There will be no body corporate to manage and perform repair and maintenance on your house so you don't pay management fees or repair fund contributions every month. However, you need to look after the house by yourself.
A new house is good, obviously – it will come with various house builder warranties (10 years for structural etc.) so the first years should be a plain sailing. Pre-owned houses, on the other hand, do not come with any warranties. Therefore, a house inspection is strongly recommended before you commit yourself to its purchase. If the inspection finds some defects, you may want to negotiate on the price accordingly. Some pre-owned houses are refurbished by real estate companies and they come with warranty for any hidden defects for 2 years.
All new houses should be built in compliant with the relevant laws. Check the building compliance certificate and inspection completion certificate (建築確認証明書、確認検査済証明書). Some old houses may have had additions and/or alterations to them without council permission (違法建築). As banks are reluctant to provide loans on these houses, they are often put on the market at a lower price. But don't jump onto buy those, as a bank finance could be difficult.
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