If you want to invest in property, you will often find plenty of options that could all offer you slightly different options as a landlord or owner. While you can invest in individual units as they appear on the market, you could also consider investing in a full building if you can find one that is reasonably priced. This can be a major milestone for many property investors, and it can be a great part of your portfolio.

Tenants in Situ

One of the big advantages of buying a full building is that it will often come with tenants in situ. Buying a new block does mean that you will have to advertise and sell units as you would usually. Buying one with an established set of tenants is easy for everyone as there needs to be a simple transfer in terms of rent.

This means that you can establish an income stream from the moment you take control of the building. Remember to work with the tenants you are inheriting. If you plan to put up the rents for empty units, it can be a good idea to make an agreement with existing tenants that what they pay is frozen. Unless you plan to do some work to improve the hallways and communal areas of the building, the change in ownership of the building should have little effect on their life.

Amenities and Commercial Opportunities

Purchase a full building and you have a lot more to take advantage of compared to just residential units. Units like Orchard Towers also have commercial units beneath their residential ones. These could be as simple as a row of shops for tenants and other nearby residents to use, or it could be a full shopping mall complete with restaurants and bars.

Choosing to invest in a property such as this will give you a much more diverse property portfolio. As with the residential units, you will no doubt also be inheriting tenants in situ, which means that you are going to be able to build up your income streams from the moment that the property is yours.

Management

You need to make sure that you are placing some form of property management in place to look after the building on your behalf. The previous owner might even have some staff that you are happy to keep on as they will already have an understanding of the needs of both the property itself and the existing tenants. Having this existing rapport helps with the handover and makes it much easier to manage.

Make sure you also find some contacts for maintenance and other areas of assistance that you might need help with. If something breaks in a tenant’s apartment, it could be the responsibility of you as the building manager to ensure that a good maintenance worker could be tracked down to finish the job. This can be difficult enough with just a single apartment, but if the issue occurs in a communal space, such as the apartment complex’s bin room, you need to make sure that you get it fixed as soon as possible. Maintenance issues can be very expensive, but they are important to stay on top of as not addressing them can lead to dissatisfaction with tenants.

More Units, More Issues

Though a building might seem like a bargain, you do need to consider the number of units within it. If you are dealing with multiple floors, each with their own set of units, you need to make sure that you are going to be able to take on the demands of a building of that size.

The more units there are, the bigger the risk is that there will be an issue. After all, there will be a greater chance that you might have an unagreeable tenant who could cause trouble for others, or a unit that is in serious need of modernisation, at the risk of impacting the other units around it. These are all things that you need to consider when choosing to invest in a full building.

Is It a Sound Idea?

You need to think closely about whether or not this is going to be a good move for you in terms of investment. Yes, there is the potential for it to offer you much in terms of revenue and business opportunities. However, is it also going to come with a lot of hidden costs that might hinder any potential profits that you could make? You need to make sure that all of these factors are well-balanced before you put your offer in.

Owning a full apartment block could be a great move for you as an investment, but it does need to be approached with a degree of risk. Think carefully about whether this is a good investment for you!