There’s no doubt that living in an apartment has it’s positives and negative when compared to living in a stand alone house or townhouse, but if you live in an apartment building or an apartment complex then there will likely be some amenities. If you can’t list any amenities of your building/complex off the top of your head, then maybe you should ask to see what is available, and if there are truly no good amenities, then maybe it’s time to push for some, or even find a new place.
What kind of amenities am I talking about? Well, there’s the obvious things like gyms and pools, which are typical of some of the higher end buildings and complexes. There’s even more basic things on the lower end, like enough parking spaces for residents and guests, vending machines for easy access to items that you don’t necessarily want to make a dedicated run to a store for (think band-aids and batteries) or just snacks, and at least a few EV chargers should be available in the next few years as EV become more affordable. None of these are really worth moving over (except maybe a bad parking situation combined with no access to public transportation).
Apartment Building Amenities that can Help Lure Tenants
Clearly, a vending machine is not going to lure tenants into your apartment complex. Pools and gyms definitely will, along with EV chargers, since anyone who already owns an EV is going to be looking for a complex where it is easy to charge their car.
One of the most interesting amenities that is on the horizon is an indoor farm on premises, potentially in a shipping container, if there are small areas of vacant land with access to power and water. With a shipping container farm (whether it’s for salad greens/herbs/veggies, or an indoor farm for mushrooms) some people who live in the apartment complex could be employed to grow food, and everyone else can buy fresh food on site. This helps reduce “food deserts” which are areas that do not have access to nutritious foods.
Solar Panels + EV Chargers
While EV chargers are a great amenity and will certainly be necessary in the future, the fact is that tenant will still need to pay for that electricity. Now, if you install an EV charger with a solar panel array, then tenants won’t have to pay to charge their cars, and any extra energy that the solar panels produce will be sold back to the grid.
This strategy of using solar panels to provide free EV charging to customers will also work as a theme park, retail, or office amenity.
