8 reasons to downsize into an apartment

Perhaps your children have all moved out of home and the need for a large four-bedroom home is no longer necessary. Keeping up with the maintenance of a home with a large yard can become a grind too. Swapping your weekends of mowing and weeding gardens for locking up your apartment and having a weekend away is certainly appealing.

1. Security

Above ground apartments and units with a secure intercom door entry provide fantastic security for your home.

2. Travel

Lock up and leave! With security ticked off, you are free to travel everywhere and anywhere without worrying about your home whilst you’re away.

3. Storage

You might think that apartments have little storage – and you might be right in some instances – but these days most new buildings provide a fantastic array of storage options within apartments. From broom cupboards, pantries and linen closets to robes and storage units in front of your car parks, there are a multitude of locations to store all your possessions. And if you’re still thinking, that’s not enough storage, then it’s worth thinking about whether it’s time to pass some of your stuff you haven’t used in years on to other family members who will use them more, or alternatively donate to your local charities and op shops for those in need.

4. Low maintenance living

One of the biggest reasons for downsizing is because your garden is becoming too much to manage and the home you’ve lived in for the past thirty years is starting to require a lot of maintenance. It’s a hassle to have to arrange quotes with trades all the time for repairs and maintenance, not to mention the annoying spring cleaning of your gutters! Either way, apartment living is a perfect option for assisting with low maintenance living. Even if you love your gardening but are finding your current garden is a little too big, that’s still no reason not to purchase an apartment. Choose an apartment that provides you enough space to plant herbs and flowers in pots on your balcony and choose some great indoor plants for your living room. This allows you to maintain a small number of plants, and then you can sit back and relax and enjoy still being surrounded by greenery and flowers.

5. Convenience

Apartment buildings are often conveniently located in areas where all important amenities and services are at your doorstep. When you choose an apartment building to live in, make sure you can walk to all the amenities you use on a regular basis:

• Grocery shops and supermarkets
• Cafes and restaurants
• Parks and open space
• Clothes shops
• Post office
• Council chambers and library
• Medical centres

6. Public transport

You might be driving now, but in five, ten or even fifteen years from now you’ll definitely want to avoid the hassle of getting in your car and driving into the city, finding a car park at your destination and then having to walk to where you’re trying to get to. Take care to choose an apartment in a location that has good access to public transport like buses, trains and trams (or plans for trams!). Alternatively, if you’re in an inner metro area, you should be able to easily call or hail a taxi or an Uber at the front door.

7. Energy efficiency

When downsizing, it’s expected that your bills will also go down too! But why stop there? A lot of new apartment buildings now are offering energy saving options such as solar systems, battery storage of solar power and even double glazing to lower your heating and cooling demands.

8. Time

If you’re considering downsizing, you might be thinking you want the security of knowing where you’re going but not have to rush to prepare for it in the normal timeframe of buying a home – which can be as little as thirty days if you’re purchasing an existing home!

The beauty of purchasing an off-the-plan apartment is that you can sign a contract to buy and then have two or even three years to prepare for it. You can do any work you need to do to prepare your home for sale and organise selling it. If you’re wanting to update your furniture, you have time.