Old vs New Townhouse

Hi all,

Wondering everyone's thoughts on buying an older townhouse (e.g. 1990s) vs newer (2012+).

For me I thought newer would be better re newer features, less maintenance.

I was speaking to someone who says that newer townhouses very cookie cutter, which limits growth, which I think is a good point. 1990s of course have a lot of value add potential for comparable price.

Newer tend to have the ensuite, but in "up and coming" areas where there are many similar new properties for sale.

I'm most concerned with growth/value add potential.

 

My thoughts are that med/higher density properties are all about location.

There's no point buying a townhouse out in the sticks when a house can often be had for similar money.

 

As @hammer pointed out, it really depends on the specific location for the townhouses you're comparing. What are the suburbs you're comparing old vs new?

It also depends on the building quality. Mine OTP in Sydney is a great example even though it was an apartment but concept applies - well-known builder, had it for about close to 8 years now. Around the 4 years mark one heavy downpour caused water to leak into the bedroom ruining the carpets. Guess what, I'm not on the top floor or ground floor. You would think that it's relatively new so no issues but in all honesty you never know what's really underneath the surface/behind the walls.

Cheers,
David

 

Thanks all, the location is fairly good for both, newer is in Brompton, 2km out of Adelaide city traditionally a working class area but a ton of new developments and townhouses in this suburb and surrounds.

The other older is Payneham, about 4km out, eastern suburbs which is traditionally more “affluent” area in Adelaide. Blocks to develop are more scarce around this area, traditionally really more of character homes than townhouses, so a lot less common but also might be difficult to value.

 

I currently hold a townhouse in my portfolio and even though the depreciation and the shiny things in the place makes it attractive in relation to minimal maintenance work, my own personal strategy is never to buy another unit or townhouse simply because of the limitations and if I can stretch to buy a house, willing to save up abit more for it. Yes, some people in the forum have made tremendous amounts of money from buying in strata purchases but it's not my personal strategy anymore.

 

go older. always.

 

a fairly common characteristic of new places is they leak. I don't know what happened to architecture along the way. I think they tried to be trendy and removed eves and things. Lots of new units leak from bathrooms above. I guess its a bit like a cannondale mountain bike of the 1990s (super exclusive and considered to be top tier engineering) vs one from 2018 (pretty tinny). everything these days is done on the cheap. Houses and apartments included.

 

Also, may find the older ones have bigger rooms/wardrobes etc. Always a consideration. Some of the newer ones are tiny inside.