I realize that comparing at first glance two so close in meaning, but in fact, such different market segments in terms of content, is not a gratifying thing for me: because, and I have no doubt about it, there will be ardent supporters on both sides of the barricades and I would definitely not like to be something like a lightning rod in this situation. And yet my opinion – firstly, as a person with rich life experience, and secondly as a realtor with invaluable professional baggage, on the account of the fact that it is still better: a new building or a secondary property, I will venture to present. In short, the secondary housing is definitely better!
But I will not get ahead of myself, later I will definitely substantiate my position and tell you what it really is like to live in a new building on the secondary housing, and at the beginning, for the sake of completeness, I propose to consider the textbook generally accepted consumer qualities and characteristics of housing both in the primary and secondary markets …
Advantages of the new building:
Low cost
The initial cheapness of a new building does not leave any other options for a potential client in the market, since most buyers have very limited financial opportunities. Sometimes, in order to buy an apartment, a client saves money for years. Of course, in such difficult conditions, every penny is dear to him. Nobody wants to give their hard-earned money, let alone overpay for housing. You can regularly observe a situation when, when buying a home, a client literally scrapes up the missing rubles from the bottom of the barrel – the whole world collects pennies for him, the whole family: borrow from neighbors, borrow from friends. In this case, the choice of housing is carried out according to the principle – If only there is enough! And in most cases, there is enough only for a new building. The lower affordable price, in comparison with the secondary housing, is often the only, but the very powerful argument in favor of purchasing a primary home.
Mortgage on the “primary” – it’s as easy as shelling pears
Developers use the services of partner banks not only at the stage of project financing but also for its subsequent successful implementation to the end consumer. There is no doubt that if the buyer of a new building does not have enough own funds, then in the sales office he will be happy to offer mortgage products at once by several financial and credit institutions accredited by the developer. Such a scheme has already become traditional in the primary market because it is the most profitable and convenient not only for banks themselves but also for borrowers – at the same time, a potential client can be absolutely sure that the process of approving the apartment itself is a purely symbolic matter …
Investment attractiveness
For investment and profit, of course, a new building is best suited – in this respect, it is certainly much more profitable and more promising than secondary housing, where, due to certain circumstances, the maximum exhaust can be calculated in advance, whatever one may say. The profitability from the objects of the primary market at the moment is up to 40%, definitely, not a single secondary property can boast of such indicators.
Houses with a needle and will last a long time
I am sure there will be those who do not even disdain to live, but even to be in a used apartment – there is a rather large stratum of customers on the market who, at the mere thought that they have some time or the whole remaining life will have to be spent in a dirty old apartment, where, besides and before them, someone once lived, begins to shake like epileptics, stir up and turn out. For this group of comrades, sterile housing in a new building is the best fit. In addition, the houses are completely new – the mileage has not yet been twisted and, according to all preliminary estimates, they should serve for the joy of the owners for a very long time – the declared design capacity of modern new buildings is at least 50 years, and no one knows for certain how long the remakes will actually stand. but for the rest of the potential client’s life,
As clean as a tear
Primary housing has no dark, much less criminal past. The client should not be afraid that a deprived or belated heir will appear and present legal rights to the apartment. The reputation of the new building is impeccable, and legally, the history of the “primary” is crystal clear as a baby’s tear. The developer has nothing special to check, except for the constituent and permitting documentation. Life not only for new settlers but also for the apartment itself begins with a clean slate …
Modern layouts
Convenient planning solutions that meet all the requirements of modern life and the wishes of economically active youth. Apartments made for people often do not leave indifferent even the most sophisticated clients on the market, spacious areas, often free planning allows even the most daring design projects to be realized.
Here the choice is huge – there is huge scope …
I sometimes call Black Stone Estate Agents in Manchester, the UK for the supermarket of new buildings. You can choose an apartment for every taste and budget: what size and layout you want, on any side of the world, on any floor. Yes, and from the diversity dazzles in the eyes: penthouses, apartments, studios, duplexes, townhouses, apartments in low-rise buildings, housing in skyscrapers – there is no count of everything …
Contemporary design and architecture
Beauty saves the world every day, and, in particular, helps a developer to sell a new building. And before that, a huge number of specialized specialists painstakingly work day and night on the unique design and architecture of the future project, taking into account the latest trends and fashion trends in their research, so as not to leave indifferent even the most sophisticated clients on the market and ultimately achieve the desired result. Not all modern residential complexes are architectural masterpieces, but most of them are pleasing to the eye with bright colors. And from the point of view of aesthetics, the new building looks much more attractive.
