[mmxylorider]

I believe it is a factor of age, family size etc. At a younger age, one can put in the effort of maintaining an entire home have space for family, entertain guests and simply be independent. For elderly people, an apartment brings predictability and support from others around. That is built into our culture. Add to it, security, elevators, common spaces, and even in some case stores within the complex.

[jkrishnakj]

Let me add my perspective, having lived in both types. I currently live in a very large Villa type area. Its been 3 + years. 3 in the family, son is 16 and my wife and I are both 46+

1. You mostly end up spending a lot of time at the ground floor. The terrace is used just twice a day, mostly by my wife to dry clothes.
2. The mosquitoes are a menance. Its almost impossible to keep the doors open. This means that even the slight evening breeze is stopped from getting into the house. The mosquitoes always win in the Mosquito Vs Breeze decision making process
3. We have a couple of neighbors who are quite loud or are very passionate to their fellow family members. Its very clear to hear. We are also careful to ensure all the curtains are rolled in so that the peek available for my neighbors who are 3 feet away doesn't happen
4. In an independent house, you almost always end up finding way to spend money on something or the other - a Plant, a pot, a grill, a small gate, a small wooden fence, a pipe connection gone wrong, a tile in the parking coming out etc..etc..There will always be something extra each month to spend on
5. Parking is never a problem.
6. Ample open space and green lung spaces.
7. You get to do your own terrace garden, kitchen garden and stuff ( i somehow don't spend too much time there, its my wife's territory)
8. Relatives who visit love it. There is ample space in the ground/first floor rooms
9. Days where the maids cant come, its tough indeed to just finish sweeping and mopping all rooms.

I still love this set up. I do get in that a fully equipped high rise can provide a different experience, but i have got used to the 'quiet' nights here. I so love the SqFt / Person ratio of space available to the residents. The # of cars and people in one tower of an 8 floor building can be as high as 150 Cars / 150-160 people dense. Just for the 'Quiet', i would continue to stay in my own home. There is also this sense of security of having your own small piece of land that you live in.

[itwasntme]

I stay in a high-end gated villa community and probably enjoy the best combination of privacy, common amenities & services, space etc. Plumbers, electricians etc are a phone call away, common areas are vast and well maintained, and privacy is pretty good depending on the size of the plot.

What is a must is a good lift (excellent pneumatic lifts available nowadays)! More than the age-related factor, you just need to sprain your legs badly to realize how constraining a G+2 villa can be. I learnt it the hard way when I badly tore my ankle ligaments, and was more or less restricted to the ground floor of my villa. Each journey up or down was an agonizing 15 minutes to cover 3 short flights of stairs!

[vharihar]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

I stay in a high-end gated villa community and probably enjoy the best combination of privacy, common amenities & services, space etc. Plumbers, electricians etc are a phone call away, common areas are vast and well maintained, and privacy is pretty good depending on the size of the plot.

What is a must is a good lift (excellent pneumatic lifts available nowadays)! More than the age-related factor, you just need to sprain your legs badly to realize how constraining a G+2 villa can be. I learnt it the hard way when I badly tore my ankle ligaments, and was more or less restricted to the ground floor of my villa. Each journey up or down was an agonizing 15 minutes to cover 3 short flights of stairs!

In a GND+2 independent house on a 30 ft x 40 ft plot built using formwork technology (so all walls are fully RCC) with just 3 feet wide yardspace all around the house, is it possible to build a small lift (elevator) in the yardspace (or inside the house), to help avoid climbing stairs? Say even for a single person capacity with space for carrying say a laundry basket.

If anyone has done such a thing, pls share, along with vendor details.

[Sebring]

Please google vacuum lifts in India. Very early buildings had vacuum tubes to send stuff around the office in USA, this works on same principle. Or you can go for conventional single person lift - https://www.eliteelevators.com/produ...RoCe0oQAvD_BwE

Originally Posted by vharihar

is it possible to build a small lift (elevator) in the yardspace (or inside the house), to help avoid climbing stairs? Say even for a single person capacity with space for carrying say a laundry basket.

[poloman]

Originally Posted by Sebring

Please google vacuum lifts in India. Very early buildings had vacuum tubes to send stuff around the office in USA, this works on same principle. Or you can go for conventional single person lift - https://www.eliteelevators.com/produ...RoCe0oQAvD_BwE

Not sure how many people will be able to spend 40L on a home elevator. I think these will get hugely popular at about 5L price range. Also hope the maintenance rates will be reasonable compared to traditional lifts. We have 8 lifts in our apartment and we spend around 3.6L as yearly maintenance.

The best thing is to leave provision for the lift as of now. This duct can be used as a skylight or something useful for the time being and install the lift when you really need it.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by vharihar

is it possible to build a small lift (elevator) in the yardspace (or inside the house), to help avoid climbing stairs? Say even for a single person capacity with space for carrying say a laundry basket.

As Sebring has put it, it's easily possible to do so. I would suggest the pneumatic type inside your house if you have a stairwell wide enough. That would be ideal in my opinion. I don't have any vendor details but there is a lot on information on the Net.

[girimajiananth]

I would like to contribute my 2 paise to this thread.

Close to 20 years of my life I spent in various individual houses with my parents moving from one rented house to another before they built a nice duplex house. I had the luxury of my own room, plenty of terrace space to grow my own plants. 11 years ago, my father took the decision of selling that house for a throwaway price to move in to a much smaller 2 BHK closer to the city.

I regret his decision till today. There are certain advantages of staying in an apartment, security, if you are lucky you might get friendly and helpful neighbours.

I see more disadvantages here.

-As the apartment building gets older, things start breaking down. We face elevator breakdown every now and then, I can climb three flights of stairs, but imagine moving groceries, gas cylinder and any other heavy lifting. Its a back breaking task. The short sighted builder has installed a used lift.

