A lot of people are satisfied to just have a flat. However there are a lot of things you need to know about flats in Kuwait. I’m sure there are a ton of things I still don’t know about flats but I’m putting down whatever comes to mind here.

1) Air conditioning is not a luxury in Kuwait, its a necessity. There are basically two types of air conditioning units, room (also known as window) and central. Room units are usually hung from a rectangular hole in the wall or the window and are designed to cool a pre-defined closed room space. Sometimes they also come in a split unit model where there is a much smaller hole in the wall. :) Central units on the other hand are designed to cool the entire flat. You can make them out from the huge unit setup in a loft mostly above bathrooms and from the ducts around the flat. Central units have an advantage over room units in that during winter, you can switch it to a “heater” mode and heat the entire flat too.

I prefer the central units and the main reason is that they don’t leak or make noise and there is a central control for the entire flat including the kitchen and sometimes even the bathrooms! The main thing to look for in any air conditioning system is an automatic temperature control. With that you just need to set the desired temperature and then the air conditioner will switch on and off according to the flat temperature!

2) Bricks are what we usually assume walls are make up of. Think again. I’ve seen so many flats in Kuwait where room partitions are made of gypsum boards (also known as drywall). These are like 5cm thick walls and if you push a nail on one side, it will pop out on the other. :) To make matters worse, sometimes builders use a slightly thicker version of these drywalls to separate flats. That basically means that anything you say in your flat can be heard easily in your neighbors and if its your bedroom, then the walls will definitely have ears! ;) To test the wall, just knock on it, if your finger hurts and there is no hollow sound, its a brick wall.

3) I’ve noticed that many of the new buildings have all the light switches in one central place. So if you want to turn off the bedroom lights at night, you need to walk all the way to hall to turn them off and then all the way back to the bedroom with a torch.

4) Its important to take note of the number of power outlets in each room. Ideally there should be a minimum of one but bigger rooms will need more.

5) Lastly, if you don’t plan on laying down wall-to-wall carpeting, make sure the flat has some decent ceramic floor tiles. Mosaic tiles are nice to hide stains, but the ceramic ones are easier to clean and do look better! :)

Will post on more features soon!