But now it’s a lifestyle choice and owning or even renting an apartment is no longer taken as a sign that you have failed as a human being.
So what are the pros and cons of Australia’s accommodation choices – the mythical quarter-acre block or the pie-in-the-sky high-rise apartment?
Malvern East: Will a suburban house complete with a white picket fence tick all the boxes for you? Photo: Danny Smith
In a house there’s nobody to tell you to turn your music down … but there’s also nobody to demand your neighbour takes the deafening Death Metal that’s disturbing your afternoon siesta down a notch or two from 11.
In an apartment, it’s level access. There are no stairs to climb to get to your bedroom at night when you’re exhausted and ready for bed … until the lifts break down and you have to climb 15 storeys to get home from work when you’re exhausted and ready to kill.
In an apartment, you are always wondering if you’d be happier in a house. And vice versa.
In a house you can paint your front door exactly the colour you want. In an apartment, someone does the painting for you. Great! Let them choose the colour.
In an apartment you can have a balcony with views … until someone builds another block in front of yours and all you have are views of the people who now have your views. In a house you have no view … until someone builds a block of apartments across the road and you are the view.
In a house you can have a pet and no one can stop you … but so can the people next door who have two dogs that bark incessantly from the moment they leave for work.
In an apartment you can get access to a gym in the building. In a house you have access to an old exercise bike in the garage. Both get precisely the same amount of use.
In a house you can have a swimming pool that just you and your family and friends get to use … and you have to clean it while the family and friends are off having fun somewhere else.
In an apartment you drive into your secure garage, and get into your secure lift and you and your groceries are whisked straight to your front door … unless someone has parked in your spot and you can’t get to their floor to strangle them because of the security in the lift.
In a house you can have a garage sale to get rid of all your stuff. In an apartment you never come home to find the lobby has disappeared under a pile of junk with price stickers on it.
In an apartment there’s a number to call when there’s a problem with plumbing or electricity or rain leaks or hot water … in a house, you’re it. Bunnings, here you come.
In a house if someone was sunbaking naked on their front lawn you’d call the cops. In an apartment if someone was sunbaking naked on their balcony you’d call your friends in the building to make sure they had seen.
In an apartment block some idiot is always putting stupid complaint notices on the noticeboard. In a house some idiot is always putting stupid complaint notes on the fridge (NB: you may be in a relationship with this person).
In a house if you fall out with a neighbour you have to deal with seeing them in their yard. In an apartment you have deal with being stuck with them in the lift.
In an apartment, you wonder if the people above, below and to either side of you can hear what you are saying and doing. In a house you could be screaming your head off in a life-threatening situation and no one would want to intrude.
In a house the tempting smells from a barbecue are immediately followed by a billowing smoke cloud from burnt fat and cremated meat that drifts across the fence and settles on your laundry. In an apartment there is a lingering smell in the hallways of something pungent that you can only hope was food.
In an apartment you don’t have to walk around gates and fences and then confront a vicious guard dog to borrow a cup of sugar from next door. In a house nobody comes knocking to borrow sugar.
In an apartment, your NBN cable service slows when everyone comes home from work and starts streaming re-runs of Game of Thrones. In a house your broadband connection crashes every time you go on the internet to find out when your street is getting NBN.
In an apartment, you are always wondering if you’d be happier in a house. And vice versa.
article from https://www.domain.com.au/advice/houses-versus-apartments-is-one-really-better-than-the-other-20170420-gvosvn/ by Jimmy Thomson