- If you buy an apartment from a not so very reputed builder, the titles may not be clear.

- You do not have the freedom of using terrace, basement, or any other common utility area without getting nasty looks from your neighbours.

- some builders show a lot of cost cutting everywhere. For example, the height of my ceiling is only 9ft, and we stay on the top floor of the apartment, it gets very hot during summers and there is very less I can do to help it.

- When my father purchased the apartment, we had a decent view outside with lots of trees, birds chirping and plenty of space. A few years down the line the builder got greedy and now when I look out of the balcony, I see my neighbours dining room.

- if you are elected or nominated to be the apartment association's office bearer, be mentally prepared to be ill treated. I unfortunately accepted the responsibility and regretted it very soon. People show their corporate mentality on you and expect you to share status update on housekeeping issues, water issues, security issues and everything under the roof. Due to heavy rain / wind yesterday, the plastic sheet covering one of the air ducts in my apartment was broken. One of the resident posted a photo in the whats app group and was cringing about it since it was not fixed in the morning.

- A lot of apartments do not have pooja room / god room if it is a must for you.

- The depreciation value. You would have paid xx lakhs 10 years back, and theoretically your apartment may be worth at least 1 crore, trust me, you will not find a buyer for half the price you think it is worth it, especially if its an old building.

I can keep ranting about this, but I personally feel if you have an individual house, dont ever do the blunder of selling it and moving to an apartment.

[vkochar]

I own both. I have rented an independent floor out to a company and stay myself in a large house. The best decision of my life even though it was opposed back then and I was forced to do the opposite but I did not budge.

Today I run a full fledged office ( work from home is not new to me ) from my own house ( Ground floor ), I have a gym, garden, a huge terrace, indoor car parking of 4 cars and more outside my house and nearly 3200 sqft of modern setup as residence on the first floor. We are 5 people and have staff of nearly 5 people other than office people who come and go.

I'd simply say never ever ever move to an apartment by selling your house. Apartments have a short life and depreciate and condition of the building deteriorates quickly. Maintenance issues galore and huge percentage of residents and neighbors will not contribute to monthly expenses and at times are delayed or overdue. This leaves the pressure on a few well behaved individuals who will bear the brunt of this.

A house will be inherited by your children and then grand children and so on. You can spend money and invest in it as and when you are comfortable. You can do upgrades and plan in phases and it is exciting.

A piece of land will give you so much in return. I remember my uncle had told me in my early days that a piece of land will always reward you. An apartment will remain the same. You can never expand a single sqft.

[amiya.c]

I have been through this dilemma couple of years back and finally decided to go for an apartment. Both of them have their pros and cons but following were the ones that help me conclude my decision:
Prod of an Apartment:
- 24x7 security.
- Children and elders can roam around freely in the premises.
Secured space to move around.
- Amenities like gym, community hall, recreational area, swimming pool all at one place within the secured walls.
- Karate, dance and other type of classes for children.
- Festivals, new years, etc celebrations.
- Responsibilities of water supply, electricity, sewage, security, amenities are shared by all, by the association to be more precise. Nothing is on your head alone.

[bsdbsd]

Haven't gone through all the posts. But gave them a cursory glance. The question should have been 'Living in apt or house - given various stages of life'. All the answers given here are right when coupled with your age bracket. That is the 50% of equation.

[Vegitocat]

The single most important reason I prefer an individual house is the freedom to have a garden and a dog. This is simply not possible in an apartment IMO.

Then there's the infinite possibilities to build it like you want and modifications thereafter.

Apartments are more of a compromise for me till I am able to buy a land (hopefully within city limits) and build a house.

[SaiSW]

House anyday, anytime. And this is coming from a person who is living in an apartment. Privacy is more, more space to utilise and you can modify it according to your fancies. If you want two row car shed, so be it, if you want three, well it's your land.

If you want some creepy gnome to welcome any visiters, on your garden, well it's your land. Want to grow vegetables, well you can do that as well. Maybe you can grow plants on the balcony of an apartment, but it is limited and not comfortable. I wouldn't grow it on my balcony.

Not possible in an apartment. I do not mean to offend any apartment owners, as I mentioned, myself living in an apartment.

But if I had the option to trade an apartment for a nice peaceful house, I will take it, without a single shred of doubt.

[CarJunki]

Which ever you can buy without borrowing.

Both Apartment and independent house are liabilities albeit of different kinds.

[smooth indian]

The choice between an apartment and a house is dictated by one's pocket, lifestyle preferences and perhaps the quality of the property available. A poorly constructed house connected only by mud roads and with patchy power supply will be unattractive as compared to an reasonably spacious apartment with decent amenities.

I have lived in an apartment pretty much my whole life; Being an apartment within a large gated housing society in Mumbai with spacious gardens, ample privacy and good amenities, I wouldn't swap it for anything.

The lockdown forced me to stay in our house in a small town for the past 11 weeks. It has given me some insight into how good living in an independent house can be. An independent house allows you the flexibility of designing/modifying the house as per your choice. One the other hand one has to pay attention to all aspects of the house. I think an independent house works best if you have figured out how to fit it into your lifestyle. Generally a house or land for the house is available on the outskirts of large cities or in smaller cities/towns. For a lot of us with careers invested in large cities the apartment is an easy choice as it pretty much comes readymade and for a lower price tag. However, if I can find a modest villa or townhouse or an independent house with reasonable amenities in a good exurb/town with convenient access to the city, I would prefer such a house. The amenities I feel are most important are good roads, reliable power supply and water supply. All other thing can be managed with creativity and thriftiness if these three are in order. You can also get a sense of security if you have good neighbors and importantly are on good terms with those staying next to you.