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| It is not necesarrily cheaper to buy vs renting, depends on the individual apartment and on the building.
It is cheaper if the apartment is a newer one.
It is not cheap if it is 30-40 years old.
The Swiss like to keep their buildings in a good shape. So if after 40 years the roof needs to be done, it will be done. You need to pay your part. | |
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I own a share of a nearly 50 year old building. I’m well aware of what that entails. I read the meeting minutes from the AGMs prior to purchase and have participated in numerous AGMs and EGMs in the last 3 years. Owning the top apartment in the block, I actually forced to have the roof replaced as it was shown to be leaking. The sinking fund paid for this.
With regards maintenance, one of our co-owners acts as auditor to make sure that the bills are reasonable. For any major works a competitive tender is done.
At the last AGM bar one there was a vote to replace the management company, for reasons I can’t quite understand. It was voted down.
That’s not to say we aren’t without issues. There are long standing discussions about whether to install a lift, which requires unanimous approval. Some people don’t want one, some want a cheap one, some want an expensive one. While this is playing out, maintenance that needs doing is kicked into the long grass, as it would be on areas that would be ripped up to install the lift. There is also discussion on whether the sinking fund contributions are enough. We’ve recently increased from 2.5k to 4k per year per apartment.
The cost of the mortgage interest, Nebenkosten and our internal maintenance costs will certainly be lower than renting a similar property for the time we live there (12-15 years). Whether it turns out to be a good investment when we come to sell and vs the opportunity cost of investing the deposit and repayments into securities is a question that will only be answerable on crystallisation, but there are more than financial considerations when owning a property.