Be it an apartment, villa, villament or a stand-alone house, at the end of the day, a home is where the heart is, the shape notwithstanding. But before making grand sweeping statements, we need to know exactly what we are generalizing!

If you are in the process of buying a new home, it’s going to be a big investment, probably the biggest investment you will ever make. Before jumping in with both feet, however, you need to have a clear idea of the options available to you. The trend has been to go for villas or apartments, both of which are a form of gated community. Of recent, there has been a new entrant in the home arena, called villaments. Earlier they were called townhouses and are basically an amalgamation of villas and apartments. Here, you can enjoy the luxury of villa life at the cost of apartments along with all the benefits that go with apartment living. And before you start scratching your head on which option is best for you, here is a low-down on the pros and cons of each type of home.

Villas are more upper-crust and represent the cream of the society; these luxurious homes tend to cost a little more than the average villament or apartment and come with the perks of privacy, where you can sit on your front porch overlooking your private garden and read the morning paper as you enjoy your first cuppa of the day. Villas also give you the liberty of making structural changes to your home as you deem fit. Aside from that, you actually get to own the plot also on which your home stands. As with all gated communities, there are the usual amenities available such as gyms, clubhouses, concierge, Kids Park, etc.

Apartments are similar to villas in most ways and come in different sizes and costs. There are the modest apartments and then there are the super-luxurious apartments which might cost similar to villas. The only problem with most apartments is that there isn’t much privacy, unless of course if you are going for the high-end ones where there are probably just two or three apartments per floor. The good thing about lack of privacy is that there is more security here coupled with more people to strike up friendships with. Your kids will never be bored in apartment homes! As with villas, there are a host of amenities available with apartment living too, in accordance with the value of the apartment. And you get to have manicured gardens and lawns without having to work on keeping them tended. As with villas, apartments also have 24×7 security; another major advantage of apartments is that they can be easily found located within the city centres, minimizing your daily commute time.

As we mentioned earlier, villaments have the benefits of both of the above, although they don’t have too much of personal outdoor space as in villas. With villaments, you can avail of all the luxuries of a villa, but at the affordable cost of an apartment that happily fits your budget. Villaments usually consist of about 5 homes in a single building with no more than 2 homes per floor, providing you with ample space and privacy.

With so much information, you can hopefully reach a decision on where to invest your nest egg!