On the other hand a friend of mine bought a nice apartment (70 sqm +) with basically no mortgage and very low interest and was paying less than 1k including uti

On the other hand a friend of mine bought a nice apartment (70 sqm +) with basically no mortgage and very low interest and was paying less than 1k including utilities. It probably depends a lot on the city area. It's true that this apartment was not really in the best neighbourhood, but the metro was close and the apartment was awesome.