White frame vs turnkey: what to buy in a Batumi new build

What goes into a developer's finish

There is no single standard for a developer's finish. What you get is written in the contract and the specification attached to it. In one building it means walls ready for painting, laminate, bathroom tiles, sanitary ware and interior doors. In another, a kitchen, air conditioners and appliances are added. Furniture is sometimes offered as a separate package.

So the white frame vs turnkey question is only worth discussing with the specification in hand. Check the brand and grade of the flooring, the tiles, taps and doors, the number of sockets, and whether there are pipe runs for air conditioners and waterproofing in the bathroom. If the developer just says "standard finish" and gives you no list, assume you don't know what is included and budget for rework.

What the finish hides

In a white frame apartment your contractor does the wiring, the pipework and the waterproofing, and we check the developer's work: the screed, the plaster and the connection points. You see the concealed work in photos before it is closed up. In a finished apartment it is already under tiles and paint. Nobody can check the cable size, the pipe joints inside the walls or the waterproofing in the shower area by eye. Ask the developer for photos or inspection records of the concealed work. If there are none, the checks have to be indirect.

Before the handover certificate is signed, we check a finished apartment indirectly:

• We tap the wall and floor tiles to find hollow spots under them.
• We run the shower and watch whether the water goes into the floor drain or stands by the wall.
• We check the sockets with a tester and look in the consumer unit (fuse box) for an RCD, the switch that cuts the power when current leaks.
• We look at the floor joints by the balcony door and the bottom of the door frames, where damp shows first.

The list of defects, with photos, goes to the developer before the certificate is signed. Whatever the developer won't fix, we price in a rework estimate, so you can see what the apartment really costs.

Finishes for damp winters and short-term rental

A developer chooses the finish to suit the apartment's price and to look good at viewings, and damp is not always taken into account. Outdoor humidity here is usually 70–80%, higher in winter, and in an apartment left empty until spring the weak points of the finish soon show.

If the specification has laminate in the hallway and by the balcony, doors with MDF frames and unsealed edges, or gypsum plaster in the bathroom, these are the first things to fail by the sea. Short-term rental adds suitcases, pebbles from the beach and cleaning after every guest. When you renovate from white frame, these areas get SPC vinyl or porcelain tiles and moisture-resistant doors. In the bathroom, cement-based mixes are used instead of gypsum, along with sanitary ware you can buy spare parts for.

Then there is the look. A building finished by the developer has many identical apartments, and their listings look alike. With your own renovation, storage and lighting are planned around your guests, and in photos the apartment doesn't get lost among the others in the building.

White frame vs turnkey: timing, payment plans and price

A turnkey apartment wins on time: you can furnish it and rent it out almost as soon as you get the keys. From white frame you still have the rough work and finishing, furniture and cleaning ahead, so the first guest checks in several months later.

Money is less straightforward. The developer's finish is part of the apartment price, and if the developer sells on a payment plan that includes the finish, you pay for it on the same schedule. Interest-free developer payment plans are common in Batumi new builds, but the terms differ from one developer to another. A renovation from white frame is paid for separately and in parts: first an advance for materials and the first stage, then each further payment after you have accepted the previous stage.

The developer does have a price advantage. It buys materials for the whole building and finishes the apartments one after another, like a production line. So its standard finish can cost less than the same renovation on a separate estimate. The saving disappears if you later strip out part of that finish, because you then also pay for the demolition, the waste removal and new materials.

When a turnkey finish gets redone anyway

Say you already know a few things. The hallway and kitchen floors will need replacing with something moisture-resistant, there are too few sockets and no pipe runs for air conditioners, and nobody has seen the waterproofing in the shower. Each of these means tearing out work you have already paid for. Once there are three or four of them, it makes more sense to buy white frame and do the renovation once.

Send us the finish specification and the floor plan. Within 24 hours on business days we'll send a preliminary estimate for renovating from white frame and a list of what would have to be replaced in the turnkey finish. After we measure on site, you get the detailed estimate, and the contract can be in English, Georgian or Russian, your choice.