Pros and cons of free housing planning

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We understand the issue of housing planning and find out if the absence of walls in a new apartment is so attractive.

What is free layout

An open-plan apartment is a dwelling without interior partitions and interior walls. In fact, this is a studio apartment, the area of which varies. Depending on the number of square meters, the owner can make a standard one-room apartment or build walls so that several rooms are obtained at once.

In Russia, the first open-plan apartments appeared in the early 90s in Moscow. After the collapse of the USSR, there was a demand for housing, where the owner himself decided how to plan the space. Communal apartments with a rigid distribution of square meters are a thing of the past, and residents wanted a lot of space in the layout of the house.

First, the owners said goodbye to the partitions with which they tried to separate from their neighbors in the communal apartment, and then they began to buy apartments in the stairwells and combine them into one living space. The developers quickly responded to the market demand and offered housing without a rigid framework in the layout.

Since then, open plan apartments have conquered the market. There are no exact statistics on the number of such housing, but some experts say Professionals about free planning, that up to half of apartments in new buildings are rented with free planning. Construction companies and realtors give out the absence of interior walls as an absolute advantage. Is it really? Let's figure out the pros and cons of free planning.

Advantages of open-plan apartments

1. Creativity and lack of framework

Freedom of self-expression is the main advantage of apartments without partitions. The owner does not have to demolish curved walls and deal with the legacy of bad taste of the previous owner of the house.

You can combine the kitchen with the living room, allocate as much space for the nursery as you want, or put a huge bed on the entire area of / u200b / u200bthe living area.

The landlord decides how many rooms he will have. And in the process of working on home improvement, he will feel like a professional designer or architect. In a word, the creator of his own destiny. How the house will look like depends only on the owner's imagination. At least, this is what construction and real estate companies assure.

2. Convenience for families with children

Free planning can be useful for a family with children. If you choose to leave more open space, it will be easier for you to observe the children and interact with your household chores. This way, a free layout will simplify communication and help maintain communication within the family.

3. Modern style

Free planning allows you to apply current design solutions. For example, the absence of partitions and interior walls makes the apartment brighter. In such housing, you do not need to look for decor and colors for each zone - you can create a common interior. And also more efficiently use every meter of housing. This is especially useful in small apartments.

4. Idea for business

Another plus of free planning is a good business concept. An apartment without interior walls is divided into several studios and then rented out.

This kind of business is gaining popularity. Only in the Avito service you will find All studio apartments that are rented in Russia more than 14,000 studio apartments in Russia that can be rented.

Disadvantages of open-plan apartments

1. Freedom, but not in everything

It is worth noting that the very term "open-plan housing" is not in the legislation, this is a marketing technique of realtors and developers.

The construction company, upon delivery of the house, must clearly mark the kitchen and bathroom zones in each apartment in the floor plan. It is forbidden to transfer these zones, because all communications are carried out centrally, and in this case, there will be a threat to the safety of the residents of the house.

The floor plan also shows the interior walls. Often, the developer marks them in the apartment with partitions several bricks or blocks high. Of course, they can be easily removed, but the fact remains that the free layout is still not completely free.

2. Freedom requires investment

Another disadvantage of such housing is additional costs. As a rule, open-plan apartments are rented without partitions and without finishing. The owner will have to develop a design project, conduct electricity (since it often runs only up to the switchboard), and carry out finishing. Taking into account these costs, the cost of an apartment may increase by 1.5-2 times, according to the study of the merits and demerits of free planning experts.

A design plan alone does not mean that you will get your dream home. All changes must be approved.

3. Freedom must be legalized

Almost any changes in the arrangement of an open-plan apartment must be legalized. But this is not so easy to do. This is what is prohibited by the Government Decree of January 28, 2006 No. 47 during the repair of such housing:

• transfer risers of water supply and heating;
• displace or dismantle load-bearing walls;
• to increase living space by cutting down bathrooms or by using utility rooms;
• experiment with "wet areas", that is, move or add a bathroom or toilet to where the neighbors downstairs have other rooms. This can lead to dampness, mold and mildew;
• make living space less than 8 square meters;
• transfer central heating to the balcony.

But what can be done without agreeing on changes in the housing inspection and BTI:

• wallpapering;
• plaster walls;
• change the flooring or ceiling.

Nobody knows how much approval it will take in the offices of officials. In any case, the redevelopment reduces the living area of the apartment. And then you risk overpaying for unnecessary square meters. Experts say the disadvantages of free planning in economy-class apartments are that the area of unused areas in open-plan apartments after renovation will be approximately 30–35 percent.

Alternative to free planning

Demand for substandard housing remains high, but the paperwork scares buyers. In such a situation, the developers turned to the experience of other countries and adopted the "European" layout.

It differs from free planning in two fundamental ways. Firstly, in such housing, the builders provided for all interior partitions and internal walls, and designed them in such a way that every square meter of the area is used. That is, the occurrence of empty zones is excluded.

Secondly, an apartment with a "European" layout is transformed with the help of sliding partitions.

A typical technique used by European architects is to combine the kitchen and living room. This expands the living space and makes it more comfortable. If parents spend a lot of time in the kitchen, they can easily follow the baby, or quickly serve meals for guests. And if the living conditions have changed, you install a sliding partition - and it will already be two separate rooms. At the same time, architects design apartments in such a way that adding or removing partitions does not require approval.

When is an open-plan apartment right for you?

So, having learned all the pros and cons of housing without internal walls, let's summarize. This property will suit you if:

• you have enough funds for renovation and decoration;
• want to realize design ambitions and bring to life bold architectural projects;
• do not want to live in a standard apartment of the same type, in which the space was arranged for you;
• you are going to make several separate studios within the same living space, for example, for organizing a business;
• against frames and boundaries, and plan to combine the entire apartment into one large living space;
• you have time to calmly implement your architectural and design ideas.

When an open-plan apartment is most likely not your option

Once again, it is worthwhile to carefully consider buying a home without interior partitions if:

• you do not have enough budget for redevelopment and renovation:
• you are not ready to fight bureaucracy trying to legitimize the changes you need;
• you do not have sufficient knowledge in design and architecture, and there are no additional funds for the services of professionals;
• you are not ready for the fact that the living area of the apartment after the renovation will decrease;
• it is necessary to move into a new home as soon as possible.