Ann: Finbar Completes 38 Storey Concerto Project, page-14

Bad Luck - i've heard stories of concrete cancer causing 600-900 quarterly payments to jump to 1800. My only worry about buying an apartment. That said some of the advice i've passively picked up (i say passive as I pay more attention to equities and so I incidentally listen to property advice, but it doesn't actively stick as well given i'm not actively involved ownership wise) -

always get lawyers or the relevant person who checks the strata body. ibelieve it's as you say: it checks the minutes, financial strength and other planned works. Basically to avoid any shocks with strata costs.

Short of that i would get a building inspector/engineer or whatever the equivalent is. With my new house build I was surprised people didn't do construction stage inspections. I'm sure i had some lazy ass inspectors who probably missed a heap, but it was definitely worth the risk more so than not having one. I went through with my own tooth comb - nothing beats your own due diligence and attention to detail - and still found stuff. So go figure haha.

That said there was some confusingly conflicting things in your post. You said you bought a 10 year old property and hence the water issues, yet advocated buying > 5 years old, and not off the plan new?

If anything new is more likely to result in less maintenance issues if built right and by a quality builder. You would only have to worry about the valuation/price you pay side of things and other considerations. But I would have thought a brand new property is a much safer risk than something aged (in terms of potential problems).

I know in your case top floor suffered but am not sure it is a blanket statement to avoid top levels. a middle or base level could , in a different set of scenarions, be the worse pick of the levels?