The absence of mortgage loans for the purchase of homes only drew a line under the unreasonable appetites of sellers of mansions. After all, even earlier the conclusion was brewing: the number of those able to acquire cottages would decrease, which means prices must be cut and smaller mansions built. Not to mention that finishing the purchased shell will cost a third, or even half, of its price.
People began to think about the cost of maintaining such a home. With the crazy rise in gas prices, heating a cottage will cost a pretty penny. Plus current repairs: rest assured that in a few years you will have to fix either the fence, the roof, the porch or the front doors. Plus payment for the security of the cottage village, garbage removal, street cleaning and adjacent territories – on average $100 per month. Plus rising gasoline prices, and without a car, living in the countryside and working in the city is oh so difficult. As the newspaper 'Segodnya' notes, even after the increase in utility tariffs, a 3-4 room apartment will cost 2-3 times cheaper.
To avoid going down the drain, cottage sellers lure customers with discounts, installment payments and even granting loans for the purchase of homes. Will it help, revive demand? Not sure.
It is extremely important to find out what materials the cottage was built from, so as not to buy a house of cards.
The main thing is the foundation, it should lie below the freezing point of the soil, i.e. at a depth of 0.8-1 m. If the soil is weak (sand, peat), it should be laid 1.2-1.5 m deep. And if the house was built on former swamps or quicksand, confidence in its stability will be given by driving piles. Usually a solid strip foundation is made, but for light structures made of wood or sandwich panels, a columnar foundation is also suitable.
A wooden house made of timber or logs is eco-friendly, warm in winter and not hot in summer. But it needs to be treated externally every 5-7 years with agents against rot and wood-boring beetles. A house made of red (ceramic) brick retains heat better, but is inferior in strength to white brick (silicate). However, in both cases, the mansions will stand for centuries if waterproofing is done correctly, and if thermal insulation is also laid, heating costs will be reduced by 2-3 times.
Walls made of aerated concrete or foam concrete retain heat better than brick ones, especially with insulation made of polystyrene foam. The only but: this technology is new and it is unknown what will happen to such a house in 30-50 years. Even more so with a frame-panel cottage assembled from cement-bonded particleboard sandwich panels.
Manufacturers claim that these seemingly flimsy 15-20 cm thick walls will stand forever because they do not absorb moisture and are fire-resistant. Probably that is why the sale of polystyrene foam P-175 has been growing recently. However, if between the layers of panels it is not mineral wool but foam plastic, mice can gnaw it and – goodbye, praised thermal insulation, supposedly equivalent to 3-meter brick walls.
As the publication notes, you can find out all these parameters from the technical passport of the house.