I've lived in the same street for like 10 years and wouldn't have exchanged more than a dozen words with neighbours :thumbsup:
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As someone who has recently made the change I can say I'm now all about that apartment lyfe.
Best property decision ever.
For all those apartment peeps - don't the strata fees bother you?
Disclaimer - I have only ever rented. Will be looking to buy/build in the new year so I have almost zero knowledge of home/apartment owner issues
no.
Mine cost about $80 a week. For that i don't ever have to mow a lawn, paint a fence, weed a garden, clean a gutter, clean birdshit off my roof, put my bins out, fix any roller door problems, sort my recycling, organise bulk waste pickups etc etc etc. Theres about a thousand different things that i used to do in my spare time when i owned a house and land that i don't need to think about again. For that $80 i have my own personal servant that does all that shit.
the other sunday morning im walking out to the beach with Plague Jnr and old mate building manager is hosing vomit off the front door after some weirdo went too hard the night before.
Now for some people that shit is what they live for (****ing gardeners man, what the ****?).
but me, nah, my time is much more valuable to spend with family, avoiding Jets matches or even (gasp) working extra, which then makes me more than enough money to pay the $80.
now i aint preaching, not at all. apartment living isn't for everyone, but its for me. and i got an apartment because it was in a banging location, and the potential capital growth is still huge. we live in a heritage building that has very unique apartments in it. not standard set up therefore in demand. i love what walking out the front door of my place delivers me. that was a priority. other people prioritise elsewhere, and i don't begrudge them that.
I've a neighbour with OCD and too much time on his hands, he does all that for more for $0.
Driving to work today in the rain... pass some guy out the front of his house watering his lawn. IN THE RAIN.
Maybe he's just got a routine...
yeah you still pay rates but they are generally less as its just 'your' percentage of the land value that the building is on.
all utilities are still up to you but again, service and network portions of the bills are less. You pay for usage which on especially on water is pretty minimal (man, everyone should check their water bill to see what you actually pay for 'water' greedy ****ers).
one thing you def need to nerd up on are strata laws. they have just changed where things like to demolishing an apartment block you no longer need every tenant to agree, now its just half. if you move into an old building with only a few apartments in it you could get blind sided. again, its not as 'simple' as that but def check it out.