April 4, 2018

View or No View for investor buying

Condo Investor tip: How important is the view of an apartment?

View or No View definitely deserves some expanded context, because we are looking at this from an investment perspective and not recommending buy an apartment with a bad view.  That is a sure fire way to limit your resale and rental value.

What we are saying is that often a very nice view, and what we mean by that is buying an apartment that clears everything around it, or has an iconic New York City view, you will have to pay a pretty big premium for compared to what the same size apartment would sell for in the same building but on a lower floor.  And when it comes to renting out those two apartments, its going to be hard to recoup the premium you paid in more rental income. Very generally speaking, the difference in rental income could be in the 100s of dollars but the price difference in purchase price could be in the 10s of thousands or 100s of thousand.  So lets say you paid 200K more for that apartment with the view, but you are only getting $300 more a month in rental income. Thats going to take basically forever to recoup the cost from a rental perspective.

However when you go to sell, assuming the view is still the same as when you bought it(meaning nothing was built up blocking it) that same premium for the view should exist, again not to say it depends, but assuming the market hasn’t decreased.  

Now what should be taken into consideration is that if there are competing rentals in the building and your apartment is one of them, the tenant will favor your apartment if the price is very similar.  And when it comes time for resale, you will always have an advantage over the lower floor apartment, but again depending on the difference in price.

Are you on the market looking for the right condo investment? We sure can help, give us a call (917)837-8869 and we can share some good condo investment tips with you.