Full Service Apartment Buildings in New York City

In New York City, the real estate market has been going slowly down since the economy is not doing well right now. However, one trend that has been on the rise is the increase in the amount of full service apartment buildings in New York City. So what is a full service apartment building? Let me explain.

An apartment building can be either a rental in which the tenants rent their apartment and pay a monthly fee. Other apartment buildings are co-op buildings in which the people own their own apartment and sell it on their own for what the market value is. In a co-op building, each tenant is a shareholder in the building. A third group of apartment buildings are condominiums in which tenants own their apartment and can make any renovations or change to their apartment without building consensus needed. For a condominium, the tenants do not own stock in the building.

Full service apartment buildings have become very common with co-op and condominium buildings. In a full service apartment building, there is a doorman on hand 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Porters sweep and clean the building throughout the day as well. There is also a garage for tenants to park their car and there is a garage attendant who parks your car for you in an available parking space.

Some but not all full service buildings have a fitness gym with a treadmill or weights. Other buildings have a pool, a bike room and a storage room. Every full service building also has a laundry room with several washers and dryers for tenants to use.

Full Service buildings in New York City cost about $1,000 in maintenance costs which is a great deal of money, but still affordable for a middle class family to pay. Full Service buildings do cost more than a normal building that doesn't have the amenities. However, building owners like advertising the fact that they have full service amenities which drives up the cost of their property value.

However, if you look at the cost that you have to pay in a full service building, it really isn't worth the expense. If you have the money to spare, then you should live in a full service building. However, if money is tight, a full service building is not worth the expense. You can still live in an apartment building with doorman service or a storage room but without the other amenities and your maintenance costs will be much lower.