Be careful when buying condominiums.

You’ve finally found your dream apartment. It’s located in a large building that is shared by several condominium owners. The apartment meets all your needs: great location, wonderful view, ideal size, reasonable price, and apparently in good condition. You can hardly wait to hear that your application has been accepted.

However, buying residential property as condominium ownership is not without its pitfalls, and emotional enthusiasm can easily lead to important, objective aspects being overlooked. Simply following your emotions can therefore lead to problems later, considerable additional costs, and unpleasant surprises.

Hugo Steiner AG, a sister company of WüstundWüst within the Intercity Group, writes about this in its blog, which is well worth reading: “If the rest of the apartment building is in poor condition and urgent renovations are needed, but there is not enough money in the renovation fund of the condominium owners’ association (STWEG), the purchase can suddenly become much more expensive because you have to contribute money to the fund for years.”

When buying an apartment, it is therefore essential to check whether the renovation fund has sufficient capital. However, there is no general answer to the question of what is sufficient, according to the article. This question can only be answered by looking at the individual situation in more detail. An inventory needs to be taken: How old is the building and what condition is it in? Then it is necessary to clarify what maintenance measures have already been carried out in the past, what measures are still pending in the next 20 years or so, and what these would cost.

This is the only way to estimate whether the money in the fund will be sufficient for short-term measures on the one hand and cover necessary renovations in the future on the other. In the latter case, the amount of the annual payments into the fund specified by the STWEG must also be considered.

Hugo Steiner AG points out that gathering this information and data can be very time-consuming. The easiest way is for the STWEG to have already had a comprehensive analysis of the property, including investment planning, carried out by a specialist. This provides a relatively accurate picture of what is involved.

As with all complex issues that require a great deal of specialist knowledge, we know from experience that it is always worthwhile to consult proven experts, as this saves unpleasant surprises.

You can find more interesting articles on the Hugo Steiner AG blog.