You seem pretty determined to buy it, so you might as well press on. But I don't think you will get anybody here telling you it's a good idea to buy into 177 apartment, 13 year old Meriton building with nothing in the sinking fund.
Good on you for finding out about the empty sinking fund, though. At least you're going into it with your eyes open.
I'm going to do a second inspection this Saturday with a friend to get a second opinion. Will see how it goes. It does require new carpets, paint and floor skirting. Not an issue if the price was a tad lower.
Anyway, I'm not 100% commented yet as I think it is a bit over priced for what it is; esp that it's only level 2 with no sunlight via the lounge room balcony which is big enough to hang your clothes out to dry.
I also caught the inner-west line yesterday to Strathfield to inspect another unit. I poked my head outside of Ashfield station when the doors opened. Not the best station I have seen; graffiti everywhere like a very run down suburb where there is no community atmosphere. Not even sure now that I would want to live in Ashfield. The crowd on the train sort of put me off as well. Just didn't seem like there were many mid to upper class people on the train. Just my personal view.
I was telling a guy at work today about the train ride and how unpleasant it looked, he agreed and we have so many people trying to buy houses, etc in the inner west over 2 mil and they don?t realise what the whole package contains The traffic as well is also so much worse as opposed to sat living in St George.