When the shine wears off golden oldie apartments

There are innumerable good reasons for wanting to buy an apartment – it could be empty nesters downsizing from a McMansion, renters upgrading to a place of their own, or simply wanting to shift some of your Bitcoin profits into bricks and mortar.

But once you are committed to buying a unit, the question arises of whether it should be somewhere brand new or not even built yet, rather than an older flat in an established block.

One consideration favouring older blocks is the well-publicised problems with the build quality of some recently constructed apartments.

But do your homework, starting with choosing a reputable developer, and you can sidestep most of the problems and deal with the others as they come on to your radar.

Sure, older buildings may have a certain careworn charm, and who doesn’t love a high ceiling? But it won’t be long before you are looking to upgrade them to bring in facilities that the best new apartments provide with the package, and which you or your tenants might feel were essential.

One obvious area is wiring – not just for electricity, but for essential extras like computer cabling. There are few sights that undermine the look of a perfectly curated and “designered” apartment than extension cables and multi-socket powerboards snaking out from lone electrical sockets. A modern apartment will have more electrical outlets than you have devices that need power.

These days we don’t only use computers for information and technology and the internet is increasingly the source of our streamed viewing.

Also, nothing kills the mood of a romantic comedy, dissipates the tension of an action movie, or sets the heart racing during an important Zoom call quite like a dropped wi-fi signal. 

But many modern apartments come with ethernet cabling already in the walls.  All you have to do is tell the builders where you want the sockets and they’ll cut a hole, fix a plate and you’re up and running.

New apartments are also much more likely to have dimmer switches on the lights and even integrated controls that allow you to control lights, air-con and even window blinds from your phone.

And concealed LED lights in your ceiling will compensate for the fact that it’s a little lower than in some older homes.

One common issue with older buildings is sound insulation or, more to the point, the lack of it.  If your upstairs neighbour has lifted their carpet to expose and polish lovely old original timber floorboards, you will soon appreciate that they have also removed the most effective means of noise mitigation.

Now, there are ways of getting them to fix that problem – the simplest being to get them to re-lay the carpet – but they often end up with lawyers at 12 paces. Or you can fix false ceilings with acoustic panels (but they’re never 100 per cent effective).

A well-constructed modern building will have timber or tiled floors from the get-go, and usually at sound mitigating levels way beyond inadequate Australian Building Standards.

In older buildings that have been converted from large houses, noise transmission between adjoining apartments may be an issue too, as those walls were originally intended to separate members of the same families, not complete strangers. 

Older two or three-storey walk-ups, tend not to have lifts.  These small blocks with limited numbers of neighbours are attractive to older residents – or they would be if they didn’t have to climb several flights of stairs to get home.

You can install lifts in or outside old apartment blocks and they could be a smart enhancement to your investment. But you don’t have to be Nostradamus to realise that there will be hassle and expense involved.

For a start, you have to get every other owner in the building to agree, including the people on the ground floor for whom the lift represents nothing more than immediate disruption and long-term expense with zero benefit to them.

Windows are another area where you might immediately want to upgrade.  Modern double glazing will keep excessive noise and heat outside where it belongs.

With squabbles over who is responsible for windows in an old block being grist to the Flat Chat mill, you may find yourself resorting to clip-on secondary glazing to help your windows cope with the additional challenges of modern living.

From finding spaces for larger fridges, to sensible and well-organised storage and luxurious bathrooms, buying an old unrenovated apartment will soon have you thinking about renovations and improvements.

A modern kitchen with the latest stove tops and ovens will soon be on your wish list, as will a shower that doesn’t have the taps under the shower head, requiring you to jump back to avoid the first blast of cold water (a tricky and dangerous manoeuvre worthy of an ice-skating “degree of difficulty” score).

All of these improvements are achievable and affordable, to different extents, either incrementally or in one fell swoop.

But at some point when your home has been turned into a building site, your neighbours are up in arms, and you realise that every improvement is also a compromise you will ask yourself why you didn’t just buy a new apartment where all the things you want are already in place.

A version of this column first appeared in the Australian Financial Review.