The Reserve Bank has exempted new homes from its LVR regulation. Photo from NZ Herald.

While welcoming the exemption, the Labour Party criticised Westpac bank's decision yesterday to charge higher interest rates for low-deposit borrowers, claiming the Government had created a ''two-tier home lending market''.

Reserve Bank deputy governor Grant Spencer announced yesterday that the central bank, having consulted the building industry and other banks, would exempt new residential construction loans from the LVR restrictions, which were introduced on October 1.

The LVR sought to keep overall bank mortgage lending to people who had less than a 20% deposit, at 10% of banks' lending portfolios, putting first-home buyers at a further disadvantage.

''While high LVR construction lending is only around 1% of total residential lending, it finances around 12% of residential building activity,'' Mr Spencer said in a statement.

''This exemption means that low deposit lending will fall outside the 10% speed limit if it is financing the construction of a new house or apartment.''

Labour's Housing spokesman Phil Twyford said recent evidence from the Registered Master Builders Federation, that the LVR was putting thousands of new builds at risk, ''blew a hole'' in the Government's policy of trying to increase housing supply.

Warwick Quinn, chief executive of the Registered Master Builders Federation, said he had no doubt it was research from independent consulting company for the building industry, Branz, released late last month, which influenced the policy change.

It showed 5000 new houses, not the previously estimated 3000, could be jeopardised by applying LVRs to new house construction.

''The information the banks keep on how much lending they do on new house construction is not great,'' Mr Quinn said.

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LVR exemption for building welcomed

Although the term "apartment" is an American invention from the late nineteenth century, Americans were slow to accept this style of multi-unit, horizontal living.

In Europe, the Industrial Revolution in the early nineteenth century boosted the popularity of multi-family buildings, by offering convenient, affordable, and fashionable housing for the burgeoning urban middle and upper classes. This was particularly true in Paris and Vienna.

Parisians had embraced apartment living since the seventeenth century. In a multi-use pattern that would gain popularity in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s, a typical French apartment house included a street level with commercial tenants and residential apartments on the upper floors. In this pre-elevator era, wealthier tenants lived on the first floor level, or bel tage, above a mezzanine, or entresol, and the higher the level, the more modest the apartment. Attic space bedrooms were reserved for servants.

With the exception of Scotland, where private "flats" (from the Scottish word, "flaet" meaning "story" or "floor") for Edinburgh's wealthy classes dated back to the sixteenth century, Britain's middle and upper classes shunned multi-unit living until the early twentieth century.

"french Flats" in America

Nineteenth-century middle-class Americans preferred a private, multi-story, detached house to a one-level flat in a building shared with strangers. Until the late nineteenth century, multi-unit housing was also tinged by the image of "tenements," multi-unit residences for working class and immigrant families.

Rising costs for urban property after the Civil War prompted builders to market apartments as a respectable alternative to boarding houses. These early apartments were modeled after Parisian apartments and were referred to as "French flats" to distinguish them from tenements. One of the earliest was the 1869 Stuyvesant Apartments on East Eighteenth Street in Manhattan, designed by the Paris-trained American architect Richard Morris Hunt.

Architects adapted French flats to American middle-class requirements with modern plumbing, bedroom closets, storage space, and large, fully equipped kitchens. By the 1870s, the urban housing crunch created such a boom in apartment house construction that, in Manhattan, alone, 112 apartment houses were built in 1875.

By the 1880s, apartment living not only had shed its negative connotations, but also had become a fashionable choice for wealthy families in search of luxury living at prestigious urban addresses. The introduction of the first electric elevators in the late 1880s, along with fireproof steel frame construction, pushed apartment houses skyward from their previous six-and seven-story limits.

Manhattan's Central Park, opened to the public in 1859, created a boom in luxury apartment buildings along the park's western edge. The most famous was the Dakota at Seventy-second Street and Central Park West, completed in 1884. With its sixty-five suites, some with as many as twenty rooms, the Dakota came with a wine cellar, a gymnasium, and croquet and tennis courts, and included central heating, elevator service, and its own electric generator.

