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Semi-empty condos? Before buying an apartment, it is better to think twice

When you enter an apartment building to visit your future home, always take a thorough look at the doorbells on the intercom. Because a property is not always a bargain if the rest of the building is uninhabited. The reason is simple and is related to the payment of condominium expenses, which are often difficult to pay when the apartments of a property are owned by a company or a private individual who has moved home.

Buying the house requires numerous and careful evaluations. In particular, if the apartment is in a condominium, attention must be paid to the condominium expenses which can represent, especially in times of economic crisis, a considerable economic “weight”: what do they concern, which items include the condominium expenses?

The purchase of an apartment inserted inside a condominium building can never be evaluated solely as the purchase of four rooms plus accessories or 150 commercial square meters, almost certainly, to risk an unwary purchase. The condominium apartment, in fact, necessarily also carries with it all the condominium expenses pertaining to the property which are insensitive to changes in ownership and for which the condominium can also demand payment from the last buyer.

The weight of condominium expenses can also become extremely burdensome if we consider that, in addition to ordinary expenses such as utilities and maintenance of the common parts, concierge and lift services, condominium expenses are also those for the renovation of the facade, the replacement of the roof and those relating to energy efficiency. Please note that anyone who buys a property in a condominium is required to pay the condominium expenses for the current year and the one prior to the date of purchase. But of course you always have a more affordable option, like Aria on the bay condos for sale.


An extra weight that can further increase if the buyer buys an apartment in a complex where there are many unsold real estate units. For the apartments left unsold, do you always pay and pay for the property and will it therefore be your sole and exclusive problem, or are there conditions under which the owners of the few units sold may also have to bear additional expenses?

As previously anticipated, the condominium expenses “follow” the property itself and, therefore, are to be borne by the person who is the owner of the property in the relevant management year. In the case of unsold real estate units, it will therefore be the construction company or the owner of the area who will have to bear the condominium expenses of the unsold units. This situation, apparently clear and positive for new buyers, instead generates situations of discomfort both in the condominium assembly which is a force game also constituted by a heavy condominium who does not have a great interest in condominium life, and with reference to payment of condominium charges, because a company with an important unsold is often at risk of its own survival.

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