 In
old estates which are about to go en bloc, those who are for selling
usually make a hullabaloo that the estate is "falling apart". They
make dire predictions about escalating maintenance costs for old
condos.
Let's think. Has our maintenance fee for our condo at Clementi Park
gone up in the last five years? Ten years? No? Could there be some
posturing going on here in the name of the en bloc cause?
We who love our estate, reply "stuff and nonsense"! In countries
such as the UK, structures stand for hundreds of years and are
internally refurbished periodically. That's why you can still visit
Shakespeare and Wordsworth's homes! This is the same anywhere in the
world. Old buildings last a long time. Perhaps longer than the
desire of some to own them!
There are usually four general areas for estate maintenance:
a) common or exterior facilities such as corridors, roads, gardens
and facilities. Like for any individual property, these need
maintenance and upgrading every 20 years or so either because they
look worn, but more often, because they look dated. So upgrading is
often done for cosmetic reasons and seldom because something is
"falling apart". In any case, our gardens and buildings undergo
regular maintenance and painting.
b) water tanks, external piping, lifts. These are normally repaired
or upgraded using sinking funds which each condo like ours has a
healthy surplus of. New condos and old pay maintenace fees for this
very reason. Very little is deteriorated beyond use in our condo.
That's why 22 years later we are using the same lifts, but have just
updated the interiors. Sturdy stuff our developers built. Note the
walls between rooms are about 27 cm thick!.
c) internal and inter floor maintenance and leaks. Painting costs
are around $1,500 to $2,000 per unit. Same for replumbing and
rewiring. Leaking $2k to $6k on average. And this again is not
beyond the means of the average owner.
d) when buying into an old condo, renovations can cost about $30k to
$80k for a whole apartment. And these costs are of course
optional...most new owners renovate even new houses at this cost.
So what is all the fuss about? Repairs are a fact of life! If pipes
leak, fix 'em! If your condo needs a fresh look, upgrade! If your
interiors need a new look, retile! Let's
not be naive and say en bloc is a better option simply because pipes
leak! For your info, pipes leak and back flow in new condos too!
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