How a Romanian estate agent may full you: Living Area

September 1st, 2007     |     Print     |     Tell a friend

One thing to be careful when buying properties in Romania is the living area. This is especially necessary when investing off plan.

First of all you have to understand the difference between "living area" and "total area":

• Living area is what you will really get, the surface of your apartment.
• Total area is what you really pay and it will include the living area plus the common property of the building like stairs, entrance, roof and sometimes inside rodes in the residential development, etc

Example: If you buy a one bedroom apartment with 65 sqm living area you will pay 87 sqm of total area.

Why is this important?

There are a few tricks used by estate agents in order to fool you:

• Telling you the total area of the apartment in order to make it look bigger then it really is. The living area will be written somewhere in the contract, but will not be honestly revealed during the negotiation.
• Telling you the living area and the price per sqm for the total area to make the property look cheaper.

How it works: The agent will tell you the price per sqm and the living area so you will think the apartment will be cheaper. This will happen especially in the early phase of negotiation. Latter you will discover that you have to pay more for the property because the total area you'll pay is in reality bigger that you've been told.

Strong advice:
Always ask about the "living area" and "total area" of the property especially when you're investing off plan.

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