Cozy courtyard
A courtyard without cars with underground parking, and in general a well-thought-out house of trifles, an adjoining space with lawns and flower beds, young trees, shrubs, and other green spaces, playgrounds and sports grounds, walking and bicycle paths, benches, and gazebos often persuade customers to buy a new building …
Repair and redevelopment without looking back and a twinge of conscience
In new buildings, the owners often have a unique opportunity, without looking at the already existing renovation, to reshape the space of the apartment at their discretion and to bring to life even the most daring design projects and solutions.
A simplified transaction
Compared to the secondary market, the transaction in the primary market is much easier and in many cases faster. The sale of a new building is always free without complicated alternative chains – no need to wait for the release of the owners, discuss the terms of physical release and relocation, there are no restrictions or encumbrances at all on the object that impede the turnover of real estate: minor children, before the sale and purchase transaction with which it is necessary to enlist the support of the guardianship authorities ; grandparents, on a deal with whom it is necessary to make sure of their sound mind and fond memory by calling a doctor for a medical examination and obtaining an appropriate official opinion on the sanity of the patient being examined, etc.
There is no social stratification
The factor is not unimportant – often tenants in a new building line up according to the selection, according to age groups or interests: economically active and promising, young and beautiful, modern and advanced, fit and athletic. In new buildings, it is very easy to make friends or just get to know a nice person because there are practically no alcoholics, bums, drug addicts, and other asocial elements. In addition, you can often see such a situation when employees of one company make up the overwhelming majority of residents of a new building, thereby arranging a corporate get-together at home. How can you not recall the departmental houses in the USSR …
Cons of primary housing:
House completion dates
A new building is a purchase of housing with a delay of settlement for at least a year and a half. In addition, the deadlines for putting a house into operation can constantly shift – this is what usually happens with us: we count on one promised time for us, and in the end we get something completely different. As practice shows, the risk of disrupting the delivery of the house, receiving the keys and settling in the primary market is really very, very high – with such a classic plot twist, for example, those clients who need to pay simultaneously for a mortgage on a new building and the current one will find themselves in an extremely difficult situation. rental of secondary housing. In terms of the promptness of the settlement, the new building is much worse than the secondary.
Deceived real estate investors
Tent camps of deceived real estate investors, set up near construction sites under the roar of babies and crying of mothers with inviting posters to return the money – this is not a fantasy, not a myth and not a horror story for the night, but an everyday reality. The client often realizes that he is buying a new building at his own peril and risk, but he cannot help himself, since for him this is the only opportunity to improve his living conditions. It is worth noting, however, that the government at the state level has taken a number of measures designed to streamline the activities of developers in the industry and thereby reduce the number of defrauded equity holders, but the risk of capital investment loss in the primary market is still enormous and no one is insured against unfinished construction. From the point of view of the reliability of investments, the new building in all respects loses to the secondary.
Psychological pressure
As you know, there is nothing worse than waiting and catching up. Living in conditions of uncertainty, moreover, over a rather long distance, you cannot wish the enemy. The moral and psychological pressure exerted by the process of a house under construction is compared by many clients only to the onset of a great disaster or war. God only knows what investors and investors have to go through, what difficulties to overcome, what efforts to make on themselves, before the long-awaited settlement in a new building. With the receipt of the keys, the client often receives in addition a shattered nervous system. Those who have gone through the fire, water, and copper pipes, or those lucky ones who were lucky enough to go through all the seven circles of hell will definitely confirm that psychological stability or mental balance is not the strong point of the new building, and in this context, it is clearly weaker than the secondary.
“Our hearts demand changes, our eyes demand changes …”
A change in the environment and habitual way of life can affect the body both positively and negatively. Nostalgia and the constant comparison of the new area with the old are inevitable. Let everyone know in advance that moving to a foreign unfamiliar area will require a certain psychophysiological adaptation from the newcomer. Resale in this respect is more conservative, and in this respect, it is certainly better.
