Compare and Contrast Essay on Townhomes versus Apartments

Townhomes can be independent single-story structure, or they can be buildings consisting of one or more two-story homes. On the contrary, apartments are mid-rise to high-rise houses with five or more units in each flat. Both buildings ordinarily necessitate an experienced and skilled architect, contractor, cooperative owner, and a team of subcontractors for the job to be completed. Besides that, in the presence of the key factors, to complete the construction of an apartment takes less time than the time involved in building a townhome (Leviten & Lake, 2016).

When setting up an apartment with twelve units, the typical costs involved are in the range of $64,575 to $86,100 per unit to complete. These costs place the construction of individual apartment's units at an average value of $85 and $200 per square foot. Constructing an apartment comes with an excessive amount of work to be done on the interior. Materials would cost approximately $4.65 million, manual labor would budget roughly $4.51million, and machinery costs would estimate around $232,000 while over $1.3 million would be awarded to the contractor. Costs for land acquisition, parking, site improvement, and gardens are not included (Waterston, Grueger & Samson, 2015).

On the other hand, constructing a two unit townhome has a cost of $119 per square foot which translates to a total cost of $261,465 per unit, or $522,900 to complete the entire building. National average ranges between $85 and $125 per square foot for most commercial or multiple unit projects. For this construction, machines would take $13,100, labor would approximately cost $251,400, the contractor would earn over $74,000 for the project, and material for the construction would get roughly $258,500. The cost excludes land acquisition and site improvements like gardens, play areas and parking (Leviten& Lake, 2016).

Comparing the two projects, it is evident that building an apartment is cheaper than constructing a townhouse.

According to the real estate figures, an average single townhome has s size of 222200 square feet which translates to a footprint of about 30*35 per home. While for an average apartment, the land requirement is 861 square feet which assumes a footprint of approximately 24'*35'. From these figures, it is clear that an apartment requires less land space for setting up as compared to setting up a townhouse. The low land requirement translates to lesser costs of building and maintenance (Doucet & Ulduz, 2017).

To construct a townhouse involves not only planning but finding an expert contractor for the building process. Sanction and approvals for the utility connections need to be tackled. Additionally, to build a townhouse one requires factoring in security and maintenance cost. Moreover, land for new townhouses is diminishing. The diminishing land coupled with getting a suitable location to set up a townhome is another dampener. Constructing an apartment, on the other hand, is a cheaper and less sophisticated as the land space for an apartment is less than that of a townhome (Walks & Clifford, 2015). Fewer sanctions and approvals are involved in the construction of flats. All these factors work in favor of setting up an apartment. Summarily, to build a townhouse requires a minimum size of land, a restriction which is not stringent when constructing an apartment.

Setting apartments on a six acres land is more economically viable than setting up townhouses on a similar space of land (Potts & Ankrah, 2014). Derived from the cost of constructing a unit of each, the land requirements, the complexity of the building processes and approvals required for each, setting up apartments is more viable. Experts also say that upkeep services for a flat are relatively low as compared to that of a townhouse. Upkeep costs include beautification, maintenance of gardens and emergency.

References

Doucet, B. & Ulduz Maschaykh (2017). The changing image of affordable housing: design, gentrification, and community in Canada and Europe.

Leviten-Reid, C., & Lake, A. (2016). Building Affordable Rental Housing for Seniors: Policy Insights From Canada. Journal of Housing For the Elderly, 30(3), 253-270.

Potts, K., & Ankrah, N. (2014). Construction cost management: learning from case studies. Routledge

Walks, A., & Clifford, B. (2015). The political economy of mortgage securitization and the neoliberalization of housing policy in Canada. Environment and Planning A, 47(8), 1624-1642.

Waterston, S., Grueger, B., & Samson, L. (2015). Housing need in Canada: Healthy lives start at home. Paediatrics & child health, 20(7), 403-407.