Well, let me add my comments to this. I bought an apartment for...

Well, let me add my comments to this.

I bought an apartment for the first time, and did not do my due diligence on it.

Although it was 10 years old when I bought it, it looked very good, and was exactly what I was after.

A year later, the problems showed up - water ingress during heavy rains. My apartment was in the middle of the building, so no problems for me, but top floor guys had internal water damage - and as a Strata, we all got a Special Levy to pay that year to fix the problems.

2 years later, and the building has more water ingress problems and another bill to fix!

My lessons learnt:

Never, ever buy off the plan.
Never, ever buy a brand new apartment that is not at least 5 years ols\d.
Avoid the top floor apartments.
Demand copies of the previous 5 x years of the Strata Company's AGM Minutes - and in particular ask if there were any Special Levies imposed in the previous 5 years for major building repairs.
Look at other buildings around the area and ask yourself - is that an old building and going to be re-developed in the future - how will that affect my building views, noise, access etc.
If you decide to go ahead - get an Inspection Done by a proper Building Engineer - I did this when I bought my house, but did not think it was warranted when I bought the apartment - how wrong I was!

Just some harsh lessons I have learnt about apartments.