How is the size of an apartment measured?

Your apartment is measured from the middle of the wall if you live between two apartments and to the outside of the wall if your property is on a corner or one side is the edge of the building, the measurement is taken to the outside of the building.

SUMMARY:

When measuring an apartment, it is unfortunately not that simple. You actually own to the centre of the wall between the two apartments. However, if you live on the outside wall or the corner of the building you own to the outside of the building. This increases the size of your apartment.

Whilst this may seem strange this is how it is measured – but not many people know this, if you have any further queries please do ask us at Apartment Specialists.

What is even more surprising, is what is not included when measuring an apartment. What is not included is structural beams as they are holding the building together, as well as ducts as they have ventilation or wires within them. This is known as common property.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Good day, Andrew Murray here from the Apartment Specialists, and today we'll be talking about measuring an apartment. It's not as simple as it sounds. Most people think when you are measuring your apartment you go from wall to wall. That's actually not the case. When it comes to the ownership of an apartment, you actually own to the centre of the wall.

So if you think of the wall and there's a wall then another apartment. As an owner, you actually own to the centre of the wall and back. So if the wall is 30cm wide, then that means you've got a measurement of 15 cm. And if you've got a wall on the other side and you've got a neighbouring apartment, add another 15 cm. It actually makes your apartment larger.

If you're on the side of the building, for example, if your apartment is on the corner, you don't measure to the centre of that wall. You measure it to the outside of the building which makes it larger again. That's something that very few people are aware of. Most people just go from the inside of the walls and think that's the area of your apartment. Well, it's actually not.

Now, what is more surprising is what is not included or what is not included in the area of your apartment. And that is, structural beams; because a structural beam is seen as common property. It's rightly so because it's actually holding up the whole building. If you've got a structural beam in your apartment, and I've got one in one of my apartments, this means you've also got to measure that beam and take that out of the equation.

The same goes for ducts and you may have a beam that when you knock on it it sounds hollow. But it's probably got wiring in there and could have ventilation. Who knows what's in there? But that is also common property, so when you measure that, that also needs to be taken out of the equation, because it's common property - you don't own it.

Anyway, I hope that helps. It's a bit different to what you probably expected and happy measuring.

Cheers!

If you have any questions, flick me an email at [email protected] or call +6421 424 892 and I’ll be happy to help you with your queries.Your apartment is measured from the middle of the wall if you live between two apartments and to the outside of the wall if your property is on a corner or one side is the edge of the building, the measurement is taken to the outside of the building.