floor plans - different square footage

RelievedSheff

JeffMason said:

MovingForwards said:

The Homebuyers report, EPC and mortgage valuation all gave different sizes of my flat. 

For me, it wasn't the size. The layout, location, views, garden, some old features, high ceilings, big windows and shower room worked for my wants, needs and requirements.

Have you worked out what you want / would like / don't want in a property yet?

Yes, I have, and recently I thought I'd worked out that a minimum square footage (I've seen quite a few that were much smaller than the photos suggested) and started using that to quickly drop potential properties from the list. But that was before I realised that the size can be measured in a few different ways. 

This is really helpful though. Square footage is still a factor but layout also comes into play massively and it's the combination of the two that makes a place work or not. 

Just using the square footage can be misleading. Our new house for example on paper isn't much bigger than our last house but the layout makes so much better use of the available space that it feels much more spacious.

Don't get hung up on the physical size of the property it is how it makes use of that space that is important.

MovingForwards

I also used room sizes, door / window positioning to see if the rooms would work for me. Sat marking out bedroom sizes in my office and rental flat, put furniture markings in to see how it would work in reality.

It sounds like you haven't figured out what you want when looking for properties and are making it a lot harder for yourself when home hunting.

lincroft1710

There are 3 different methods of property measurement, Gross External. Gross Internal and Net Internal. it would be possible for the GIA to be 900 and the NIA to be 798 

AskAsk

different estate agents will produce different measurements.  i find that they also tend to exaggerate on the plan so if you want to know for sure, you would have to ask permission to measure the rooms yourself.  this is not usual in my experience as people get a sense of the size when they come round to do the viewing, so unless you have a specific need, like you want to make sure a piece of furniture will fit, people wouldn't bother measuring all the rooms again.

personally i feel this would be rude, but that is just my opinion.  we have occasionally brought a tape measure and measured the room size etc if it was important.
the estate agent floor plans will always have a disclaimer that it is approximate and they are not liable for its accuracy.  it pretty depends on whether they measure into the alcoves etc.

SharkMoney

We had a 2nd viewing of our new build and measured everything to sure it matched both the show home and the plans. Thankfully it was all within a couple of cm’s variance.