Home staging: what pays off and what does not
Owners believe that a new bathroom sells a flat; home staging claims that it is sold by an empty windowsill, a white wall and one lamp switched on in the corner. This text breaks preparation down into three budget levels and for each one calculates how much the price has to rise because of it for it to pay for itself. Including the level at which that does not happen.
What owners think sells a flat
The sentence we hear most often before a sale is launched is: “Before we put it out there, we’ll redo the bathroom.” Then come the kitchen units and the floor. Interventions costing hundreds of thousands, designed by someone who has lived in the flat for ten years and knows exactly what bothered them about it.
The buyer does not have those ten years. They arrive with five other listings open in another tab and decide over the first picture before they have had time to read the description field (popisové pole) with the parameters. In that second they are not assessing the grouting of the tiles. They assess three things: whether you can see into the corner of the room, whether the windowsill is empty and whether there is light in the shot.
The difference between these two views is the whole economics of preparation. What troubles the owner tends to be a defect you can live with. What slows the sale down — a cluttered hallway, three different colour temperatures of light in one room, someone else’s family photographs on the wall — costs a fraction and is gone in a weekend.
Home staging is removing, not furnishing
Home staging (preparing a property for sale so that buyers imagine themselves in it, not the current owner) is translated into Czech as nastylování bytu (“styling the flat”). The translation tempts you into the wrong order. Most of the work is subtraction, not addition.
The order in which we proceed is the same every time and is not arbitrary:
- Remove the traces of a particular life. Photographs, diplomas, medicines, children’s drawings on the fridge, the contents of the windowsills and the hallway.
- Remove surplus furniture. Not the nice pieces — the extra ones. The way through a room should be visible in full.
- Fix small visible faults. In the buyer’s mind, every dripping tap stands in for what cannot be seen.
- Even out the light. One colour temperature throughout the flat, all bulbs working.
- Only then add anything.
Steps 1 to 4 are cheap and always work. Step 5 is expensive and works conditionally. That is why we keep it separate in the budget.
Three levels of preparation and how they differ
Level 1: clear out, clean, repair
The flat is brought into a state in which it can be photographed at all. Nothing is bought, nothing is designed. The result does not look good — it looks neutral, which is two classes above “lived-in”.
Level 2: light, white and prepared materials
Level 1 is joined by white painting, unified light fittings and photo staging (adjusting a furnished flat just before the photo shoot — moving furniture, swapping textiles, removing small items from the frame). This level also includes a floor plan with dimensions and a series of numbered pictures in an order that leads the way a viewing does. This is the level we recommend for the vast majority of assignments.
Level 3: furnishing an empty flat
For the time it takes to sell (doba prodeje), the empty flat is furnished with hired furniture. There is a single but strong reason for this: an empty room has no scale. The buyer cannot estimate whether a 180 cm bed will fit, and without scale they subconsciously shrink the room. A hired bed corrects that estimate. The level does nothing else, and it costs the most.
Preparation budget in three levels
Model flat: 3+kk (three rooms plus a kitchenette), 72 m², starting price rounded to CZK 11,450,000 (72 m² × CZK 159,131/m², the median price across 12 Prague neighbourhoods for the 1st quarter of 2026). We give supplier prices including 21 % VAT; where the price list states them without tax, we convert them. Items without a stated price list are model values for this flat, not an offer from a specific supplier.
