I heard that every 15-20 years or so entire apartment blocks are demolished to make room for new buildings. Supposingly when people think the time has come that their place will be torn down they stop caring for the place, i.e. they don’t invest much or any money to do repairs or renovate.
First the easy question: is it actually true that this is common practice (to demolish entire blocks every x years)? I mean if you look around it would surely make sense just from an aesthetic point of view, but I wonder if it’s financially viable and how it’s done in practice (see below).
So if it’s indeed done, how do the current owners get compensated? I don’t see how the developer can make good money if they need to pay the current owners (assuming that peope would refuse if the offer is too low) or provide them with a free apartment (in the new house or somewhere else).
What if some people refuse to get compensated at all (either money or a new place) ? - Can they be forcefully evicted? Where would they end up?
I’ve never heard of this. My wife’s apartment belongs to her mother and this subject has never come up which you think it would. But I have heard the neighbors express interest in tearing down the place and rebuilding. The way it soemtimes gets down is the developers build a bigger building and get to sell the new units. The original owners get bigger and newer places and everyone is happy.
Most old buildings don’t have elevators and so only go up to 6 floors. But there is nothing in the zoning laws (did I say zoning laws) to stop a taller apartment from going up.
I’ve also never heard of that… regarding what Mucha Man said, wouldn’t it be more advantageous for the original owners just to sell their land outright? They’d have like a 1/4 or 1/5 share of the land, and that would be worth a lot more than just one unit in the new building (not even considering the new property management fees!).
On the other hand, I’ve also heard of stories (on TV, related by some rich and famous people), that maybe 16 households who are contiguous neighbors decide to work together and erect a newer and bigger building, replacing their old ones. And in the end, everyone gets 300 pings each, instead of the original 30 they started out with! They could sell it, rent it out, or live in it.