You can change a kitchen. You can never change square footage.
That's the line I come back to over and over with buyers, because it's the whole argument in one sentence. A kitchen, no matter how outdated, no matter how ugly, can be ripped out and redone. Square footage can't be created. A bad layout can't be undone. It's a natural thing to react to first, because it's the most visual, most finished part of the apartment, but it's worth training yourself to look past it to the things that actually can't change.
When people start touring apartments, there's almost always a moment where I can see exactly what they're looking at. They walk into the kitchen, and their whole face changes. Suddenly the conversation is about the countertops, the cabinets, whether the appliances are new. And look, I understand why. The kitchen is where a lot of life happens. It's visual, it's tangible, and it's the room that's easiest to fall in love with on a first walkthrough.
But here's the question I keep coming back to with buyers: is a nicer kitchen actually more important than having a real living room? More space to breathe in your dining area? A layout that just works, day to day, for the way your family actually lives?
For most people, when they really sit with that question, the answer is no. Probably not.
Why the kitchen gets all the attention
Part of it is simple psychology. A kitchen is finished. It's staged. It photographs well. When you walk into a home with a beautiful kitchen, you're seeing a version of your future life laid out in front of you: dinners, mornings, holidays. A layout, on the other hand, is harder to "see." You have to imagine your furniture in the space. You have to picture how the rooms connect, whether the flow makes sense, whether there's actually enough room to live comfortably once you've moved in your things and your life.
That's exactly why layout gets overlooked. It doesn't sell itself the way a kitchen does. It takes a little more work to evaluate, and most buyers, especially first-time buyers, aren't used to doing that work. So the kitchen wins the emotional argument, even when it shouldn't win the practical one.
What you can change, and what you can't
Here's the thing that changes how I think about every apartment I walk into with a client: a kitchen can be renovated. Next year, in five years, whenever you have the budget and the motivation. It's not going anywhere. You can rip it out and start over. You can upgrade the cabinets, swap the countertops, redo the whole thing from scratch if you want to. You can change the kitchen. You can never change the square footage.
You cannot renovate the bones of an apartment. You cannot add square footage that isn't there. You cannot move a load-bearing wall just because it would make the space feel more open. You cannot fix a layout that fundamentally doesn't flow, where the dining area is cramped, where the living room feels like an afterthought, where the whole apartment feels smaller than its actual square meterage because of how poorly it's laid out.
And you certainly cannot change the location. The building, the neighborhood, the light the apartment gets, the noise level, the proximity to the things that matter to you. None of that is up for renovation. It is what it is, forever, for as long as you own that home.
So when I talk to buyers, I try to reframe the decision. You're not choosing between "a nice kitchen" and "a nice apartment." You're choosing between something you can fix later and something you can never fix at all.
The real cost of prioritizing the kitchen
I've seen buyers pass on an apartment with a fantastic layout, more space, better flow, a living and dining area that actually works for how they live, because the kitchen felt dated. And I've seen buyers get excited about a smaller, more awkwardly laid out apartment because the kitchen was gorgeous.
A few years down the line, the apartment with the great kitchen and the bad layout is still cramped. The living room is still too small. The dining area still doesn't fit a proper table. Meanwhile, the apartment with the great layout and the outdated kitchen? That kitchen gets renovated, and now you have everything: the space, the flow, and the kitchen you always wanted.
The order matters. Layout first, kitchen second. Not because the kitchen doesn't matter, but because it's the one thing on your list that you can always come back to.
How to actually evaluate a layout
If you're touring apartments and trying to train yourself to look past the kitchen, here's what I'd suggest paying attention to instead. These are the things that aren't changeable:
- Is the space itself good? Not staged, not decorated, just the actual dimensions and proportions of the rooms. Does the living room have real room to live in? Does the dining area actually fit a table?
- Pay attention to flow. Do you have to walk through one room to get to another in a way that feels awkward? Is there a natural path through the apartment, or does it feel chopped up?
- Is the location good? The building, the neighborhood, the light, the noise, the proximity to what matters to you. None of that changes after you sign.
- Look at proportions, not just square meters. Two apartments can have the same total space and feel completely different depending on how that space is divided.
None of this is about whether your current furniture happens to fit. Your furniture can change too, just like the kitchen can. What you're really evaluating is whether the space and the location, the things you can never change, are good enough on their own.
This is also one of the places where new construction and resale differ in ways worth understanding before you tour. I go through that in more detail in new projects vs second-hand apartments in Carmei Gat.
The bottom line
To be clear, I'm not saying a nice kitchen doesn't matter, or that you shouldn't be looking for one when you're apartment hunting. Of course it matters. A pretty kitchen is exciting. It's the first thing you picture when you imagine your new home, and there's nothing wrong with wanting one.
What I am saying is that it shouldn't come at the expense of the things you can't change. When you're making one of the biggest financial decisions of your life, it's worth asking yourself which parts of that decision are actually permanent, and which parts you can always fix later.
The kitchen can wait. The layout can't. When you're out there looking at apartments, don't fall in love with the kitchen. Fall in love with the space.
If you're starting to look in Carmei Gat, the complete guide to Carmei Gat real estate is a good place to get oriented, and you can see what's currently available here. If you'd like someone to walk through a few apartments with you and talk honestly about the layouts, get in touch.