€805,000 Madrid apartment: buy or keep renting with high building fees?

W

warm_grain

First-time buyer
I’m comparing my current rental with buying a similar apartment in Madrid for about €805,000. The mortgage, tax, maintenance and association dues would put the ownership cost well above my rent. Buying would build equity, but I may move in five to seven years.

How would you price the flexibility of renting against purchase and resale costs, especially with a risk that building fees rise? I’m also unsure how much weight to give shared-building reserves, maintenance intensity and resale liquidity. Please challenge the purchase premise—what would you verify first?
 
With a possible move in five to seven years, I would lean toward renting unless the purchase still works under an unkind resale scenario. Equity is not the same as profit: some early payments are financing costs, while buying, ownership and eventual selling all consume money.

First I’d inspect the building’s reserve position, fee history and anticipated major works. A low reserve plus an ageing, maintenance-heavy building could matter more than the current monthly fee.
 
What do the association dues actually include? A high figure covering substantial shared services or energy use is different from a high figure that still leaves owners exposed to separate repairs.

I’d also ask whether you might keep the apartment and rent it out after moving. If not, resale liquidity within your likely time window deserves more weight than long-term equity projections.
 
That distinction is important. I’d separate costs into three groups: money that builds equity, unrecoverable annual ownership costs, and one-off purchase/resale costs. Then compare the last two with rent over five and seven years.

For the possible rental fallback, use a conservative tenant-demand assumption and include vacancy, insurance exposure and management workload. It should be a backup plan, not a convenient number that makes buying look affordable.
 
One extra point changes the fee question for me: a large monthly charge may be paying for maintenance that a lower-fee building has postponed. What matters is what the dues cover, the condition of the shared areas and whether the reserve can support planned work without a large additional demand.

I would compare that with the rental’s running costs as well. If the apartment uses less energy and requires less personal upkeep, part of the apparent gap may narrow. It would not, however, make a difficult resale within five years disappear, so I would still give liquidity more weight than those smaller savings.
 
Agreed, but I would still stress-test fee increases rather than accepting today’s figure. Run several versions: move after five years, move after seven, weaker resale demand, a period without a tenant, and higher shared-building costs. Don’t assume appreciation is needed to rescue the result.

If renting wins across reasonable assumptions, that is not “missing out on equity”; it is paying for flexibility while avoiding concentrated building and resale risk.
 
This has clarified the gap in my comparison. I was focusing too much on principal repayment and not enough on unrecoverable costs or the short resale window. I also haven’t yet separated what the association dues cover from what could still become an owner expense.

My next step is to compare five- and seven-year outcomes, inspect the fee history, reserves and planned building work, and test a sale rather than assuming I can rent it out easily. If the purchase only works with strong appreciation, I’ll keep renting.
 
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