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apartment building: Definition from Answers.com

A tower block, high-rise, residential towers,[1]apartment tower, office tower, apartment block, or block of flats, is a tall building or structure used as a residential and/or office building. In some areas they may be referred to as "MDU" standing for "Multi Dwelling Unit".[2]

High-rise buildings became possible with the invention of the elevator (lift) and cheaper, more abundant building materials. The materials used for the structural system of high-rise buildings are reinforced concrete and steel. Most North American style skyscrapers have a steel frame, while residential blocks are usually constructed of concrete. There is no clear definition of any difference between a tower block and a skyscraper, although a building with fifty or more stories is generally considered a skyscraper.[3]

High-rise structures pose particular design challenges for structural and geotechnical engineers, particularly if situated in a seismically active region or if the underlying soils have geotechnical risk factors such as high compressibility or bay mud. They also pose serious challenges to firefighters during emergencies in high-rise structures. New and old building design, building systems like the building standpipe system, HVAC systems (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), fire sprinkler system and other things like stairwell and elevator evacuations pose significant problems. Studies are often required to ensure that pedestrian wind comfort and wind danger concerns are addressed.

Apartment blocks have technical and economic advantages in areas of high population density, and have become a distinctive feature of housing accommodation in virtually all densely populated urban areas around the world. In contrast with low-rise and single-family houses, apartment blocks accommodate more inhabitants per unit of area of land and decrease the cost of municipal infrastructure.

Various bodies have defined "high-rise":

High-rise apartment buildings had already appeared in antiquity: the insulae in ancient Rome and several other cities in the Roman Empire, some of which might have reached up to ten or more stories, one reportedly having 200 stairs.[8] Because of the destruction caused by poorly built high-rise insulae collapsing, several Roman emperors, beginning with Augustus (r. 30 BC 14 AD), set limits of 2025 meters for multi-story buildings, but met with limited success,[10][11] as these limits were often ignored despite the likelihood of taller insulae collapsing. The lower floors were typically occupied by either shops or wealthy families, while the upper stories were rented out to the lower classes. Surviving Oxyrhynchus Papyri indicate that seven-story buildings even existed in provincial towns, such as in third century AD Hermopolis in Roman Egypt.[14][14]

In Arab Egypt, the initial capital city was Fustat. It housed many high-rise residential buildings, some seven stories tall that could reportedly accommodate hundreds of people. Al-Muqaddasi, in the 10th century, described them as resembling minarets, while Nasir Khusraw, in the early 11th century, described some of them rising up to 14 stories, with roof gardens on the top story complete with ox-drawn water wheels for irrigating them.[15][16] By the 16th century, Cairo also had high-rise apartment buildings where the two lower floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them were rented out to tenants.[17]

The skyline of many important medieval cities was dominated by large numbers of high-rising urban towers, which fulfilled defensive but also representative purposes. The residential Towers of Bologna numbered between 80 to 100 at a time, the largest of which still rise to 97.2 m. In Florence, a law of 1251 decreed that all urban buildings should be reduced to a height of less than 26 m, the regulation immediately put into effect.[18] Even medium-sized towns such as San Gimignano are known to have featured 72 towers up to 51 m in height.[18]

Tower blocks were built in the Yemeni city of Shibam in the 16th century. The houses of Shibam are all made out of mud bricks, but about five hundred of them are tower houses, which rise five to sixteen stories high,[19] with each floor having one or two apartments.[20][21] This technique of building was implemented to protect residents from Bedouin attacks. While Shibam has existed for around two thousand years, most of the city's houses date from the 16th century. The city has the tallest mud buildings in the world, some more than 30 meters (100 feet) high.[22] Shibam has been called "one of the oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction" or "Manhattan of the desert".[21]

Currently, the tallest high-rise apartment building in the world is Chicago's John Hancock Center, constructed under the supervision of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and completed in 1969. The building has 100 stories and stands 344 meters tall.[23]

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Tower block - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It is a very simple method and can be repeated over and over again to increase your paycheck and takes very little out of pocket expenses only time. This is a process that we have done over and over again and it works. It will take time and commitment but can produce amazing returns. You will be using other peoples money and that is the magic of the whole thing. You don't need money and in today's world people are afraid to put their money in the stock market so this gives them a perfect alternative to diversify.

