When it comes to purchasing a brand new individual home, the choices are to either buy a plot of land and build on it or purchase a constructed home in a gated community. Is one better than the other? There is no straight answer that amounts to an one-size-fits all approach. Depending heavily on the context and the circumstances surrounding the personal choices, abilities and requirements, this is a decision that needs some thinking.
Let’s start with what benefits buying land can give you, over buying a house in a gated community.
- When buying land and constructing, you can break up your financial commitments and afford it at intervals. This generally means buying the land, and then, paying for the construction of property upon it in stages.
- Secondly, buying land gives you the freedom to design and build your home according to your preferences and requirements, and to get creative without the confines of an already constructed design setting. It gives you the freedom to experiment and include the things that go into making your dream home what it is.
- Thirdly, you are at liberty to work all of this out within a budgetary framework that suits your wallet. In this way, you don’t have to encounter mounting costs in the form of maintenance or society and collective charges.
- Finally, there is the long-term advantage that allows you to change, add and customise your property in the future. You can add, remove and change the structure to your whim and fancy in the form of additional of rooms and amenities.
On the flip side, let’s look at the disadvantages that buying land and not a house in a gated community can bring.
- The first, and this is obvious, is that you are really on your own in the process of construction. This means that all expenses of security, maintenance and such else fall only on your shoulders.
- Secondly, you don’t necessarily know who or what will inhabit your surroundings. While in a gated community, you have the security of neighbours and the presence of a community of neighbours, in an independent establishment, you might not even have many residences around your property.
- Thirdly, additions and alterations to your property may be an expensive prospect, and you don’t have the guarantee that the rates will appreciate.
- Fourth, a gated community is much safer, especially if you’re a non-resident owner.
In making an investment, it is important to take into account your reason for purchasing property, budget and requirements. If you are a resident with a good budgetary capability that can take on expenses, and you are in a position to not only afford but also expect to have your own property, a plot of land makes sense for you. But if you are either a non-resident, or you don’t have the financial muscle to get you across through all the expenditure of an independent house or a plot of land of your own, a gated community works well for you.
