Design a large house may not offer the right comfort levels that a largish , well planned quality apartment can bring with it .
Market research has shown that clients who are interested in detached or semi detached homes are not interested in apartments and vice versa . “ The functionality of a property doesn ’ t mean that its size can offer certain levels of comfort if these weren ’ t thought of at the development stage ” explained Mr Attard .
In his opinion , today ’ s large apartments compare very favourably with an average semi detached property and both would probably work out to approximately the same 220 sq . m .
The trend of moving out of houses and into apartments is not exclusive to pensioners . of area , so space-wise they are at par . They are also less costly to purchase and to maintain than semi detached units .
“ Because of the need to be more self contained we have noticed that there is also a growing trend for people who own terraced or semi detached houses to sell them and move into large apartments . This is being noted both at pension age or before , say at 45 years and upwards , when one starts forward planning for one ’ s eventual retirement ,” he added .
Nonetheless , the valuation of a property and how much one pays for it is , in his opinion , not something that the developer can actually dictate but one which the market itself decides on . “ The demand that one notices therefore tells you the market ’ s feel for your project ,” he explained . “ The eventual price that one pays for a property is today pretty much governed by the market itself which sets the levels that are acceptable .
Not withstanding all , there are certain types of investments in property which are being dictated by the somewhat lack of banking options available so that investment in property is once again on the rise .
This is being seen as a means where one can rent the property to earn from it or to eventually retire in it . “ With projects that are seen to be quite unique , as is how we see our Mellieha project , then the story is somewhat different and I believe that this sort of unique investment is also attracting interest for its own merits ,” he added .
DESIGN & BUILD Q1 , 2017
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