Living in a high rise apartment complex can be exciting. Stunning views, dramatic architecture, high-quality amenities, and work proximity are just some of the reasons many people choose to purchase a unit in a high rise building. Nevertheless, all high rise buildings aren’t created equal. There are a couple of crucial aspects you want to look out for before you eventually get to sign the purchase contract.
1. Location
Living in an apartment means you effectively won’t have a front and backyard that you can call your own. You should make up for this by ensuring that the location of the high rise property is the best you can afford. Don’t just look at immediate value but also future prospects based on the neighborhood, work opportunities, schools, shopping malls, markets, public transportation, and public infrastructure.
The location also means carefully selecting where within the high rise you want to buy an apartment. If your household includes elderly persons or kids, then lower floors may be more ideal to reduce the walk up the stairs in instances when the elevators are not operational. If you live for breathtaking views, then higher up units would be your best bet.
2. Parking
This can be one of the biggest pains of living in a high rise. You have to check whether the available and assigned parking will meet your needs. It’s not just whether the parking space will be sufficient, but also whether it’s secure enough and if there’s space for guests to park when you have visitors come over.
Many high rise apartment complexes offer just one or two parking spots per unit. If you have more than two cars, then you would have to purchase or rent additional slots. In which case, it’s important that you know beforehand how much it will cost you.
Just like your apartment’s location within the building is important, so is the parking slot. If your household includes elderly persons or small kids, then you want a slot that’s fairly close to the elevator.
3. Amenities
Amenities are a key differentiator between apartments and landed units. Most landed houses don’t come with access to shared amenities such as a gym or a swimming pool. Still, different apartment complexes come with different amenities. They range from the basic to the opulent.
Before you buy an apartment, take a tour of the amenities to determine their quality and state. Look out for signs of broken equipment, missing fittings and other red flags showing a lack of proper maintenance.
Remember that irrespective of what the seller tells you, the amenities aren’t really free or automatically available once you own an apartment at the high rise. It’s factored into the purchase price and maintenance costs, so you must be certain that you are getting value for your money.
4. Maintenance Plans and Fees
We mentioned the need to look out for signs of maintenance in the building’s amenities. That should only be a part of a wider examination of how the building’s management plans for and executes its overall maintenance program. Usually, well-run high rise buildings will be quite transparent about their maintenance programs that cover everything from garbage management to high altitude window cleaning.
If you find that it’s difficult to get this information, then that’s probably because there isn’t a comprehensive plan or, if it exists, it isn’t adhered to. Maintenance comes at a fee and can pile up quite fast. Generally, an older building will see residents incur higher and increasing fees for maintenance to cater for the aging facilities. Large developments with more extensive common amenities such as elevators, gardens, terraces, pools, saunas, barbeque areas and more, will attract higher maintenance fees as well.
5. Security
A high rise building will often have at least hundreds of residents. Such sizeable human traffic means the security considerations would have to be more elaborate than those of landed homes. You must ensure you and your people are safe not just from external intruders but also residents of the building who go rogue.
It isn’t too difficult to identify a high rise building that has good security. Are all formal and informal entry points well-guarded? Do guards regularly patrol the shared areas including corridors and parking? Does the building have a history of burglaries or inter-resident assaults?
You and your family will be spending much of your day within the property so you have to be certain that there’s a reasonable level of assurance on your safety.
Buying an apartment in a high rise building requires looking at certain factors that may not be an issue when purchasing a landed property. Evaluate the high rise building along the above lines to make sure your investment will be worth it over the long haul.
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