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Hi there. The 900€!!
That’s not really expensive, you can’t expect to get a really decent apartment these days for that kind of money, it’s not a lot of money to pay for a place that has been well sorted out, I mean really looked after, properly decorated, not everything just glossed over with cheap gloss paint. A place that has been fixed up really well will have been decorated to a high standard, with good lighting in all areas, solid doors with decent (not squeaky) or rusty hinges, and fitted with a couple of high calibre locks, (the five lever type at least) top & bottom, the windows are more likely to be double glazed, perhaps even with secondary glazing fitted as standard, to give the extra thermal & sound proofing which is so much more desirable these days, and in some places totally necessary.
In 1990 for one year, I worked as a live in private estate manager in an exclusive part of London called Hampstead, and was responsible for the overall daily running of 3 very large wings on the estate, containing a total of 87 apartments, one of which was mine as part of my annual salary, which for me at that time was considerable, especially as it included almost all expenses, electricity, gas, phone, etc, etc, etc, and was a pretty good deal, but sadly I had to move away in order to pursue other objectives & business plans, but during that time I got to see exactly what kind of condition these places are kept in, and could easily see why the people there were so willing to pay the kind of money that they were paying, I mean these places were spotless, the “Landlord” along with managing agent and my self, went round for an inspection each and every month, and anything that was not kept up to standard was dealt with that very same day without delay, the hallways had proper (and good quality) wallpaper, heavy duty carpeting throughout, draft excluding and sound proofing everywhere, decent lighting (no dark or shadowed doorways) smoke detectors all over, and most importantly A FIRE EXIT with clearly defined direction signs, plenty of FIRE EXTINGUISHERS, in all the right places, which I personally checked each day along with the smoke detectors, door phone & video entry only system, and some of those places around there you have a 24 hour guard included in your rent for extra piece of mind, and believe me, many, many people are more than prepared to pay the extra to keep the winos, junkie-fixers, blow-jobbers, con artists & rapists and urinating SOB’s out of your hallway.
I think if a place is well sorted out, and obviously kept in good order, decorated to a high standard and free from “nuisances” and safe from the many other effects of the street below, then it’s worth paying the extra, assuming of course that your salary/Income/pocket will allow you to afford it.
If that place in Anton Martin is of a high enough calibre, e.g. (properly decorated & carpeted throughout, with decent doors, windows & locks) is on an upper floor away from the street, and the scum-bags out there can’t gain access to the elevators to urinate in them, and more importantly these days (HAS GOT A FIRE EXIT/ESCAPE) with a few extinguishers around the building, and a recent Inspection certificate can be seen on a wall somewhere (not out of date & hidden), then the 900€ is not bad at all, even for Anton Martin. Of course, it has to be said that with a price tag like that, it would only be affordable by a professional person, someone with a pretty good salary, and lets face it, there are a lot of people around these days who can afford that, and more, some people who are in business actually keep more than one apartment, often in more than one city, and sometimes in two countries, if not more.
As for myself, well, I personally have lived in some real hell holes in my time, with real lunatics upstairs & downstairs, had a lot of years of suffering abuse from neighbors, attempted robberies & break-ins, vandalism, big fights, real trouble, you name it I’ve had it all, and I would gladly pay 900 and a hell of a lot more to get what I really want, the way I want things to be, and even more if it had my own lock-up garage for my car, or at least an underground car park, with my own numbered space, and an electronic gate so nobody could get in and mess with the cars.
I think generally, people nowadays are much more prepared to pay more to get what they want, because lets face it, things in the big inner cities are pretty bad these days, there is so much crime now that it’s just getting too scary for many people who feel vulnerable, especially single females living on their own, and another consideration is the state of the place, if it is a sh**t hole and not looked after, the landlord is never seen, there is no provision made for a fire exit or escape from the building in the event of a fire, there are no fire extinguishers to be seen, no smoke detectors around, poor lighting, old & dodgy looking electrical points, no front or main door security, i.e. (open to the street) cheap doors & locks that do nothing, etc, etc, etc, then my advice is GET OUT OF THERE, NOW!!!
Some of those places are death traps, like the one in France recently, did you hear about it in the news? How many places like that one must there be in this world? Too many I’d reckon, if you cannot get out of your building any other way than by the main street door, then it’s a bad place in my opinion, there must be a fire escape and some kind of alarm system at the very least, or that place ain’t worth sh**t.
I guess at the end of the day, you get what you pay for, what you can afford, but only until you can afford better, and you just pay it, cos it’s worth it, nobody wants to open their door and be afraid of who might be hanging around in the hallway, or to receive some friends one evening, who have to walk up the stairs to your flat, with the strong smell of urine up their noses, or have to brush past some nasty looking thugs in the hallway (who don’t live there).
Food for thought eh!!
Saludos,
Santiago
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