Friday, December 24, 2010

Differences in Apartments

A recent Adjudicator's decision regarding Admiralty Towers II highlights a factor that buyers and valuers sometimes overlook -- that is, some apartments have different rights and facilities than other apartments in the same building. In Admiralty Towers II, there are two swimming pools -- a lower pool and a pool on the top floor. Each pool also has a gym. The top floor pool also has a roof sundeck.

The bylaws of the building state that the owners of lots 126 to 193 may use both pools and gyms. The owners of lots 1 to 125 may only use the pool and gym on the lower floor, and cannot use the top floor pool, gym or sundeck.

A resident challenged this bylaw. The challenge failed. These kind of bylaws are not unfair or unreasonable. See Ref 0915-2010 issued 23 December 2010.

Thus, the value of an apartment on a higher floor should be more than a similar an apartment on a lower floor -- not just because of the views, but because the apartment has access to more facilities.

The moral of the story: when buying or renting, check to see if any apartments have access to exclusive use facilities. Make sure you are doing a like for like comparison when looking at recent sales data.


2 comments:

lordhorrace said...

The problem here though - which you omit to mention, is that the residents on the higher floors are paying the same amount of Body coroporate fees as those on the lower floors who are unable to access the same facilities. This was changed under a previous committee to make fees "equitable" across the building - so how is this fair or just?

lordhorrace said...

The problem here though - which you omit to mention, is that the residents on the higher floors are paying the same amount of Body coroporate fees as those on the lower floors who are unable to access the same facilities. This was changed under a previous committee to make fees "equitable" across the building - so how is this fair or just?