We’ve been thinking about build-to-rent apartments recently and I have to say they have considerable appeal. That attraction is apparently shared by a lot of over-55s.

The basic lure is that you have all of the benefits of apartment living and few if any of the drawbacks, especially if you are mortgage-free before you move in.

If you are already acclimatised to apartment living, the biggest culture shock has already been faced down, so that’s not a major concern. Those that we’ve seen are, by definition, modern with great facilities.

Victoria is ahead of the game in this but there are a couple in Sydney, like Liv at Homebush and Indi above the Gadigal metro station in the city centre. More are planned – mostly north of the harbour – but there are rumours of new projects in the Eastern Suburbs and inner west too.

They are new buildings but there are no defects concerns because you don’t own the apartment. That’s for the developer and operator to worry about. In the unlikely event that the block has building issues, you just move on.

Disruptive neighbours? Well, they have signed a contract that covers their behaviour and they can be booted out if they are too stupid and nasty – something you can’t do with apartment owners or even their tenants in many cases.

There are advisory committees there to represent the residents, but the usual control-freak martinets and strata committee bullies have a limited say in the running of the building for the simple reason that they don’t own any of it.

Pets are allowed but Airbnb isn’t. Levies – especially special levies – are of no concern to you because they don’t exist.

And it’s not like a normal rental where you are subject to the whims of a small-scale property investor. It’s more like renting a hotel room where you are dealing with professionals, rather than an individual trying to balance the rent they charge with their negative gearing tax claims.

Oh, and rather than hoping you don’t get moved on every time the landlord wants to increase the rent, you can get a long-term lease with rent that only increases by agreed increments.

This is just like the long-term tenants of those fabulous old blocks we’d love to live in, that we see in movies and TV shows set in New York.

You can decorate the place any way you want but the weekend renovators may as well list their power tools for sale on Facebook Marketplace because there is nothing for them to drill, saw or hammer.

There are meeting spaces and work areas, yoga rooms, swimming pools and gyms. Also, in a delightful throwback to those Art Deco company title blocks from about 100 years ago, there are full commercial kitchens and restaurants where you can eat proper food without having to rattle a single pan of your own.

To be fair, it might turn out that you don’t like it after all. In which case, you cancel your contract and move on.

Build-to-rent is a terrific option for downsizers and retirees. Flog the family home, bank the money and spend your sunset years travelling from your lock-up-and-leave base without having to give interest rates or levies a single thought.

The rent is not cheap – how could it be? But if you plan your finances properly it could be the perfect way to live as well as you can, and for as long as you last.

We’re not ready to make the plunge yet but we may well be by the time the new buildings are ready to invite us in. We’ll keep you posted.

It should go without saying that we didn’t receive any inducements of any kind to write this. It’s a thing, that’s all and it’s about to get a lot bigger. And if you read our article about why we were glad to sell our investment at a loss, you’ll understand a large part of the appeal.

A version of the comment piece was sent out on our Flat Chat newsletter last week. You can subscribe to the newsletter, for free, below.