Step 1 Find a piece of property that is zoned multi-family. Any Realtor can help you do this.

Step 2 Download a set of 4plex, apartment or condo plans from SDS-CAD Specialized Design Systems Click here for a set of apartment plans that I have used several times to repeat this process. Only $99 You may need to have the plans engineered for your area.

Step 3 Find 4 investors or buyers to help you fund the construction. This is actually really easy. Just put an add in the local paper or online or start talking to people you know who have money to invest and give them your presentation of how they can make 15 to 25% on their money over the next year. This is how it worked the last time I did it. The buildings cost approximately $400,000 to build so we found 4 investors to put in $100,000 each to basically finance the construction of 1 unit each. after 6 months we had completed the building and put each unit on the market for $150,000 each. After all 4 units were sold for and average price of 148,000 we had made a profit of $192,000. we divided the profits. I took the $100,000 off of the top as my commission for arranging and overseeing the construction project and after Realtor fees of $25,000 had $67,000 left to divide amongst the investors which gave them a 16.75% return on their money. You can also take less of a commission and give back more to your investors. WE have done this were people want to be owners so they just get equity in the project when it is done. We have also found people who just want to have the entire building as an investment property and will finance the whole thing for 50% of the profits.

Step 4 Find a contractor to Build the buildings

Step 5 Sell the Buildings and divide up the profits

Step 6 If you want to make more you just repeat this process over and over and make as much money as you need.

Download the plans and start the process today.

Click here for a set of apartment plans that I have used several times to repeat this process. Only $99

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How to Make $100,000 Building a 4-plex Apartment Condominium ...

How much does it cost to build an apartment building?

What does it cost to build an apartment building? There are a huge number of variables in such a question. For one thing, apartments come as low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise. For the purpose of this discussion we will look at the mid-rise buildings with five or more units in each. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the size of the average apartment is 861 square feet which assumes a "footprint" of approximately 24'x35'.

The building of single mid-rise complex would never be a "DIY" project and usually requires a knowledgeable contractor, an architect, a team of subcontractors, and cooperative owner to get the job done in a calendar year.

For the building of an apartment building with twelve units, the typical costs include:

What is included:

The basic structure of this building would be best if left in an uncomplicated "four square" design. Most owners rely on both an architect and a contractor, and the architect will require approximately 10 - 17% of the total building budget;

Costs to build an apartment building may vary depending on the state or city. To get free estimates from local contractors, please indicate yours.

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Cost to build an apartment building | Estimates and Prices at Fixr.com

Last October, we reported on the progress of seven high-rise apartment buildings under construction in downtown Chicago. At the time we issued that report, the shiny new Lexington Park high-rise condominium project was just that: a condominium project. But now it's going rental, which means the numbers have changed. This year and next, eight new towers will add nearly 3,150 apartment units to the market. The census folks say Chicago is shrinking, but it sure doesn't feel that way to us here at domu, particularly considering that so many other apartment developments are queued up and fixin to move forward.

In addition to the eight projects coming soon, site preparation is now underway for two new apartment towers (360 West Hubbard and 200 East Illinois), while still two others appear to be in the final stages of planning and approval (73 East Lake and 410 East Grand). Then theres three more that have been credibly proposed, but which remain a long way away. (Many other projects have been bandied about, but none of these seem, at least to us, either credible or imminent enough to merit discussion at this point.)

So heres our peek at whats in the pipeline for Chicago renters.

