By Anessa V. Cohen
Apartments in Manhattan are expensive; that’s a given. So many factors must be considered in order to determine the value of an apartment, but for purposes of this article I’ll narrow the criteria.
The location of the property is a major determining factor in pricing. The better the location, the higher the asking price, whether the property is a house or an apartment.
The same holds true in the decision to buy a cooperative apartment or a condominium apartment. A co-op apartment will always be cheaper than a condo apartment, no matter where it is located, simply because in a co-op you buy shares in a cooperative project rather than purchase your own property; anything you want to do to that apartment—even buy or sell it—needs to be approved first by its co-op board.
The discussion of amenities is an interesting subject. Some units might offer building amenities such as doorman service or a concierge service. Some buildings have their own gym or swimming pool for the tenants’ use. There are various features on the amenities list, but there is one thing they all share in common—higher maintenance fees on the apartments in their building projects.
Interestingly, some customers see apartments advertised with all kinds of amenities offered as part of the apartment complex, but never stop to consider that these amenities come with the cost of maintaining them. That translates into higher monthly maintenance charges as a part of each apartment’s share.
Amenities are lovely, but having a swimming pool means you need to pay a guy to clean and put chemicals in the pool, and to open and close the pool. Extra electricity is needed to keep the pumps and heater going, so all of this is going to cost extra money, and that expense needs to be divided among the parties in the building using the pool.
You’d like a doorman? Great, but the doorman needs to be paid a salary, as well as health and worker’s-compensation benefits, and you will probably need at least two or three doormen, since one guy can’t work 24/7 by himself. Again, all of this extra expense has to be divided among the apartment dwellers and added to the existing maintenance.
An apartment without special amenities will probably be considered a generic apartment in the years to come, almost like an economy ticket on a commercial airline. We all like to be pampered with nice amenities—but first we have to see if we can afford the monthly maintenance charges that are part of the package! v
Anessa Cohen lives in Cedarhurst and is a licensed real-estate broker and a licensed N.Y.S. mortgage broker with over 20 years of experience, offering full-service residential and commercial real-estate services (Anessa V Cohen Realty) and mortgaging services (First Meridian Home Loans) in the Five Towns and throughout the tri-state area. She can be reached at 516-569-5007 or via her website, www.AVCrealty.com. Readers are encouraged to send questions or comments to anessa @AVCrealty.com.