Quiet hour
The issue of conducting noise construction work in the daytime is especially relevant for housewives with babies or, for example, for those who do not sit in an office, but work on a remote system, that is, spend most of their time at home. Life under the blows of hammers and perforators, accompanied by swearing, really becomes for those living in a new building at times completely unbearable. As Boris Grebenshchikov sings in his song Cardiogram, sometimes the thoughts of the tenants reach the point that they seriously think about it: “Can I take it and throw it off so that they stop drilling ?!”. The new settlers are literally praying that the hour of silence that will save them will come as soon as possible. Quiet secondary housing looks much better in this regard …
Repair from scratch
There is no doubt that repairs in a new building will cost the owner a pretty penny. The front of work is so wide that your head is spinning: floor screed, wall leveling, slitting tracks in concrete for electrical wiring, plumbing fixtures, ceilings, plastic windows, metal doors – and this is just the beginning! Although the builders say that it is much better to build a new one than to redo the old one, yet a complete overhaul on the secondary housing looks much more preferable, if only because this option is more economical (there is no need to carry out general construction work) and ultimately the client is much more profitable.
Biting communal apartment
The more intermediaries in the chain, the higher the cost of housing and communal services for the end consumer will be. The unreasonably high prices of utility providers in new buildings can somehow be understood and justified, for example, by the organizational and legal form of homeowners – HOA and a hired MC – a management company, but at the same time, an unfair attitude to their duties is, sorry, not in which gate does not fit. Contracts directly with the State Budgetary Institution Zhilishchnik or other municipal budgetary organizations that provide home management services in the field of housing and communal services cost the owners of the secondary housing much cheaper.
Parking
The problem of the lack of a sufficient number of parking spaces for personal vehicles exists absolutely everywhere: both in the secondary housing and in new buildings. But in the primary market, it sometimes comes to the point of absurdity: a skyscraper of 45 floors and only 7 parking spaces for parking in the yard!
Meal’n’Real
A chain retail store with a meager assortment of essential goods, a pharmacy, and a hairdresser – this is clearly not enough for a population of several thousand people. But it is precisely such a meager infrastructure that most new buildings can boast of. The absence of the elementary benefits of civilization in residential complexes is a fairly standard situation, not to mention leisure. Entertainment in new buildings is an unaffordable luxury. Engaging yourself in the evening with something interesting or useful (drinking beer in front of the TV or playing with toys on the computer does not count) is not an easy task. With cultural events such as cinema, theater, concert or shopping – it’s just a disaster!
Transport infrastructure
Getting to work for two or three hours one way is a usual thing for residents of new buildings. As they say, seven miles is not a hook for a mad dog! New buildings are being erected on lands freed as much as possible from all kinds of encumbrances, cheap wastelands on the outskirts of large cities, bare fields and swamps. The ideal option is the presence of a direct connection near the house of the railway station, otherwise, the owner of the “primary” will have to stand in many kilometers of traffic jams and slowly die.
Socially significant objects
In new buildings, while everything is working out – a lot of water will leak. In the developer’s office it is not customary to talk about this out loud, in many cases it is even forbidden to think about social responsibility! The situation will be very good for new settlers, if, through petitions and rallies or with the help of the intervention of high officials of the state, the developer builds only one school or kindergarten from all the social facilities necessary for a full life. Hospitals, clinics, paramedics centers, rehabilitation and children’s creativity centers, gyms, museums and cultural centers are very rare in new buildings. An ambulance can go to a call for hours and some elderly grandmother with an acute attack will never wait for her …
Secondary pros:
Take it – I don’t want to!
The secondary housing has a sufficient number of a wide variety of interesting planning solutions and a series of houses, which, I am sure, will satisfy the needs of even the most sophisticated clients on the market. There really is a lot to choose from – apartments in block, panel, brick, monolithic, frame houses of any number of stories: from old low-rise buildings to high-rise buildings and skyscrapers, in any area of the city you like or have long been familiar with, with the necessary set of rooms and utility rooms. Do not forget about the houses with the status of architectural monuments and representing the cultural heritage of the national level: facade stalinkas of the neoclassical period, civil pre-revolutionary buildings of the XIXcentury, buildings in the Art Nouveau style, eclecticism, classicism. The choice of secondary housing will be much more interesting and these are definitely better than new buildings!
Living place
“An old inhabited area with a long-established social, retail, retail, information, transport infrastructure – everything is literally at hand” – this is the phrase that is often present in my ads for the sale of secondary housing. There isn’t much to add. In locations with history, everything that the local population needs for comfortable full-fledged living is always within walking distance from home. By absolutely all socio-economic indicators, the secondary housing is much better than any new building! And one cannot but agree with this!
