What does 'Apartment Shell' mean?
Find out what Apartment Shell means. Apartment Shell is explained by Tim Hill - author of Buying Property in Poland
Apartment Shell
In Poland the majority of new build apartments are delivered to the customer with walls plastered, floor screeded and plumbing as well as electrics installed. However there is usually no kitchen, flooring, bathroom ceramics and the walls still need to be painted.This are historical reasons for this. In the past (over 30 years ago) buyers were disapointed with the level of finish offered by developers and demanded lower prices and shells they could complete themselves instead.
This mentality has stuck so if you are buying off plan always ensure to double check what the level of finish is.
Chapter 7 (Property Types) covers property types while Chapter 13 (After the Purchase) gives further information on how to buy and fit out a shell.
Search result for 'shells' in Buying Property in Poland
Chapter 7:
Property Types
14.
"... Buy, which helps you to avoid being sold an off-plan unit on a development aimed solely at foreign buyers and priced up accordingly.
- Apartment shells -
While there are a number of Polish investors who have bought off-plan and want to sell before completion there is a more unusual type ..."
"...owner just sits on it as an asset. After a few years they may feel it is time to cash it in but rather than fit it out they offer it as a shell so the new owner can decorate to their own tastes. As such, when you see shells advertised do not always assume this is someone turning a contract or that the development is brand new, it can be on a complex that has matured and in a neighbourhood where the infrastructure has come into place, which may make it an easier option to rent out.
..."
"...Today they are empty shells. Some were part completed super structures left exactly as they stood the day the labour force stopped work but others had reached the stage of being fully fitted. Closed down and boarded up they were targets for cash poor locals in the early 1990s who stripped them of wiring, ..."
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Chapter 11:
Before the Purchase
"...In Poland almost the complete opposite is true. The reason stems from the top of any chain where the buyer is probably moving into one of the 100,000 new properties being built in the country every year. As we will see later these are usually sold as shells (see Chapter 15). So the person moving into the new home will be fitting it out to their own style and naturally this will probably be the same fittings that they currently have. The obvious choice then is to take everything — doors, flooring, bathroom fittings, kitchens, lighting, light ..."
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Chapter 15:
Buying Off-Plan
102.
"... building (most commonly found on the lower floors in converted period buildings where damp proof courses are difficult to install).
- Fitting Out shells -
In the 1960s and 1970s Polish developers delivered apartments to a finished standard. Buyers however, disappointed with the poor ..."
