While some house owners prefer the suburbs, I love condo apartment living near downtown, and have won more than a few converts to the lifestyle. Sure apartment or townhouse living can have its down side, be it a noisy resident or a special assessment to pay for a maintenance issue. But I also know of house owners who sold in frustration over endless maintenance issues, and others who fled nice suburban locations after bikers or a teenager with a drum set moved in next door.
No matter what type of housing we own, there will always be issues. On the positive side, here are some reasons I'm the very happy owner of a condo apartment home and also of several investment condo suites.
Price/location: At a price comparable to an average suburban single-family home, I can afford an inner-city two-level suite atop a concrete apartment tower with several outdoor spaces and a downtown view, all within steps of everything Calgary has to offer. A house with comparable features in this location would cost $2 million or more.
No commuting: Most condo apartment or townhouse owners can afford to live closer to inner-city employment than house owners. For those of us adjacent to downtown, rush hour is a stroll down the street, usually via our favorite coffee shop. Marketing by apartment condo builders is increasingly playing on avoidance of a long and expensive drive.
Shared expenses: House owners denounce monthly condo contributions, but these are simply the same expenses that house owners face, pooled. I pay my condo corporation, and it pays for heating, water/sewer, hot water, and ventilation. With one pre-authorized debit I can forget about maintaining a furnace and a hot-water heater, a heat exchanger and the roof; it's all done. Oh; and I don't have to cut the lawn.
Efficiency: The expenses I share with my neighbours pay for more services than the house owner gets for his money. In my condo apartment building, for example, the roof area equal to those spanning just two houses covers 40 suites. And the front yard smaller than that of just one single-family home gives lawn and gardens to about 60 people. We're also snuggled together in a building that gets far more mileage from each unit of natural gas used for heating. My monthly costs may be exactly the same as that of the house owner, but someone else maintains all these things for me, and even vacuums my hall carpet.
Social life: It's nice to walk 10 steps in slippers to borrow a cup of sugar, or whatever. My neighbours in our building have watered my plants, fed my cat and come over for a glass of wine. Through my condo Board involvement I've made friends, and some people have found their life partner this way. Condo apartment buildings and townhouse developments are social settings far more than any suburban single-family home development.
Security: I don't know where house owners get the idea that condo living might be less secure than a house. At-grade apartment and townhouse homes are only as accessible as every house in the suburbs. Aren't they all built on-grade? My own higher-level suite, though, has three layers of security: the locked CCTV-monitored front door, the locked stairwell doors and key-operated elevator, plus my solid-core suite door watched by five other owners on the same floor.
Investment value: With the money I saved not buying a house in a comparable central location I bought a second suite and rented it out; then a third, and a fourth. Condo properties appreciate just as well as single-family homes, and I can quote the statistics to prove it. They have "land value" because condominiums all sit on land, and that land accommodates higher density than a few houses per acre. In short, I'm wealthier as an astute condo buyer than I likely would have been by restricting myself to houses.
An increasing portion of Canadians are living in condo homes and buying them for investment. Condo homes are 30% of Calgary's real estate marketplace, with rising fuel and heating costs likely to accelerate the trend. It's a bandwagon, folks, so get on board. Condo living is certainly for me, and it might also suit you.
Calgary Condominium Directory
