Two Interior Specifications for the Same Villa: A Worked Price Comparison

The same villa, the same layout, two specification levels. A step-by-step illustrative calculation showing where the difference sits and which parts of it you keep.

When two interior prices differ, the useful question is not which is cheaper but which lines create the gap and what each line buys. This worked example takes one illustrative villa, prices two specification levels against the same finishing schedule, and follows the difference line by line. Every number here is an invented assumption used to show the method; it is not a quotation, a valuation or a market rate.

The situation

An owner has a completed villa structure with an internal area of 400 square metres over two floors: five bedrooms, four bathrooms, one guest bathroom, a kitchen, a family living area and a majlis with its own entrance. The layout is fixed and the wet areas are stacked, so drainage is not moving. The owner has a finishing schedule and has asked one installer to price it twice: once at a standard specification suitable for family use, and once at an elevated specification for the majlis, guest bathroom and master suite only, with the standard level retained everywhere else. The purpose is to see what the upgrade costs and whether it lands where visitors and the household actually experience it.

Assumptions (illustrative)

• Internal floor area in scope: 400 square metres, of which circulation and secondary rooms account for 150 square metres.
• Standard floor finish assumed at 180 SAR per square metre supplied and installed, including substrate preparation.
• Elevated floor finish assumed at 520 SAR per square metre supplied and installed, applied to 90 square metres only.
• Fitted joinery assumed at 95,000 SAR at standard specification across the whole villa, with the master suite portion assumed at 28,000 SAR of that total.
• Elevated joinery assumed to cost 2.1 times the standard rate for the same master suite portion.
• Wet areas assumed at 22,000 SAR each at standard specification, with the guest bathroom and master bathroom upgraded to 46,000 SAR each.

Step 1: Price the floor finishes at standard specification

400 square metres at 180 SAR per square metre gives 72,000 SAR for the whole villa floor package at standard level.

Floors are the largest area in any interior, so they set the base. Note that this figure includes substrate preparation, which is the part owners tend to strip out of comparisons and then pay for separately. Pricing the floor as a build-up rather than as a tile rate is what makes the two specifications comparable at all.

Step 2: Add the elevated floor finish where it is being used

The upgrade applies to 90 square metres. At 520 SAR instead of 180 SAR, the additional cost is 90 multiplied by 340, which is 30,600 SAR. The floor package becomes 72,000 plus 30,600, giving 102,600 SAR.

The upgrade raises the floor line by roughly 42% while covering less than a quarter of the area. This is the arithmetic that makes targeted upgrading attractive: concentrating an expensive material in the majlis and the master suite delivers the visible effect at a fraction of the cost of using it throughout.

Step 3: Price the joinery difference on the upgraded portion only

The master suite portion of the joinery is 28,000 SAR at standard level. At 2.1 times that rate it becomes 58,800 SAR, an increase of 30,800 SAR. Total joinery moves from 95,000 SAR to 125,800 SAR.

Joinery is the line where an upgrade buys the most that is noticed daily, because the difference sits in the hardware that moves and the finish that is touched. It is also the line where a cheap specification deteriorates visibly fastest, which is why upgrading a wardrobe interior often outlasts upgrading a floor.

Step 4: Price the wet areas with two upgraded and four at standard

Six wet areas in total. Four at 22,000 SAR gives 88,000 SAR. Two at 46,000 SAR gives 92,000 SAR. The wet area package totals 180,000 SAR, against 132,000 SAR if all six were at standard level.

Two upgraded wet areas out of six add 48,000 SAR, which is 36% on top of the standard wet area package. The example shows why the count of wet rooms dominates this line: the upgrade on two rooms costs more than the floor upgrade across 90 square metres.

Step 5: Total the two specifications and find the gap

Standard throughout: 72,000 for floors, 95,000 for joinery and 132,000 for wet areas, giving 299,000 SAR for these three packages. Targeted upgrade: 102,600 plus 125,800 plus 180,000, giving 408,400 SAR. The difference is 109,400 SAR, or roughly 37%.

A 37% increase on these three packages buys an elevated specification in the three places the household and its guests spend the most time. Expressed that way the decision becomes a judgement about where attention falls, rather than an argument about whether the whole interior should be more expensive.

Step 6: Test what the same money would have bought spread evenly

Spreading 109,400 SAR evenly across 400 square metres gives about 274 SAR per square metre of additional spend. Applied uniformly to the floor package alone, that would lift the rate from 180 to roughly 454 SAR per square metre with nothing left for joinery or wet areas.

The comparison exposes the real choice. The same sum either produces a uniformly better floor and nothing else, or a clearly elevated experience in three spaces with a sound standard specification everywhere. For a home where guests are received in a specific part of the house, concentration usually reads better than dilution.

What changes the answer

• If the elevated floor material is a natural stone requiring sealing and periodic maintenance, the lifetime cost rises well beyond the installed difference calculated here.
• If the wet areas were not stacked and drainage had to move, the wet area line would carry additional work that no finish upgrade would make visible.
• If the elevated joinery uses imported hardware, lead time becomes the binding constraint and the saving from a late substitution can erase the quality difference.
• If the upgraded areas are specified after the standard package has started on site, the installer prices disruption as well as material, and the gap widens.
• If value added tax treatment differs between a supply-only and a supply-and-install arrangement, the comparison shifts, so confirm the position against the published headline rate of 15% with ZATCA for each contract.

What the numbers tell you

• Price upgrades as a difference against a complete standard specification, never as a separate package, or you will lose track of what is included.
• Concentrating specification in a few rooms usually produces a stronger perceived result than raising the level marginally everywhere.
• The number of wet areas drives the interior budget more than the floor area does, and no finish choice changes that.
• Upgrades to moving parts and touched surfaces are experienced daily, while upgrades to large flat areas are noticed once and then become background.
• Rules, rates and product requirements in this field change, so confirm current costs, tax treatment and conformity requirements with your suppliers, ZATCA and the relevant authority at the time you commit, and take any contractual or tax question to a licensed adviser rather than relying on an illustrative model.

Limits of this example

Every figure above is an illustrative assumption used to show the method, not a quote, valuation or market rate. Costs, rates, fees and regulations change and must be confirmed with the relevant authority, lender or supplier before you commit.

Domira designs and delivers interiors as part of the building, not after it: the finishing schedule, the joinery and the services coordination that decide whether a space looks built or assembled. Share the space and Domira will tell you what it would specify and what it would leave out.