I’d like to hear some views from homeowners on whether it is worth it to go for those higher-end designer renovations from an ID for a BTO flat.

We are newly married and just got our 5-room BTO flat.

We plan to stay for the medium term (7-10 years) or even long term as the location is convenient for us and the place is big enough even if we have kids. We browsed through some reno websites and did some research and really love what we saw for the renovations done by IDs.

We spend much more time at home than outdoors and we wfh partially and so we are thinking to spend a little more to create the environment we like at home. We are quoted from 80k to 6 figures for a higher-end designer reno from ID firms as opposed to 30-60k for a basic renovation.

If we go for the higher-end option, our parents are willing to loan us some money plus we’ll exhaust our current savings.

We do not plan to get a basic one and upgrade to a higher-end reno years later as it would be very inconvenient. Thus we want to do everything in one go.

As it is a big financial commitment, we like to ask people who have gone thru it: if you got either a more expensive reno or a basic one, were you satisfied/ regret it? Is it true that generally the more expensive the reno, the better the quality it is?

Here are what netizens think:

I hv had a few renovations in my life, probably 7 times for 4 condo units in different locations.

I hv learned from different architects and interior designers about the rough idea of an estimated budget.

1) Some set budget for the total area of the condo e.g. My condo is 120 sq.m. in BKK. The minimum price per sq.m for renovation should be 10,000 Thai Bht. Or 1.2 MB in total including everything. This is the minimum. But not over 30,000 Bht. per sq.m. or 3.6 MB. OR…

2) 10-30% of the price of the condo. E.g. the condo is 1M sgd, renovation budget should be min 100k sgd, just an idea.

However, it depends whether it is just the interior or interior + infrastructure of the condo e.g. new water pipe, new floor, new ceiling.

I and my husband want to live in a good functional home. Simple design. We invested a lot on wood floor, comfortable on bare feet. It lasts more than 24 years now.

We also invested in bathroom tile and sink. The bathroom tile we chose was hand made in Northern Part of Thailand. Used in 5 stars hotel. Last 24 years, never change.

And the last thing we invested a lot was my kitchen. Ample storage, nice function and last long especially the sink and counter top.

So, it all depends on your brief and how you are going to use your house. My house is like a cute cafe from our guests’ perception. I spend a lot of time at home. Very comfortable and lovely.

I bought 1 beach condo, 60 sq.m. New condo. I set 10% of budget for interior design including electrical appliances, furnitures and curtains.

I painted new color every 7 years, so the houses always look new. Built-in furnitures are expensive. I only had minimum, to utilize space and storage.

Infrastructure should be good quality bec I don’t want to call plumbers/technicians to fix every month 

It is so worth every THB that I had spent. Live happily, use every corner especially during lock down period.

The house is not sth we want to fix or do renovation often. Just do the right thing. And keep good maintenance everyday, every way, every room, so you will just need to brush up in the future by changing some furnitures to freshen up your home. No need to do major renovation again even after 20-30 years. Good luck and have fun. Home sweet home 

Not planning to have kids – go for higher end reno

Planning to have kids – go for cheap reno. For that matter go for cheap furniture and cheap electronics too.

Kids will wreck havoc on the above.

Actually, you can do the outsourcing for contractors and carpenters. Much cheaper than IDs. You can take your ideas from Pinterest and put on mood board. Moodboard can be cut outs from the photos. Or you can create moodboard in Pinterest. My husband and I never went for IDs as we are designers. We are not in ID field.