Every viewing checklist mixes two very different kinds of feature: the ones you can add for a weekend's work, and the ones that are effectively fixed for as long as you own the place. Cabinets and tiles are the first kind. Everything below is the second, which is why it belongs on the list you take to a viewing rather than the one you take to a hardware store.
Fixed at purchase, expensive or impossible later
- Cross-ventilation — openings on two sides, so the unit cools without a compressor
- Afternoon light that is bright but not west-facing into a bedroom
- Ceiling height — the difference between 2.4m and 2.7m is felt every day
- Water pressure on the actual floor, tested at the actual tap
- Electrical capacity that can carry an air-conditioner per bedroom
- A drying area, covered, that is not the living room
- Storage that is built in, not implied by the showroom furniture
- A parking slot with a title or a lease you can read
- Mobile signal and a second internet provider in the building
- A floor plan with one wall you are allowed to move
Why cross-ventilation is first
It is the item with the longest financial tail. A unit that cools itself for eight months of the year costs meaningfully less to live in than an identical unit with windows on one wall, and no renovation can add an opening that the structure does not have. When two units are otherwise close, this is the tiebreak.
Why the last one matters more than it sounds
Ask the developer or the association which internal walls are non-structural and may be altered, and get the answer in writing. A single movable wall is what turns a two-bedroom unit into a two-bedroom-plus-study five years from now. Without one, the layout you buy is the layout you keep.
Take the ten to your next three viewings and score each unit. The list is deliberately short on finishes, because finishes are the part you get to change your mind about.