28 Nov Top 2 Trends Explain Why High-end Furnished Apartments are Becoming Popular  

Turnkey apartments, which come fully-furnished and with an exquisite interior design to boot, is becoming popular among property developers, buyers, and homeowners alike. The term “turnkey” is a giveaway that can indicate the reasons: all the prospective customer has to do is “turn the key,” enter, and enjoy his new digs. He can relax because he doesn’t have to wrestle with a lot of the headache-inducing problems that usually come in getting a new home.

He won’t spend time or money changing the design because he loved it at first glance — and that’s one of the reasons why he bought it. If he does need to exchange an armchair with another that is designed by another brand, then the adjustment is minimal. He does not have to consult an interior designer because everything in that apartment from top-to-bottom has been created to align with one visually appealing vision, from the leather couches, the silk bedsheets, to the turn-of-the-century lamps. The appliances and other equipment are state-of-the-art, all chosen to provide him a comfortable lifestyle, like HD entertainment complexes, security systems that keep his home safe, and kitchen gadgets that make his cooking and dining experiences a breeze.

Two emerging trends explain why fully -furnished or turnkey apartments are fast enjoying a boom among prospective customers who are looking at long-term living:

Personalization 

The New-York-based HFZ Capital Group captured a lot of attention — and business — from the upscale market because they broke away from the traditional practice of showing model apartments that employed a pleasant, but generic, design that could appeal to everyone. Instead, as reported by The New York Times. HFZ took pains to create individual, unique designs for each apartment they were selling. This was no one-size-fits-all template. One elegant, classically-designed apartment may appeal to the conservative banker, while a hipper, looser, minimalist unit can draw in the on-the-go startup founder. Every element in the design, from the wall paintings, the roof shape, to the arrangement of the furniture in each room, was thought-out, planned, and executed to bring out its own unique vision.

The usual showroom gives prospective buyers an idea of how they can make their rooms beautiful. This customized approach shows them the whole package: what their entire apartment will look like, and how it can serve their needs. The design is not a preview, but an actual representation of their new home. The buyer feels that the apartment has been crafted exclusively for him, increasing its value in his eyes.

California Corporate Housing goes the dozen extra miles to align the design of its fully-furnished apartments with its tenant’s ethnic taste, cultural practices, and lifestyle avocations. In one incident, it revamped the decor to carry the colors of the famous Wimbledon Tennis Competition during the time of that event. Accessories and memorabilia were placed in strategic parts of the unit. The reason: the tenant was a Wimbledon devotee who wanted to virtually live out his enthusiasm for the competition as soon as he got home and started watching it on his TV.

Investments

Fully-furnished apartments can become a source of investments for their proud owners. There are two ways to do this, says the Advertiser. First, the owners can incur a lot of tax benefits by claiming depreciation deductions for their furnitures and fixtures, which they can categorize as plant and equipment. One high-end turnkey apartment unit can claim as much as two million dollars for depreciation deductions.

Another way to turn those turnkey apartments into investments is renting them out to specific markets who are looking for fully-furnished homes. They neither have the time, money, interest, nor inclination to dress up, decorate, and haul in furniture to one empty unit. The usual customers for the fully-furnished units are expatriate employees or assignees, long-term business travelers, and students who will need their own living space for months, if not years.

One trend that has taken shape in this “sharing economy” is leasing out fully-furnished apartments to different tenants who cannot afford the unit on their own, but are open to boarding with others. The Chicago Tribune reports that the property developers are the ones who actively look for these tenants, and introduce them to each other. In this arrangement, for example, a college senior and a millennial programmer can sleep in two different bedrooms, but share the same kitchen and living room under one roof. These young tenants welcome the help of the developers in looking for their fellow renters because they don’t want the inconvenience of looking for them and guaranteeing their payment for rent.

In case one tenant fails to pay his share of the bill, the responsibility of collecting falls on the property developer who signed him up. The other tenants are not bothered by this failure and can go on living their individual lives.

There is a lot to be said about fully-furnished apartments. Take the opportunity to check one out, instead of the typical empty unit, if you are looking for a place to live in. For global mobility specialists with assignees destined to work in Northern California, click here.