BN Hot Topic: Is Refurbishing a Rented Apartment a Waste of Money?

From the minimalist to the contemporary, the traditional and colourful, many people fantasise about the interior design style they’ll adopt when they get their own space. It is almost difficult to get an apartment that is fully up to your taste or has everything you want. As a matter of fact, many apartments are not furnished for tenants, so yes, you’re expected to buy your beddings and your curtains and all other things that’ll make you as comfortable as you can get during your stay there.

But when it comes to interior designs and setting up one’s space, a lot of people want more than just curtains or furniture. They don’t mind changing the POP, painting the wall or changing its wallpapers, tiling the floors, changing doors and windows, fixing the bathroom, interlocking their section of the compound, and so on.

While many would agree with repainting your walls or buying furniture into your homes and having what they deem to be “necessary” in your home, they believe it is absolutely unnecessary to refurbish a house that is not yours and spend so much on a rented property. Why would you rent another person’s property and then start changing floors and cabinets? It’s okay if you make changes that you can easily remove and take along with you when relocating, but how do you remove the tiles you have already fixed on the floor or the shower in the bathroom? There’s the belief that no matter how you refurbish an apartment, it is still not your own, and you’d leave one day.

Many people also claim that those who go all lengths to refurbish a rented apartment are doing so because they want to show off, and take peng Instagram photos.

But others are saying ‘show off or not, why won’t you want your space to look good if you can afford it?’ People get attached to their space, and for them, it is a safe haven. They want to come back into a home that is warm and cosy, one that makes them happy and brings them a sense of comfort and peace. So what’s the big deal if they choose to glam up their space, even if they will only live there for a short period of time? At least, for that period, the tenant would be comfortable and happy. 

Besides, if you rent an apartment and have paid in full, doesn’t it make it yours for the period of time you paid for it? As long as there was no agreement between the tenant and the landlord not to effect any physical changes to the house, and the landlord is okay with all the changes, why can’t people go ahead to glam up their rented apartments to their taste?

The contention here is that the apartment you are refurbishing is not yours. For some, there’s the “at least wait to build your own house fess, and stop wasting money on another person’s house” approach to this. For others, there’s the “whether it is rent or not, if you want to glam up your apartment to your taste, go ahead and do so” approach.

Over to you, guys, whose side are you on? Would you refurbish a rented apartment to your own taste, or do you believe it’s a waste of money?

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Featured Image: Pexel