Completed And Nearly Ready For Renters

Already Under Construction

Site Preparation Underway

So Close You Can Taste It

Proposed, But Still A Long Way Off

The Whole Ball Of Wax

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Apartment Projects Under Construction: Update

An apartment (in American English) or flat in British English is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies only part of a building. Such a building may be called an apartment building, apartment house (in American English), block of flats, tower block, high-rise or, occasionally mansion block (in British English), especially if it consists of many apartments for rent. In Scotland it is often called a tenement, which has a pejorative connotation elsewhere. Apartments may be owned by an owner/occupier by leasehold tenure or rented by tenants (two types of housing tenure).

The term apartment is favored in North America (although flat is used in the case of a unit which is part of a house containing two or three units, typically one to a floor), whereas the term flat is commonly, but not exclusively, used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong and most Commonwealth nations.

In Malaysian English, flat often denotes a housing block of lesser quality meant for lower-income groups, while apartment is more generic and may also include luxury condominiums. This usage has also been appearing in British English where apartment is used to denote expensive 'flats' in exclusive and expensive residential areas in, for example, parts of London such as Belgravia and Hampstead.

In Australian English, the term flat was traditionally used, but the term apartment is also frequently used, as is "unit," short for "home unit".

Tenement law refers to the feudal basis of permanent property such as land or rents. It may be found combined as in "Messuage or Tenement" to encompass all the land, buildings and other assets of a property.

In the United States, some apartment-dwellers own their own apartments, either as co-ops, in which the residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development; or in condominiums, whose residents own their apartments and share ownership of the public spaces. Most apartments are in buildings designed for the purpose, but large older houses are sometimes divided into apartments. The word apartment denotes a residential unit or section in a building. In some locations, particularly the United States, the word connotes a rental unit owned by the building owner, and is not typically used for a condominium.

In the UK, some flat owners own shares in the company that owns the freehold of the building as well as holding the flat under a lease. This is commonly known as a "share of freehold" flat. The freehold company has the right to collect annual ground rents from each of the flat owners in the building. The freeholder can also develop or sell the building, subject to the usual planning and restrictions that might apply.

In some countries the word unit is a more general term referring to both apartments and rental business suites. The word is generally used only in the context of a specific building; e.g., "This building has three units" or "I'm going to rent a unit in this building", but not "I'm going to rent a unit somewhere." In Australia, a unit refers to flats, apartments or even semi-detached houses. Some buildings can be characterized as mixed use buildings, meaning part of the building is for commercial, business, or office use, usually on the first floor or first couple of floors, and there are one or more apartments in the rest of the building, usually on the upper floors.

Apartments can be classified into several types. In North America the typical terms are a studio, efficiency or bachelor apartment (bedsit in the UK). These all tend to be the smallest apartments with the cheapest rents in a given area. This kind of apartment usually consists mainly of a large room which is the living, dining and bedroom combined. There are usually kitchen facilities as part of this central room, but the bathroom is a separate, smaller room.

Moving up from the bachelors/efficiencies are one-bedroom apartments, in which one bedroom is separate from the rest of the apartment. Then there are two-bedroom, three-bedroom, etc. apartments (Apartments with more than three bedrooms are rare). Small apartments often have only one entrance.

Link:
Apartment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Apartment Building Construction in Chicago
My quick thoughts on the rental market in Chicago. Why is there so much money flowing into high rise apartments in Chicago? What does it mean for renters? Wh...

By: TheChicagoRealtor

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Apartment Building Construction in Chicago - Video

Finney Crossing apartment building construction video 30
Finney Crossing Apartments construction progress as of 11/9/2012. The parking lot paving is now complete. The builders are beginning to install sheetrock and insulation. Our model units are scheduled to be open on Janauary 1.From:Scott RieleyViews:0 0ratingsTime:00:55More inPeople Blogs

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Finney Crossing apartment building construction video 30 - Video

Finney Crossing apartment building construction video 6
From:Scott RieleyViews:0 0ratingsTime:00:45More inPeople Blogs

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Finney Crossing apartment building construction video 6 - Video