A townhouse is a building which shares a common wall with another property and has other common features such as shared land or amenities. A house sits on its own titled land and has no shared assets or services.
Sometimes townhouses have body corporate arrangements which oversee shared assets and charge owners accordingly. Alternatively, townhouses can be built on shared land or with shared assets without body corporate involvement.
Here at Manasons, we only build houses that are completely independent of one another and although they appear ‘attached’, they do not share any walls, slabs or roofs and can even be demolished in years to come without any disruption to the neighbor. Regardless of body corporate arrangements, a townhouse owner will not necessarily have the freedom to rebuild or materially change their asset as it is part of a complex that can relate to a neighboring property. Furthermore, future issues of such shared assets can become complicated when trying to determine legal responsibility. For example, in the absence of body corporate, a leak in a shared wall or roof may not be easily attributed to a specific owner and may involve uncomfortable conversations with neighbors when looking to rectify.
At Manasons, we specialise in inner city living which provides all the convenience and low maintenance of the popular and affordable townhomes but we prefer the added investment of completely independent houses which will result in control of your budget and all decisions relating to your largest asset.