Happy Easter everyone!
So my husband and I are in the initial stages of buying a home. We are looking at 2/3 bedroom penthouses, maisonettes and townhouses with their own roof and airspace. Our budget is €450k and we are not too picky about location.
While searching we stumbled across this 3 bedroom penthouse in Birkirkara, to be sold finished (excluding bathrooms and internal doors) at €445k. Now I am no expert, but it seems the brickwork is rather shoddy (mainly due to the uneven spacing between the bricks and see-through gaps), which leads me to the following questions.
(1) Is there a way to determine the underlying quality of the brickwork in a property that has been plastered & finished?
(2) Do you recommend we only look at "tried & tested" older-type properties / properties that have been lived in for 5+ years? Or are we likely to encounter other issues in such properties?
I shudder to think we can end up spending almost half a million for a property that will end up with mould / water issues within a few years… or worse, will collapse with a moderate earthquake.
Thanks in advance!
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1scxel0
Posted by cikka99
16 Comments
What you seeing are quite normal practices and everything will be covered in plaster. If it’s not a load bearing wall I wouldn’t worry. I would affix xps foam boards on the outside to decrease moisture and insulation in summer also for being a penthouse.
This is standard practice in Malta, poor brickwork and no mortar between them. If you want maybe a better built home you can go for an older build (20years) that does not use a lot of bricks. However you will be faced with certain things coming to the end of their life like pipes, so there are pros and cons.
Unfortunately the build quality has always sucked here.
We were looking for a property and we had a similar budget but the new built properties we were seeing were kind of shocking in their shoddiness and the townhouses at that price range needed hundreds of thousands of work done as they needed extensive construction works. Unfortunately we had to up our budget (I know this comes from a place of privilege) and bought a newer townhouse (built in the 60s) that required less work.
Check the height from floor to ceiling, especially the finished floor level height to ceiling (with drains, water pipes and electrical piping and level of tiles), it should be I believe a minimum height of 2.63/2.65mtr. Some apartments/buildings in some rooms do not meet this height requirements and you end up having issues with planning authority and electrical/water meter installation.
I really doubt the workmanship. It looks like a very shoddy job to sell to the first victim.
If you’re looking into buying a penthouse, my only advice is to check what sort of insulation it has in place. Ideally the exterior facade and exposed walls should have thermal insulation boards installed between the bricks & plastering, something which unfortunately doesn’t seem to be the norm and only diligent contractors do this. This will help you keep the place warmer in winter & cooler in summer, and save you considerable money on electricity bills in the long term.
I wouldn’t buy anything new or from developers tbh. They work using the cheapest materials possible and although they say finished it will most probably not be up to standard.we got an older house and fixed it, including changing electricity and water systems and putting in new tiles. We probably spent more and after 6 years we still have work to do, but at least we got to choose our workmen and suppliers and the building is of a much better quality.
My advice is not related to the photos but in general. As someone who bought on plan both finished including bathrooms and shell form this is what I would do if I had to buy again. Never on plan as often floor to ceiling height is either exact or less than it should be when finished and also you can end up with beams in your ceiling that may disrupt any plans you have for AC placement and copper. If you are looking at the property in shell and would do a promise of sale while it is still in shell form, then buy it how it is and finish it yourself. They will not finish to proper standards and it is extremely difficult to then prove that you cannot proceed with final contract until defects are rectified and you will either have to accept sub standard finishes or go to court. Timeline is also an issue, even if you put fines in the contract for late conclusion there would be a lot of back and forth from the contractor and threats and you would need to go to court to enforce such clauses anyway. Better you buy what you see and then you are the boss of whoever comes in to work on it for you.
Don’t buy properties from plan. They’ll fuc you anyway they can and will skimp out after the fact you’ve already bought. Source: many such cases
If you don’t mind putting in some work yourselves, with that budget I’d go for a townhouse. You will end up with a true home rather than a chicken coop and you will contribute to enhancing a village’s aesthetic.
Unfortunately it’s very normal. It depends a lot on who is building. Bought a property in Gozo and the work is good. One thing for sure it’s that the standard of bricks has had a hit. New bricks are very “soft” and can be cut relatively. Did some works at home and trying to drill through nearly 30 year old bricks was a challenge
Buy an old property built from limestone, fix it yourself. Because you will still get shit quality from local tradesmen.
You are spending almost half a million of your hard earned money. I suggest you call an architect to advise you.
Garage or no deal… if you own or plan to own a car, you need a place to park and charge. This will be tomorrow’s reality.
I would definitely avoid buying finished. God knows what they put in it.
Thanks for your responses everyone, much appreciated!