Black frame vs white frame: which apartment to buy in Batumi

Black frame vs white frame: what the contract includes

If you are buying a new-build apartment in Batumi, the black frame vs white frame choice comes before the purchase. The law does not define these terms. The developer lists exactly what you get in an annex to the contract, and white frame from two developers can differ noticeably.

Black frame usually means the load-bearing structure, the floor slabs and the external walls, with water, drains and electricity ending at the apartment entrance. White frame adds partitions, plaster, screed and points for sockets, and brings water and drains into the kitchen and bathroom. Windows and an entrance door often come with white frame. With black frame, check separately whether they are included.

Compare two offers against this list. If one developer's white frame includes windows, a door and socket points, and another's has only screed and plaster, the renovation estimates for these apartments will differ. Green frame is interpreted even more loosely. For some developers it is white frame plus heating pipes, an agreed layout of pipes and wiring and tiles on the balcony. For others it already includes part of the finishing.

What often has to be redone in white frame

White frame saves time as long as the developer's work matches your plans. When it doesn't, part of the work is torn out and done again, and you pay for it twice: first in the apartment price, then in the demolition estimate. Five places are worth checking:

• Partitions, if you are joining the kitchen to the living room or adding a walk-in wardrobe
• Screed with cracks, voids or uneven levels, which large-format porcelain tiles cannot be laid on
• Plaster with corners that aren't square, which has to be corrected anyway for tiles and fitted wardrobes
• Water and drain connections, if the kitchen or the washing machine goes in a different place
• Socket points, which the developer places to its own plan, not around your furniture

Under the rules as of autumn 2026, you don't need a permit to remove or move partitions as long as load-bearing walls, slabs and columns are left untouched. But every wall you take down means rubble, new plaster at the joints and extra days. If your design changes almost the whole layout, white frame loses its point, and black frame is the simpler choice.

Checking concealed work

In black frame, everything that tiles and paint will later cover is done by your contractor. We photograph the pipes, cables and waterproofing before they are closed up, and at the end you get a handover file with the routing diagrams. The warranty then covers everything we did: 2 years on the work, including the screed and plaster, and 5 years, which applies only to wiring, water pipes and drains in walls and floors.

In white frame, the developer did the screed, the plaster and the connection points, and you see only the surface. So before the renovation starts, we inspect them as we would anyone else's work: we tap the walls, look for voids under the screed and measure level differences with a two-metre straightedge. What we find goes to the developer as a list of defects or into the estimate, so that an old defect doesn't end up under new tiles.

White frame handed over in winter can be damp inside the screed even when the surface looks dry. By the sea the air holds 70–80% humidity, more in winter, and water leaves the screed slowly. Laminate laid on such a screed later swells, and glue-down SPC vinyl comes unstuck. So the screed is checked with a moisture meter before the floor goes down, however many months have passed since it was poured.

Time to the first rental income

Black frame adds partitions, plaster and screed to the renovation, and the screed has to dry before the floor is laid. In the wet season it is dried with a dehumidifier and ventilation, and even so this takes weeks. A renovation from white frame skips these stages and starts straight away with the pipe and cable routing and levelling.

If you are buying to rent out, you measure the time in weeks of the season lost. Most tourists come to Batumi between July and September, and in winter there are far fewer short-term guests. If the keys are handed over in autumn, both options are usually ready by summer. With keys in spring, a white frame apartment can still be ready for July, while black frame may push the first check-in towards the end of the season.

Besides the renovation, this time includes made-to-measure furniture, cleaning and photographing the apartment for the listing. So we plan the schedule back from the date when the apartment has to take its first guests and see which frame fits into it.

How to compare the options before you buy

Send us the floor plan and the contract annex that lists what the frame includes. Within 24 hours on business days we'll send a preliminary renovation estimate for each option, and the developer will tell you the difference in the apartment price. Add the two together, and you'll see what a ready-to-rent apartment costs in each case.

If the building is already completed, the foreman visits the apartment and shows you the screed, walls and connection points on a video call. The detailed estimate comes after we measure on site, and the price and timing of each stage go into the contract, in English, Georgian or Russian.