the year for 10 years before they grow out of it. Does the little garden justify a 20-year mortgage and all the additional maintenance costs that go with owning a house+garden vs a good apartment?

I mean, how deprived would they be without a garden? Do kids in other countries where apartment life dominates have happy childhoods without gardens? In Dubai they seem to. In Germany and Japan they seem to. I grew up on a property that had a huge garden. It was far from the making of my childhood. My wife grew up in a townhouse on the side of the street that had no garden at all. She's the most well-adjusted person I've ever met.

Genuine questions above. I think people massively overestimate the worth of a patch of lawn.

I agree. I live in an appartment in dublin-great location, well built,nice gardens,lifts,loads of parking,lots of young families. Sure a bit less storage space,but small 3 bed houses in Dublin dont have much storage either, and you cant dry your washing outside.Gardens are handy for toddlers running around I suppose,but there not much use to older kids for playing football and I can live without the barbecue once a year whn/if the sun shines. Tbh Id rather live near a park than have a small garden. Having said that we ve just bought a house down the road with a garden:cool:

the_syco

FURET wrote: »

This I never knew. So when I see an apartment for sale for 100k, it's not really for sale? It's only for lease? What happens after the 99 years are up?

Not sure. Also, as it's only a lease, if you act up, legally management can kick you out, although as the saying goes "you only fear the law if you follow the law"; the scumbags who should get kicked out are rarely kicked out.

FURET wrote: »

The fact is, my wife and I hate debt. We could buy an apartment with cash, saving tens of thousands, not just in mortgage repayments but also reduced maintenance costs, and use the saved money to do so much more.

Buy the house with cash, and you' may be still be paying €1000 a year on fees. If other people don't pay their fees, you'll be paying your €1000 but not get anything back, such as gardening, tree clipping, lighting, etc! Have seen a few threads over the last few months about apartment complexs not having lights on after a certain time to save on the electricity bills :rolleyes:

FURET wrote: »

But I can't shift the view that it's a better move economically to go with the apartment in that it gives us scope to grow our wealth over the next 30 years substantially more than would be possible if we committed to a house.

Another thing about a house; if it's semi-detached, you can add an extra room to it if you needed it. Or turn the garage to an office with it's own door, if your wife wants to do some consultancy work on the side, without having to rent another office. Your apartment value will always depend on the complex. Your house value will depend on how you look after it, and what you attach to it.

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As for the garden that kids play in; there's also the road that they can play with other kids. Most apartments don't like kids playing (insurance costs). Some even ban ball games in the apartment grounds. So if they were to meet with friends, it'll be outside the apartment grounds. From 5 to about 15, I played a lot with other kids on my road who were the same age as me, so I'm biased in that regard.