Renting a Home or Apartment?

Often, the decision to live in an apartment or a home is made for you. It might be that you just cannot afford to buy or even rent a house in the area in which you live.

Living in an apartment building, you will probably have neighbors. They might be right next to you, or in the same building. You might also have people living above you, below you or both. Depending on the situation, this can be a noisy proposition. The chances for this type of noise are reduced when you rent or own a free-standing home or part of a duplex. Apartment living may not be for you, if you’re a loud person or someone who needs a quiet environment.

Houses are often more spacious than apartments, generally speaking. Outdoor areas factor into this also. With an apartment, you are less likely to have your own yard space as you are with a house. This is an important consideration if you have kids, pets or a lot of belongings.

However, if you rent a house, the agreement might dictate that you take care of some of the general upkeep, such as mowing the lawn, doing gardening, and shoveling the walkways. You don’t have to do outside or grounds maintenance in an apartment building.

Apartment rentals often feature lower utility bills than home rentals, so this saves you money. Additional maintenance comes with the space and size of a house. There are more gardens to tend, more lawns to mow, more windows to clean, and more floors to vacuum.

Apartment complexes typically prefer that each rental unit remains consistently laid out and designed. So, it is unlikely that your lease will allow you to do things like paint the walls, or do other modifications like adding new kitchen amenities. House rentals are more prone to allowing unit modification, even if they usually require landlord permission prior to customizing the premises. If you want to create a customized interior design scheme, a house usually offers better options.

Neighbors in an apartment complex might not keep their home clean, even if you do. If, for example, others in the complex have roaches or ants invading their living space, those same pests are likely to eventually find their way into your home as well.

You have a better chance, in an apartment building, of being centrally located close to public transit, area businesses and local attractions. Houses are more commonly found on the outlying areas of cities or in suburban areas, farther from the center.

For either a house or an apartment, be sure to understand what is and isn’t included, before signing a lease for the space. Heat and power are sometimes included in the rental agreement, while at other places they are not. Cable television and grounds maintenance are sometimes included, but at other places they are not. Setting out clear expectations of your and your landlord’s responsibilities is important – before signing anything. And whatever your decision, be sure you set up your Saskatoon home insurance prior to your move.