A Pozo: Which To Choose?

[mariano-BCN]

I've been seeing a lot of flats 'cause I want to buy something for me with lots of light, good n'hood, well connected. etc. But the bottle neck in BsArs is always the creapy state of the flats: people don't do any kind of repair for decades.
So I'm thinking about buying a pozo, a brand-new flat, there are lots of them being built in Palermo and Recoleta, where I want to live. But...which to choose? Anybody suggestions?
And yes I know the stories about thin walls, cheap building-elements etc, therefor I'm very careful to choose.

 

[Davidglen77]

In my opinion, you are much better off with an older building, anything built 1960 and earlier. Even if the state of the apartment is creepy, you can always renovate, (which in itself is a BIG headache) but if you buy in a building that is poor quality construction.....and everyone of them that I have seen is, that is not something that is really fixable. I have friends who live in new buildings in Puerto Madero that have had leaks, flooring and plumbing problems just like people I know who have moved into new construction in Villa Urquiza, Belgrano and Monserrat. I lived in an older buildng and while the apartment needed a lot of repairs to make it comfortable, when they were finally done, there was NO comparison to the brand new building I lived in previously. Also when you move into a brand new building, the constructora passes on a ton of charges to you the buyer like: installation of the electric meter by Edenor / Edesur, gas connections, the legal fees to register the consorcio as a legal entitly, tons of other things, that add up into the thousands - you also MUST use their escribano to handle the transaction, which of course works for them. If you want new, buy one that is at least 2 years old that has all of these things worked out already.

 

[rickulivi]

Mariano

I cannot advise you on the pros and cons of buying on a pozo, but we bought a 60 or 70 year old flat about 10 years ago and it was in excellent shape, in a great location. However, it was dated. By that I mean it was an 130 m2 flat with only one full bathroom and a half one. One year ago we decided to nearly demolish the unit and convert it to three full bathrooms, added another half one, and completely redo the kitchen. It was an expensive undertaking but very easy to do from long distance. We interviewed several architects and finally hired one, and he did an amazing job. We live in California and only visited once during the remodel and from the pictures we have seen, the place has been remodeled exactly like we wanted it.

The advantages of buying a flat in an old building are: you know the neighborhood, the quality of the buildings itself, high ceilings, and you have the chance to remodel it to your exact wishes. The downfalls? It's very expensive. It is always a lot cheaper to buy a new place than to buy an old one and remodel it.

Good luck in your decision making.

 

[Napoleon]

I will say that every single apartment I've had the opportunity to visit in a "new building" (from ~2009 -> today) always seemed to be falling apart within 6 months of it being finished. I was an extra on several TV shows while living in LA and those temporary sets were better constructed than many of these apartments.

If I were to buy an apartment here, I would literally want to take over as foreman of the project as soon as the walls had been installed, and maybe before. And I'm not talking about the drywall walls either, I mean the original brick. Because after those are up (and probably even before) is when the mistakes start being made. From things like "DOORS" and "KEY HOLES & KEY HOLE COVERS" to "AIR CONDITION DRAINAGE TUBES" and "TOWEL HOOKS IN BATHROOMS", it seems like they pay some blind guys to install US$1,000 worth of materials to completely build out the apartment.

I'm thinking that buying an old place and doing it yourself would be MUCH BETTER than buying a brand new place if you want to hold onto it for more than a year.

 

[mariano-BCN]

thanks for the input, very useful.

 

[thelonghaul]

i must say... it's hard to imagine all the things that can go wrong in these new buildings from lack of decent construction. the last building i lived in was 3 years old. lovely to look at.

yet, every morning (mostly in the winter) the windows were covered in condensation. so much so that if i took a squeegee to them there was so much water dripping down the walls and onto the floor - that it wasn't possible to do.

i left all the windows of the apartment open every day and yet still

the walls were bubbling, the plaster around the window frames were falling apart - there was a pencil-sized hole when i left

boiling a pot of water was asking for trouble

beware. i don't know much about construction so perhaps you could foresee these issues but even an architect who bought a place there had no idea of the issues that would be encountered.