Whats better better: House or Apartment ?

In today's modern and fast paced society the question is, do you choose to live in a home with land or an apartment with views?

Historically most grew up living with a large family in a home and a big back yard to kick the ball around. Nowadays, the younger generation is deciding to forgo that for inner city, modern apartment living with no lawns.

30 years ago most families had 4 to 5 children per family, nowadays that is more like 1 to 2, if that. A number of families are choosing lifestyle over family.

The Baby Boomers lived to work, saved for their future. The GenX work and save, more of a balance. GenY work to live, spend more than they earn.

As population is growing the on-going debate with governments and councils is do we build further out or do we built up?

What is your choice? Do you live in a house in the suburbs or an apartment closer to the city?

There are pro's and con's to both sides.

The home in the suburbs offer larger sized homes, 200sqm to 250sqm average, with 3 to 4 bedrooms and a large block of land, 500sqm to 700sqm. You have privacy, no body corporate fees, but you do have more maintenance, cleaning and lawns to mow.

On the other hand, the inner city apartment may have facilities like swimming pools, gyms, spas, saunas & BBQ's. Better yet, its maintained for you via the body corporate. You are closer to all amenities and public transport, possibly a view as well. You may not have privacy, but you do have more security as most complexes are secured and require private access to residents only.

What's better?

Would you sacrifice the traffic, petrol, parking costs to work in the city and live in the suburbs? You could live in the city and walk to work? Maybe even use the City Cycles now on offer?

Do you choose your family over your personal lifestyle choice?

Do you have to decide at all? Can you possibly have both? What if you wanted to "have your cake and eat it as well?". Possible or just a dream???? Hmmm...

Undecided....

Eric Trieu
eric@internationalempire.com

I think apartments have a few issues which subtract me from considering them. i.e. the lack of privacy with other people is a real turn of. Sharing common walls means you may very well hear people in their own lives next door. On the other hand, less maintance in terms of the block. These days you can get artificial grass and simple plants to reduce work on your block. With a bit of $$ and work a house on a moderate size block can offer enough privacy with bascially the same on-going mainteance requirements.

Your right, in AUS and other developed countires people are chosing to have less children due to a shift in culture and values.
Some people choose not to have any children at all simply because they dont want the expense and stress. Our population is still
increasing rapidly and we do need to reduce population growth before we run out of space for future generations.

Istvan

What country are YOU in? Not Australia obviously.  At no time in Australia's history did most families have 4 to 5 children.

The thing that has changesd is that people want bigger houses. I grew up in a very small 3 bedroom house with 3 kids. That was pretty typical. Now people have 1-2 kids and want 4 bedrooms and a study.

There is no answer to your question because everyone wants different things. If we all wanted the same there would be no-one living in the west in houses (or in the city in apartments) depending what "everyone" wanted.
Plus you desires/needs change as your life changes. I have the huge house but now it's mostly empty so I'm going through the process of where I need to go next. As you said apartment (probably not) closer to the city or a smaller house. I want the advantage of a yard without the work. Duplex? Plus we need a garage.
Decisions/decisions!!

Sydney- "People with goals succeed because they know where they are going... It's as simple as that."
- Earl Nightingale

well an apartment is quite good,if you are a bachelor or you are far from work,but i don't consider it if i got a family,well children loves to play and make noise so an apartment is never an option for them,and besides i dont like the environment in an apartment..

Makati Studio for Rent | Magallanes House for Sale

I just buy whatever makes money. People have to live everywhere. Not everyone can live in the city (even if they wanted to). There will always be demand for houses in the suburbs of large cities.

But you post is more about where "you" want to live. I'm looking from an investment perspective. So where I want to live is irrelevant.

Sydney- "People with goals succeed because they know where they are going... It's as simple as that."
- Earl Nightingale

Lol, yep!

As a personal opinion though, a house. I'm not a big fan of any sort of apartment/townhouse as far as a living environment is concerned. It would annoy me to no end having neighbors so close to me (next/above/below), that I'd have to worry about noise levels, what time I get home etc.

from an investment perspective the land component of anything you buy is the most important. unfortunately apartments dont offer that in comparison to a house with a backyard.

Emma
www.mypropertyjourney.com

You forgot to add "In my opinion".     Don't state things as fact that aren't in fact factual.

Sydney- "People with goals succeed because they know where they are going... It's as simple as that."
- Earl Nightingale

Well I reckon you can take living in the city or burbs and stick it where the sun dont shine!  I will buy my investment properties ther but  give me a few good acres just a few KMs out of a nice country town where I can build the dream, spread my mess and have a bloody huge shed!! 

It depends....

Are you buying the property as a lifestyle asset or as an investment?

What are you aiming for? Capital Growth?

What are your needs? or What are your tenant's needs?

What is the demographics of the area you are investing in?

Property prices are usually directly linked to demand and supply, which are largely determined by the population residing in the area.

It depends where you are buying your investment.
More people are living in apartments in Melbourne and Sydney - so they make good investments, rent well and have capital growth.

In Perth and Brisbane it seems like people still prefer to live in houses, even though more are moving to apartment living

Sorry to be off track a little. Obvious house with land component will appreciate the most, but what about comparing villa unit and apartment in the same suburb say canterbury, vic. I'm thinking capital growth would be pretty similar given both has limited to no space for expansion. Is this correct?

You need to research the areas you are interested in. Look at past CG of all. It depends on the demand in the area. I have a VERY small unit in Sydney that went up 50% in 2 years while a lot of Sydney had little CG.

Sydney- "People with goals succeed because they know where they are going... It's as simple as that."
- Earl Nightingale

What it comes done to is capital growth. Many people will say that land is the only thing that goes up. To a point they are right. However many people then buy a house and land package in an outer area of our cities. The problem is that in the last few years the growth in many cases has been negative. Now its true if you could buy a house in an inner city area it would be great however the cost would be far to high. For many people they like to live in Townhouses and apartments and we have seen huge grown and higher rental returns on these type of properties. Personally I do not like House and land packages unless they are in mining towns. I develop inner city properties because in my view these turn up to be a far more solid investment.

Nigel Kibel
Australian and New Zealand The United States Property Researcher and education
www.propertyknowhow.com.au

I think when you add up the time and travel costs of multiple family members, living further out can be a false economy anyway (especially as they are always increasing), your also generally further away from services too.

Gen Y.

I have lived in both an apartment and a house. Both are great options, it just all depends on your preferences and also certain circumstances. The main reason we moved from our apartment, was because we were looking for something bigger and with a yard.

When i holiday i prefer a unit but home has to be a house at least for the moment.

I.P. Freely - 'cause I can!

yeah holidaying is fine in a unit or apartment. but for long term living, a house is superior as an apartment can feel so crammed at times