[glibgil]

Imagine you are looking to buy an apartment. The units on the south side sell for $300K. The units on the north side sell for $200K. There is a unit on the north side with this light fixture in the living room for $265K. Also, imagine there is a unit on the south side that has great natural light in the living room, but has this fixture in the hallway. It sells for $365K.

In both cases the upgraded apartments would be very compelling even at $65K in additional cost.

[aetherson]

They would? I mean, you assert it, but it doesn't sound very compelling to me.

And are there in fact apartment buildings where otherwise identical units on the south/north side sell at 3:2 price differential?

[rmxt]

Your example isn't very convincing. I don't see the use case of these as being a simple north/south side difference in light. I think the intended use case is for cramped urban environments (NYC, London, HK, Paris, etc.) or big cities at extreme latitudes (Stockholm, Moscow, etc.), where the market for apartment buying at the low price of $200k doesn't exist.

Using your numbers, my pragmatism says that there is absolutely zero chance of me putting 18% to 25% (65/265 to 65/365) of the cost of my apartment towards a single light fixture. $65k gets you two years of rent in a nice apartment in a decent neighborhood in NYC.