When it comes to buying a house, the real estate market offers several options. Whether to buy a fully fitted house or a bare one to furnish on your own, is a big decision. Do cupboards in the bedrooms, cabinets in the kitchen, fitted home appliances and wooden basics influence your choice while buying a house?
Naveen Kapoor recently bought an unfurnished builder floor in Indirapuram. He wants to redesign the entire house in his own way and for this he is willing to spend a few additional lakhs. “I don’t like interiors done by others. I want to do my house according to my taste. I know it will take at least three months as I am going to change the exterior look of the house as well. But I am fine with it.”
Your choice matters
There are mainly three kinds of properties available in the market – furnished, semi-furnished and unfurnished. What kind of property you want depends completely on your needs, requirements and lifestyle.
Furnished apartment: A furnished apartment has different specifications. The price ranges also vary according to the amenities offered. If you purchase a fully-furnished apartment, you will get wardrobes, cabinets, air conditioners, water heaters, ceiling fans, lights, chimney and almost everything that makes the house furnished.
The advantage in buying a fully-furnished apartment is that it allows you to enjoy the amenities as soon as you shift, without going through the tiresome process of buying and transportation. But remember, property values go up as per the number of amenities offered by the developer. They are different from ready-to-move-in houses which are only structurally complete but not furnished in a way that they can render a lifestyle to the occupants.
Semi-furnished apartment: On the other hand, in a semi-furnished unit the available amenities differ. In such units, you can get minimum furnishing and basic woodwork but not expensive home appliances. These homes come with an advantage that these units have basic amenities and do not make you spend too much on shifting.
Unfurnished units: These are bare houses that have to be equipped with all internal amenities such as appliances, electrical furnishings, wood work, sanitary fixtures, lights etc. The best part of buying such houses is that you are free to ‘build’ your house as you want. From floor design to lighting and from modular kitchen to walk-in wardrobes – the sky is the limit to what you can do in your house.
At the live discussion on ‘This Week In Property’ organised by Magicbricks, a property expert said, “Nowadays, all kinds of houses are available. The premium apartments are always fully fitted and renowned developers fit the house with branded products. However, they charge extra for this. This extra cost is very convenient if you don’t have time to buy all those things. If you want to avoid the extra cost, you can go for the bare shell apartment and design as per your choice.”
Things to keep in mind
Developers are in the business of constructing a house and for them fully furnishing a house is not a huge task as they buy things in bulk. They can negotiate aggressively with the suppliers so the whole thing works out cheaper for them.
Experts say that post the implementation of Goods & Services Tax (GST), when you buy an AC, fridge or make your kitchen modular, you will have to pay GST on all these items. But when all these things are bought by the developer, then he will pay GST on that. This cost he will adjust against the GST that you are going to pay and then the credit will be passed on to you.
In case of premium homes, buyers want to own a house that is unique and exclusive and thus, might not want to buy a furnished house. Such home buyers don’t want a house that has the same fixtures like several others.
Where the developer is offering a fully loaded house but the customer doesn’t want the fixtures, will the developer cut the price for him?
Experts say that developers are also changing their strategies as per the mood of the market. A recce of the market shows that some developers have created a bank of products to choose from. They add the cost of furnishings to the cost of your property and reduce the price of what you don’t need.
Kashinath B, a Bengaluru-based developer says, “If I give modular kitchen to my customers, they are not ready to take it. Everybody wants to negotiate on the price of the apartment instead. I don’t think people are interested in buying a fully fitted house from developers anymore.”
When you are buying a fully-loaded house, experts recommend you get an architect or a professional with experience in interiors to do an audit of the furnishings and fittings that you have got. They can guide and advise you on the quality of the products used.
Another important aspect to consider when you take possession of your house is to make sure you collect the warranty certificates of the products that the developer has fitted. They should be with you not with the builder because you are the one who is going to maintain these in future.
