Which is better: Apartment or Individual House?

Every individual dream of owning a place that they can call their own home; is a mark of one’s financial stability in the society and one and all dreams to achieve. Once we reach a certain financial position, the next step is to figure out which type of home would be the ideal decision for us; an apartment or an individual house?

Both options seem to have advantages of their own and we need to think deeper about what exactly we are looking to get out of our homes and how much it would cost us…

As of the current trend, Apartments seem to be the most common choice of homebuyers in the big cities. The reason for this observed trend lies in factors such as migration of population to big cities for livelihood opportunities and a better lifestyle. With the increase in population and limited land availability, the quote for owning an individual house/villa is higher than that of an apartment. Besides, the apartments tend to offer a multitude of amenities along with better security and ease of maintenance through in-house services. 

Independent houses offer higher privacy and buying from a reputed developer in a gated community helps you own a private home without having to deal with the hassles of construction on your own. Lately, many A-grade developers offer independent homes along with shared amenities without having to leave the gated community. One can also enjoy the freedom of building a home that fits their unique taste, be it a simplex, duplex or even a multi-storey building. But the catch is that one has to take care of maintenance and security on their own. 

Although apartments are comparatively lighter on the pocket than an independent house, apartments are customizable only to the extent of not changing the basic set up. In the long term, the value of an apartment depreciates but the land itself on which the independent house rests will appreciate and can serve as an inheritance for the future generations.

Independent House Vs Apartment

Efforts and Affordability: When buying an Independent home other than that of a gated community plot/villa, one must consider the time and efforts it will take to get a home loan sanctioned from a bank after days of scrutiny over the buyer and the property, not to mention the sanctioning a loan is just the beginning and will have to get the necessary clearance from numerous authorities for the electricity connection, water connections etc, along with the added weight of finding the right labourers/ contractors, raw materials etc. But in the case of an apartment, a buyer must simply pay the agreed amount and the developers will do the rest of the work for you and he/she can move in at their convenience after the handover. The apartment developers also have tie-ups with various financiers that will aid in easing the process of the home loan getting approved.

Facilities and amenities: An apartment come with all costs of shared amenities included. Along with the added advantage of better security, power back up and much more. But the amenities are not added in the cost of an individual house apart from the gated community developments. 

Investments, Appreciation & Depreciation: Apartments in cities are generally strategically placed to have easy access to hospitals, educational institutes, wine- dine/ entertainment hubs and employment opportunities making them a good investment in terms of rental income. Well-situated apartments enjoy an edge in terms of property value appreciation quicker as the development of the surrounding area is rapid. Whereas Gated community plots/ villas are usually located on the less developed areas due to land availability being scarce and although Individual villas too enjoy appreciation it will come at a slower pace than that of the apartments. When you consider the initial investment towards owning a home, apartments seem to fare lighter with the advantage of amenities and facilities at your disposal. Setting up similar amenities and facilities for an independent house will cost much higher but the biggest advantage will be that the amenities and facilities will be exclusively for the owner/ buyer and his dear ones, promising utter privacy. 

Now that we have covered some of the most important factors in deciding which is the right type of property for you. The choice of choosing the right property comes down to what you value the most and what exactly are looking to get out of your property in the current times as well as the future.

The residential real estate market can be divided into 2 types of buyers, Group- A: consisting of buyers who purchase the property for their personal use, Group-B: consisting of buyers who view the property as an investment. If you belong to Group- A your approach to buying a property should be based solely on your current and future needs such as accessibility, privacy, comfort, style etc. But if you belong to Group- B, your property investment decision should be based on the demand of the target audience, what and how they would prefer to have in the property.