Level 1 — clear out and clean
| Item | Cost in the model |
|---|---|
| Removal and one month’s storage of surplus furniture (van + 3 m³ storage unit) | CZK 6,500 |
| Deep clean of 72 m² including window cleaning | CZK 5,500 |
| Minor repairs: tap, silicone, socket, fittings — materials and 4 hours of a tradesman | CZK 3,800 |
| Total | CZK 15,800 |
Level 2 — level 1 plus light, white and presentation
| Item | Cost in the model |
|---|---|
| Everything from level 1 | CZK 15,800 |
| Painting 72 m² white, walls and ceilings, materials and labour | CZK 18,000 |
| Unifying the light: 6 light fittings, bulbs of one colour temperature, 2 hours of an electrician | CZK 7,400 |
| Photo staging (price list CZK 10,000–20,000 excl. VAT, calculated at the middle of the range) | CZK 18,150 |
| Photographs for the advert (from CZK 3,500 excl. VAT) | CZK 4,235 |
| Floor plan with dimensions, if none exists | CZK 2,500 |
| Total | CZK 66,085 |
Level 3 — level 2 plus furnishing an empty flat
| Item | Cost in the model |
|---|---|
| Level 2 without photo staging (replaced by full furnishing) | CZK 47,935 |
| Designer’s initial consultation and design (CZK 12,800 + VAT) | CZK 15,488 |
| Furnishing an empty 3+kk flat including furniture hire (CZK 35,000 + VAT) | CZK 42,350 |
| Designer’s supervision during installation and removal, 6 hours (CZK 1,800 + VAT/hour) | CZK 13,068 |
| Furniture hire for the whole duration of the sale (included in the furnishing according to the price list) | CZK 0 |
| Total | CZK 118,841 |
How much the price must rise for the level to pay for itself
| Level | Cost | Share of the CZK 11,450,000 price |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | CZK 15,800 | 0.14 % |
| 2 | CZK 66,085 | 0.58 % |
| 3 | CZK 118,841 | 1.04 % |
From what flat price the level pays off at different assumed benefits
| Level | at +1 % | at +2 % | at +3 % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CZK 1,580,000 | CZK 790,000 | CZK 527,000 |
| 2 | CZK 6,609,000 | CZK 3,304,000 | CZK 2,203,000 |
| 3 | CZK 11,884,000 | CZK 5,942,000 | CZK 3,961,000 |
What each level changes
| Level | In the pictures | At the viewing | In price negotiations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | the shots can be used at all | the buyer sees a flat, not someone else’s household | the argument “it will need cleaning” disappears |
| 2 | the space looks larger and brighter, the series keeps one colour scheme | the impression from the viewing matches the impression from the advert | the starting point of the negotiation shifts, not its course |
| 3 | the room gets a scale | the buyer thinks about living there, not about moving | the deduction for a “bare shell” (holobyt) disappears |
The payback threshold: where it breaks
The last two tables lead to the only sentence worth remembering: the first two levels pay for themselves on a Prague flat practically always, the third only sometimes.
Level 2 costs CZK 66,085 in the model, i.e. 0.58 % of the price. For comparison: the broker’s fee (odměna zprostředkovatele) on the same flat at 3 % comes to CZK 343,500. Preparation is a fifth of that figure — and unlike the rest of the budget it is the only item that changes the product itself, not its distribution. What the fee does and does not include is covered in the text on the real estate broker’s commission.
Level 3 has different maths. At an assumed benefit of 1 %, in the model it only pays for itself on a flat above CZK 11,884,000. On a flat costing CZK 4,500,000 it would have to raise the price by 2.6 % to break even. That is why we do not recommend it for cheaper flats, even though it looks the best.
For calibration: according to a 2025 survey of US real estate professionals, 29 % of them said that preparation brought an offer higher by 1–10 %, and 49 % observed a shorter time on the market. As the rooms most important to buyers they named the living room (37 %), the main bedroom (34 %) and the kitchen (23 %).
What almost never pays off
Renovating the bathroom or kitchen before a sale. You pay for all of it, it is recouped only in part, and a buyer with different taste will deduct the cost of redoing it anyway. The exception is a non-functional condition, not a dated look.
A new floor throughout the flat. The same logic, multiplied by the area.
Coloured walls “to liven things up”. They narrow the circle of interested buyers and in the pictures pull the colour scheme of the whole series in one direction.
Buying furniture made to measure for a flat you are selling. Hiring makes sense, buying does not.
Last-minute built-in wardrobes. Delivery times are longer than the first two weeks of advertising, and it is precisely those two weeks that decide — more on this in the text on how to sell a flat in Prague.
