And 2. The Interior Finish. A developer’s reputation may be on the line if the standards he has promised are not up to expectations.


Obviously, if you are paying, let us say, US$150,000, you would not expect to see a finish that you would see in a villa costing 1 million dollars. However, apart from size, this price difference is often in the quality of what goes into the villa such as the kitchen and electrical appliances, bathroom fittings, flooring and tiling etc. One would reasonably expect, for example, the interior walls to be straight and smooth and the tiles on the floor to match, and there is no excuse for shoddy workmanship, whether you are paying US$150,000 or 1 million.


If you have a grievance about the finish most developers will sort it out without much fuss. Unfortunately, this is often left to the end when they say your villa is finished and they want your final stage payment. Try not to pay this until they have rectified the problem otherwise, this will spill over into that grey area referred to by all the developers as the “snagging” period.

The snagging period can last any length of time, but it usually runs for one year after your villa has been deemed to be completed by the developer | architect. You will probably receive a certificate to this affect.

After the one year time period you are on your own. If you are still not satisfied after this time then consider getting your lawyer involved. Snagging, by the way, is not just touching up here and there, I have heard of people who have had their entire floors relaid and roofs replaced.

It may be possible to upgrade the interior of your villa, for example, with different kitchen appliances, say, changing from Smeg to Miele, but of course, you will have to pay the difference in price. The same for your bathroom fittings.

Keep in mind, upgrading may not be as simple as it first appears. Using kitchen appliances as an example, let us say you want a double door fridge, instead of the single fridge the developer was going to put in. That sounds easy, but the size of your kitchen is too small and all the kitchen cabinets have already been ordered and paid for by the developer. This means your kitchen will have to be redesigned to accommodate the larger fridge, but to make matters worse, if you do that, there won’t be room to install the dishwasher. Now it’s getting complicated. Kitchens are a particular problem and I will be dealing with this later on when I talk about going it alone and designing your own dream kitchen, something we did for our villa in Koh Samui.

design changes

During the construction phase it may be possible to make some design changes to your villa, but note, during the construction phase only. There is no point going to the developer after your villa is finished and saying can you make the pool bigger.

Changes may be possible without further expense. However, the architect will have to make a change to your drawings, in this example, incorporating the bigger pool, but the trade-off will probably be a smaller terrace.

Note. the size of your land plot is not going to change, so keep that in mind when you ask for another bedroom to be added.

Also, consider when asking for any structural changes whether this will alter the general look of the development. The architect, when designing your villa, had to consider the overall design impact each and every villa would have on the look of the development, so asking for something that might end up looking like the annex to the Taj Mahal is a waste of time, it is not going to happen. If you want to go down that road it would be better to find a piece of land and build your own.