Lately, after got married, I had discussion with my wife whether we should provide our future house with an apartment or landed house. Today, we live in a rented studio room, close to my office. Even though we have been discussing about it for many times, I still hesitate to decide. It's so never ending thought. Every choice has strengths and weaknesses. Hence my wife and I should take the right one.
To be honest, I prefer apartment to landed house. It is cheaper (although it is still not affordable for newly weds to be purchased anyway), usually located near city center and public transportation, and nowadays it offers mixed-use concept so the residents will easily get to catch up some groceries or run for errands only by few walks. I also like living in high rise building, seeing cityscape and viewing everything from top as if they are all toys.
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| Source: https://www.pinterest.com/explore/city-apartment-decor/ |
But, of course, its main weakness is it doesn't have land property right to the owners. For some reason, it also doesn't provide enough private room, so consequently the residents should share the facility for instance, garden, terrace, parking lot, etc. It is so-called you get what you pay for. As far as I know, also the property of apartment is unable to be owned for long term or it has limit until only few decades.
Meanwhile, landed houses even though come with very expensive price almost provide all the things every family needs such as land property, private room, private garden, carport, etc. In Indonesia, this option is always be the priority no matter what your financial ability is. If you don't have a lot of money, you can buy it at the remote area, far away from city center. I think that is why Jakarta always becomes bigger every year due to its uncontrolled sprawl. But again, it feels safe if we have land property because the price will always increase like crazy. For instance, this year you buy IDR 1 million per m sq, next year it possibly will become IDR 2-3 million per m sq, and in next 5 years you'll be a billioner. It will be more fantastic if the district near your house is being build by toll road, commuter train, and shopping mall. What a tantalizing investment, isn't it? The price of apartments is also being affected by city development though, but I think it is not as high as landed houses.
My recent discussion with my wife, she and I agree that for now with our current condition, our job, our plan, our need, we prefer to own a studio apartment in Jakarta rather than to push ourselves buying (remember, not by cash, should be credit) a landed house very far from the capital. In our next years, we will live and raise our children in an apartment. We dream to buy a landed house not in Greater Jakarta, maybe in Semarang, maybe in Rembang, we haven't known yet. That dream house will be our retirement shelter some day. Or maybe if someday I have more money, I will buy a land in Jakarta's periphery just for investment not for my family's home.
Regarding raising-children stuff, at one time, I have had a thought to conduct research about how children in apartment and vertical housing are being raised and the effect of their house to their growth. I am actually very sure, those children are raised as well as the ones who live in landed houses, but somehow I need a scientific evidence. Well, I hope living in apartment is not bad.