Virtual staging and the limits of honesty
Furniture added digitally to a photograph of an empty flat costs, as a guide, from a few thousand crowns and is ready in a couple of days. Compared with level 3 it is a fraction of the price. It does, however, come with one condition that we observe without exception: every such shot carries the label “visualisation — furniture added digitally” (vizualizace — nábytek je doplněn digitálně) in its caption and must not conceal the actual condition. A crack, a damp patch or a scuffed door frame will not be painted over by the visualisation.
The reason is not legal caution; it is practical. A buyer who discovers at the viewing that a picture lied does not deduct just that detail. They stop trusting the whole set of pictures, and with it the price.
For the same reason, the hired furnishings belong in the documents. In the purchase agreement (kupní smlouva) we state that the subject of the transfer is the unit (jednotka) without the movable furnishings used for the presentation, and in the handover protocol (předávací protokol) we include the sentence: “The flat is handed over without the furnishings acquired for the purposes of the presentation; their inventory forms Annex 1 to this protocol.” Without that sentence a dispute arises at the handover of the keys, when nobody feels like negotiating any more.
Where this approach fails
The weakest point of the whole calculation is its right-hand side. The costs of preparation are broken down to the crown; the benefit is an estimate. The survey cited comes from a different market, is based on brokers’ subjective assessment, not on measurement, and can be transferred to the Prague market only with reservations. Our own measured data on the effect of preparation on the achieved price do not yet enter the calculation.
The second reservation concerns us. A prepared flat is easier to sell for us too, not only for the owner — and the cost of the preparation is borne by the owner. The recommendation “do level 2” is therefore advice in which we have our own interest. We take this as a reason for the budget to be broken down item by item and open to public scrutiny, not as a reason to keep quiet about it.
Third: level 3 sometimes does harm. A flat furnished by a designer sets an expectation in the pictures that the in-person viewing may not live up to, especially when the building has a neglected entrance. And it happens that we talk owners out of level 3 and are wrong — with atypical layouts, where the scale really is unreadable, it would probably pay for itself even below the threshold the table gives.
Frequently asked questions
How much does home staging of a flat cost? According to suppliers’ published price lists, CZK 19,000–35,000 excl. VAT for the full furnishing of an empty property from 1+kk to 4+1 (from one room plus a kitchenette to four rooms plus a separate kitchen), including furniture hire for the duration of the sale, and CZK 10,000–20,000 excl. VAT for photo staging of a furnished flat. A consultation with a design costs CZK 12,800 + VAT with a Prague supplier.
Does home staging pay off for an older flat? Yes, and often more than for a new build (novostavba). In an older flat the difference between “lived-in” and “neutral” is at its greatest. But do not confuse it with renovation: the aim is legibility, not modernisation.
How do we prepare a flat for sale while we are still living in it? Levels 1 and 2 allow for that. Surplus furniture into a storage unit, personal belongings into boxes, photo staging the day before the shoot. We then conduct viewings in the same state in which the flat was photographed — not in the original one.
Is it worth repainting before a sale? In the model budget for a flat costing CZK 11,450,000 it is CZK 18,000, i.e. 0.16 % of the price. It is one of the best ratios in the whole budget if the walls are dirty or coloured. With clean white walls it makes no sense.
Should the bathroom be redone before a sale? No, if it works. It is recouped only partially, and a buyer with different taste will deduct it anyway.
Key takeaways
Preparation is decided not by taste but by its share of the price. For the model Prague flat, the first level is 0.14 % and the second 0.58 % — both pay back even on a very cautious estimate of the benefit. The third level costs over 1 % and makes sense for empty flats, for atypical layouts and above a certain price threshold; elsewhere it is a good-looking loss. The most expensive interventions — bathroom, kitchen, floor — lie entirely outside this budget and outside its payback. We prepare flats for sale in exactly this order and always break the budget down item by item, so that it is clear what is being paid for.