Buying a condo in GTA . Maintenance cost. total monthly cash outflow on housing

[torontosm]

Thanks .

and thanks a lot for your positive contribution to this forum that is of immense help to people like me. Really appreciate it

You could also always rent. It saves you a lot of money on a monthly basis, and you pass on the headaches of maintenance, taxes, repairs, etc. to the landlord. Plus, you never have to worry about a property crash.

 

[Mapleson]

If you aren't near the lake, things are quite reasonable. If you are unsure that you'll be staying in the same location long-term (more than 5 years) it's cheaper to rent, including whatever equity you'd build.

You won't be able to get such a large mortgage, so have you considered other locations with good transit connections?

 

[fakenoob]

Am i right in thinking that the reason for such a high maintenace cost ( generally above $500 ) in condos is because of the heating and snow removal work? waht other thing does it cover. for a newly built building what other thing would take the maintenance cost so high . obviously the common gym , pool etc are given but any other factors?

 

[scylla]

Am i right in thinking that the reason for such a high maintenace cost ( generally above $500 ) in condos is because of the heating and snow removal work? waht other thing does it cover. for a newly built building what other thing would take the maintenance cost so high . obviously the common gym , pool etc are given but any other factors?

The more amenites the higher the maintenance costs (usually). Many buildings also have staffed front desks which adds to the cost.

Beware of buildings with very low maintenance costs. Typically these are either: (1) Very new buildings where the maintenance costs are going to go up substantially in the next severals years - so don't expect them to stay low; (2) Buildings that aren't saving enough money into maintenance funds and that are most likely either already in crisis or soon to be in crisis because they don't have enough money to be doing regular maintenance - these buildings are bad investments (very hard to sell) and you can end up paying thousands of dollars extra if a big issue comes up (e.g. building needs new roof) and the maintenance fund can't cover it.