I've been living in various condo units (renting) since I moved out of my parents' house due to work.
Now, I'm married and we have a small family and its bound to grow bigger. My kid is only 3yrs old and may yaya kami and there was a time na we were really planning on buying a house.
Pero I also grew up in the south of metro manila. When I was growing up, we were renting lang rin in small apartments. Honestly, hindi rin naman ganun kalaki yung apartments namin dati. We moved to our own house Grade 4 na ako.
So now I realize, while my kids are small, condo muna kami. And by small, I mean hindi pa sila high school. That gives us around 13+ more years.
So now, we bought a 100sqm condo. Cityland sa Makati Buendia. We've been renting different units here for years and honestly, maganda ang management. Guards dont slack off. Cleaning is done regularly pati floor ng parking lot nililinis ng tubig regularly. Bihira ako makakita ng ipis na malaki kasi they are conscious about pest control. They test our water supply every year ata and tell the tenants if pumasa or hindi and they fix it right away. Small pool and a basic gym lang ang meron pero ok narin kasi weekly (or 2x a week ata) ang cleaning. Earthquake seminars, Firedrill and seminars, halloween trick or treat parties and xmas party yearly. Madali kausap ang admin and and daming small establishments sa baba lang ng condo (spas, salons, 7-11, MiniStop, daming carinderia, stores, internet shops, hardware, drug store, etc). Katapat lang namin Hypermart. We're a couple of blocks away from Makati Med.
Seriously, ayaw na namin umalis dito, haha. Maliit ang space compared to a house, yes. Pero mas importante right now sa amin ang time that we will be granted to spend with our kids kasi iwas traffic. Imagine, we can actually walk home if super traffic. Safer rin.
Yes, binabaha ng bongga sa area na 'yun. Pero atleast I know hindi papasok sa bahay ko, hehe.
And high-rise building so maraming cons (like and LAKI ng real estate tax, minsan dami tao sa elevator, you worry about earthquakes, etc etc).
For now, this makes sense for us. The space constraint is a sacrifice for time, convenience and safety. If my husband and I continue working and don't splurge all the time, in 10 years baka bayad na namin'toh and we can start na on our dream home

*cross fingers*