Gross area, net area — and the 20% you may never receive

Here is a question I ask buyers, and it stops most of them: the apartment you are about to sign for — is that square meterage gross area or net area?

Gross area includes shared staircases, the lift shaft, corridors and the thickness of external walls, divided across the units. Net area is only the floor your own feet stand on — where your bed and your sofa actually go.

The difference between the two can reach around twenty percent depending on the building. That is not fraud by itself — gross-area pricing is common practice — but a buyer who does not know which number they are paying for cannot compare two projects honestly, and cannot judge whether a price per square meter is fair.

What to do before you sign

Ask one plain question and get the answer in writing: is the stated area net or gross, and what is the net figure? Then compare projects net-to-net only. If a seller cannot or will not put the net area in writing, that silence is also information.

When my team quotes a unit, both numbers are on the paper. That is not generosity — it is what a market looks like when buyers start asking the right question. Ask it.