Apartment next to vent and moss

Hi all, checked out an apartment for a PPOR which looked really good. Brand new( can get $10k FHB ) , sydney upper north shore, close to friends and family , building 1 year old. Floor plan worked for us, and in a good school catchment area.

Standing on the balcony, right side looks towards the street, but the left side looks back at the building and we notice some moss. I touched the stuff, it’s dry, so are the walls. There’s a bit of white on the bricks. My theory is it's caused by the moisture in the air coming out of the vent, perhaps they cleaned it previously and left some residue on the walls?

We did ask the agent but she said she don't know anything about it.

We did not notice the air was damp but our friends suggested us to post the pictures here to ask your advice - they said damp air might be bad for health, or it might be the water pipes leaking, they suggest there's a chance it spreads internal into the apartment.

what are your thoughts? (the window on right side in the first picture is a bedroom window)

 

Doubt it is the vent
More likely to be moisure running off the painted walls above, with the bricks being slightly porous absorbing and holding it, thus forming moss and mould.
The wall being on the south side I am guessing......
@Scott No Mates ?

Poor cleaning of the cement from the brickwork also !
I wonder what else they didn't plan for properly...

 

Does look to be the south side of the building (slightly dark/shadowy or wfg ). Moss will grow here if there is overflowing water from above - what's above (missing guttering)?. Looks to be a dry spell so very little colour in the moss.

Efflorescence in the bricks - needs to be neutralised and cleaned properly by a brick cleaner. http://www.residentialreports.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Efflorescence-in-Masonry-Walls.pdf

 

Thanks @Stoffo, @The Y-man, @Scott No Mates for your advice, will pass this apartment.

Yes, the two pictures above are from two opposing walls on south side of the building (i.e. two sides of a U shape facing south), and we don't recall there was any guttering, so I think your hypothesis would be correct.

Despite the direction, the apartment was quite bright at 11am when we would be up and about on the weekend and was really quite nice. This moss is unfortunate.

We went to see it at night from the outside again, noticed on another side of the building there was a ground floor apartment with their balcony and windows 5 metres from the garbage bins area, there was a persistent smell just outside the apartment...

This is not the first apartment we were prepared to give an offer for, it's disappointing to see otherwise nice apartments in good locations having such basic design flaws and major defects. A bit of a waste of land, labor and time...

 

Hi SNM

The link unfortunately doesn't work. I am interested in the detail so could you reproduce as appropriate?

Cheers

 

@Handyandy the link works fine for me. It's a HIA information sheet. I'll upload it for you

 

Care to share the suburb it is in?