Yes and No to condominium living – an Open Speech
The increasing number of unsolved home burglaries and the horrendous tales of snatch attacks at entrances have made condominium living attractive. People in the city live hectic lives. And if you are one of those people, there’s a good chance that you barely have time to maintain your house because of your full schedule.
Firstly, a condominium complex provides security twenty-four hours a day. The guardhouse at the main entrance with uniformed personnel doing shift work provides an aura of safety. Residents know that any visitor especially strangers have to identify themselves, produce identification, and convey information about the unit or people they are visiting. Visitor and vehicle screening is very comforting. Patrols are undertaken around the complex to ensure a fair amount of defense.
Condominium management is usually made up of a board of unit owners who sees to the day-to-day operation of the complex, such as lawn maintenance and snow removal. However, not all security firms provide top-rate service. The employees may have a suspicious background, all unknown or unrevealed to the employer. Trusting security personnel to carry out their work without checking into the background can prove to be very damaging to the residents.
Secondly, there are certain facilities that are provided at the condominium. There is normally a swimming pool, an outdoor park, and playground, tennis and squash courts. Sometimes, some come with golfing facilities or even subsidized affiliation to golf clubs that come under the flagship of the developer.
The maintenance of all exterior premises and facilities and the facade of the building is under the condominium management. They ensure that the parking bays, the gardens, the common corridors, the lifts, the facilities (eg. the swimming pool, games courts), and the exterior walls are properly maintained.
However, maintenance is more often than not efficiently done and the work is not up to par. To add insult to injury, all residents including owners have to pay monthly maintenance fees which can come up to a princely amount annually. If the maintenance is well done, then it is worth doling out the payment but not otherwise. Then maintenance of the interior is the onus of the resident or owner. This in itself can be quite an arduous task.
Thirdly, the management advocates a uniformity in certain aspects of condominium living. Flower beds are to be planted with the same variety of flowers and plants. Curtains have to be of a certain material and color. It does take away the tedium of selection and doing all the tedious humdrum tasks and makes life less of a chore.
On the other hand, such uniformity can be dictatorial and takes away the versatility of tenants and owners. There is no freedom of choice. Everyone has to kowtow to a regime.
In the final analysis, condominium living has more plus factors. Security exists which does not exist in non-gated communities. Facilities are provided at a fee with certain perks thrown in without having to pay an astronomical entrance fee to certain “royal” clubs. Maintenance is a “stressfree” affair with the condo management getting all the headaches.
In conclusion, if I have the money, I think I would opt for an apartment in a condominium. All my troubles are over! I can sleep in peace, without being awakened from sleep staring at a stranger’s face!
