Buying a dream apartment without a lift?

Accomodation, House and Garden
21
Meanwhile the OP‘s post count remains at 1...

22
My brother installed a lift in a new build in Verbier over 3 floors, it made sense as the kitchen / living room is on the top floor so has a better view. The neighbour each side did not bother.

23
I personally would not buy an apartment without a lift. You may get some orthopaedic issues, need crutches, etc. Anything can happen...

First floor no incentive to get one, 2nd little so sounds as a not very likely scenario.

24
Lift repair costs over time get expensive, many people would rather pay half as much in service charges & walk up a few stairs. I bought a penthouse built on a 2 story house since extended with an extra floor plus a roof garden. So 3rd,4th & 5th as living space, we have no lift but one hell of a sea view.

We are a couple 59/60, I broke my back 3 years ago, having stairs keeps you fit in old age, if I can't manage 5-6 flights then it's time for EXIT. Crutches are fine for stairs, wheel chairs are the issue.

Our winter home is 160m2 ground floor flat wheel chair friendly with a garden, I thought having to dig snow oneself with a chalet on 3 floors was less attractive.

25
True that it is actually healthy but having had crutches for a couple of months, living on the fourth floor without elevator was not fun.

26
it's not just the installation cost, it's the ongoing maintenance and repairs....stairs seem to last a lot longer without needing any maintenance - in the multi-family house were we live, we don't even have a cleaner for the common areas! We're all just happy to have low-rent and a family-friendly attitude throughout... I think the stairwell has been cleaned once in 10 years...

27
I would never buy an apartment without a lift, not even First floor really.

I am fit and take the stairs as much as I can and we lived for 3 yrs on 4th without a lift when we were younger.

It will be fine "most" of the time and then it will not...

1) Deliveries are often to the door and people want to be paid more to lug stuff up to 4th floor

2) not fun going Up and down with holiday lugagge

3) recently our lift was broken and our old dog cannot do stairs, not fun carrying 25kg up and down several times a day

4) husband got an issue with his foot and cannot do stairs now

The list goes on.... I know we cannot plan life thinking of the worse but for a purchase of that price... Nah

28
They won't regret it if they ever need it. They may find when they sell that for some people an in house lift is a selling feature. Our house was built with a lift. It hardly takes up any space. I would say the stairways take up far more room.

As for maintenance costs, we paid more for a service on our heat pump in our previous house than we do for the lift.

29
Thank you for all your thoughts- We indeed decided to make our purchase contingent on agreement of the neighbors. I do think that the owners/brokers would not want to go that route and if they have another interested party then they'd rather sell to them - So I think probably we're giving up our chances for this apartment - however, since lift is something that is indeed important for me, I'd rather make sure its possible beforehand.

Exactly my thoughts- we'll probably get used to the view and everything else, probably even the daily up/down the stairs as long as we're fit- but if any of us broke our leg, we'll really miss something as basic as lift!!

Do you know roughly how much did it cost for the complete installation?

30
I can't be sure, however it was one hell of an expensive project ended up @ 22k m2 in 2009.

31
The lift will require a building permit which will require not only the approval of the owners of the other 2 units in the building but the owners next to the property. Have you taken all these neighbours into consideration?

That being said, even if all the neighbours sign off, things can still go pear shaped during the approval process at the gemeinde.

If the sellers were smart they would get permission officially and sell the unit with the building permit.

32
If I were investing 2.5 Mil , would not compromise on Lift.

If other houses are available for 3 mil, extra 500k is not something you are paying our of the pocket, it will be max 100k (20%) initially and additional 75k (total 35%) till you retire, Rest is funded by bank which you are not expected to pay.

So basically if you invest 100k (175) more you can then get a 'dream' apartment , and from the comments above it is clear that this 175k will probably not get you a lift in this apartment.

33
if you don't have the income to cover the half a mil increment you will need to pay it in full

34
Agree, If I were in such a situation I would look for another house. For 2.5 M i'm sure there will be a lot of decent houses.

35
if i lived on the ground floor, i wouldn't want the noise, inconvenience during building, costs of installing and on-going maintenance fees from the lift.

36
Ground floor don't have to pay maintenance fees, they just need to amend the building rules correctly to include this.

The other points may be overcome with a cash payment...

37
In most buildings with a lift, the owner of the ground floor does pay towards the lift, just as everybody pays towards the roof repairs.

38
If there is a basement carpark then yes, since they are effectively on the first lift floor.

But not (always) if they are on the lowest lift floor - I know one friend who didn't. No idea how common this is.

But my point was that the building cost-share rules can be amended to say this if that's the cost of getting it done. It's easy to see why an owner who gets zero benefit from a lift wouldn't want to pay for it.

39
exactly this. It's not 70k, it's about 70k and if you pay for it and have sole use then it's on you for maintenance and it will be drawn into the register/Eigenturmer setup you have.

This may in turn also make the property expensive to shift due to the high NK of the lift over time.

I see the lift costs for my building and the people who claim not to use it spent a lot of oxygen on discussions that they should pay zero or less. Lift operating costs and maintenance are expensive.

You can rent a lift to move in and out.

My advice: buy without, spend the money on an Apple watch and close your rings every day....!!!

40
The last place we lived in had a lift.

We used it when we moved in and again when we moved out.

I almost always take the stairs in hotels. Free exercise - what's not to like?

What is maddening is that a few hotels I have used in the U.S. have stairs that miss the ground floor entirely and stop one floor below that in a gated and locked outside area below the ground floor.

The stairs are basically for emergency use as an exit only.