Done conscientiously or solid “secondary housing”
The quality of modern new buildings leaves much to be desired, which cannot be said about the majority of old houses built in compliance with all urban planning norms, GOSTs, SNIPs and other documentation regulating the processes of residential construction. The design capacity, for example, for Stalinist houses is 100-120 years old, for 9-12-story panels of the Soviet-era 60-70 years, but now we can say with confidence that they can stand 2 times longer, and all because then there was strict control and built conscientiously, not like now … The quality of construction is clearly in favor of secondary housing.
The picture is clear
Before buying a secondary property, the fortuneteller does not need to go to the grandmother – the whole alignment is at a glance: the constant composition of the tenants of the house, the existing infrastructure, shortcomings. There will be no shrinkage of the house or global population rotation. Drastic structural changes in the area or quarter are unlikely. There is no need to sit and wonder who will once again settle in the neighborhood tomorrow, or what in the future can spoil the view from the window. Stability – the secondary looks much better in this component.
Stop by and live
Even the most shabby secondary apartment can conditionally come off to the client for living for the first time, besides, it is possible to move into it immediately after the transaction. No need to sit and pull out the last hairs on your head, wondering when the house will be built, when it will be handed over. Efficiency is another advantageous side of secondary housing.
Strong energy or aura of housing
Feeling the spirit of the times that permeates the air in old houses is a special feeling that, like a magnet, pulls towards itself or immediately pushes away from itself. In practice, it happens that the house seems to be unprepossessing, and the apartment is so-so, but the person fits in perfectly and feels good about himself in this place. For the vast majority of clients, such intangible concepts as the aura of housing and the prevailing atmosphere are of paramount importance when choosing and subsequent purchase, because they directly affect physical health in general, and on mental balance and mood, in particular. Young identical new buildings often do not cause any emotions at all and in terms of any kind of energy, of course, they lose a lot to the secondary.
Cons of housing in the secondary market:
Crooked documents
Over time, the apartment becomes overgrown with suckers: encumbrances, restrictions, loans, and debts – with such a heavy load and a whole bunch of problems, it becomes more like a coral reef or an old tired hanger. Minor children, incapacitated grandparents, heirs, and spouses are an incomplete list of persons whose legitimate interests and rights must be taken into account when buying and selling secondary urban real estate, so the independent sale of the second property in most cases is hardly possible. Only a highly qualified specialist can handle a complex alternative transaction with a bunch of intricacies and nuances of a legal nature. The history and cleanliness of documents are clearly not the strong points of secondary housing.
Bank does not approve
Resale is housing with history, often with a dubious past. Despite the fact that a financial and credit institution thoroughly checks the apartment before issuing a loan to a client, the risk of running into an unpleasant circumstance, albeit minimal, remains always. The bank, of course, calculates everything and, in order to protect its investments, lays down possible costs from “pitfalls” in the loan amount, for this very reason the mortgage rates when buying a secondary property, albeit not much, are still higher compared to a new building. The approval process for a secondary property is much more complicated, and in some particularly difficult “foggy” cases, the bank may even refuse to issue a loan to the applicant without explaining the reasons. You have to pay more for secondary housing, in the end, it costs more and this is its undoubted fat minus.
Fatigue of the housing stock
Due to the general wear and tear of engineering networks and communications, the owners of the secondary housing daily face such problems as accidents on lines and pipelines – power outages, water supply, regular cosmetic and major repairs. The picture, with a ditch dug by public utilities in the middle of the roadway or courtyard for the re-laying of the next rotted pipe, has already made many people sore. The safety margin is not the strongest side of the secondary.
Contingent
Unfortunately, such declassed asocial elements such as Gopnik’s, drug addicts, and alcoholics are not uncommon. Over time, after an imaginary self-affirmation, the population begins to indulge in excess and degrade. You can often see a neighbor sank down on a bench in the courtyard of a house, shooting cigarettes or money for a drink. In such conditions, promising young people, of course, have an acute desire to get out of this mess as soon as possible. The first thing that comes to mind for those who are not indifferent is to move to live in a new building. Will, everything be different there, will it be better there? …
Repair is inevitable
Whatever condition the apartment is in at the time of purchase, clients will remake everything for themselves. In most cases, repairs on the secondary housing, unfortunately, are inevitable. At best, you can do only with cosmetics; at worst, you should roll up your sleeves, tighten your belts, and get ready for a complete overhaul in your living quarters.
