That’s the norm in most urban centers in Europe. Houses are older than elevators, there’s no space for a refit, and rebuilding them from scratch is often not feasible due to the time and cost involved.

I didn’t particularly mind it though. Been living anywhere from 2nd to 5th floor without one, and it’s perfectly fine.

We also don’t buy truckloads of groceries as it works in the US apparently, but pick up stuff we need for the evening or next day on the way back from work, and that’s that. I hardly ever broke a sweat from shopping.

Third floor ain’t that bad as long as you don’t exceed your carrying capacity. Going up 3 floors by stairs isn’t much compared to the ~10 minutes of walking back from the store. Really not that bad with a bag each hand.

It starts getting much with places with > 4 floors but that’s pretty rare without an elevator. You waste more time waiting for the elevator than actually going up anyway when you’re on floor < 3.

Fine for living without children.

But moving in and out was a lot of work.