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Q: Sneaky Chinese? Or in your country too?
As I mentioned a couple of time, I gave in and bought an apartment in China.
The apartment (as noted on the diagram) is 154.74 meters squared. I decided to do up my own blueprint in some home design software to plan the interior and when I finished it (I was VERY precise) the computer told me the floor plan was only 130 square meters. ``No that can`t be right!``I said. So I did up the math all the areas within the rectangular lot that was space not used as actual living space BUT an apartment owner still have to pay for (apparently such things as the stairwell, elevator space and lobby area), they call it ``public space``. My math came out correct and this space (which I still paid for) brought the total back up to the larger, previously mentioned number.
So in short, I am paying for like 25 square meters of ``public space`` yet there is still maintenance fees etc. My wife mentioned that some space would be deducted for this purpose but 25 square meters was way more than I expected. Is this normal everywhere or is this just Chinese companies being sneaky with ignorant buyers? Do condo or apartment owners really pay for the lobby, stairwell and elevator space on top of elevator and maintenance fees?
If I paid for it, technically do I not own the space then (even it is labeled ``public``? That means that when someone reaches my floor, taking that elevator (for whatever reason) then they are trespassing within my space?
Just seems off to me, but what do you think?
I asked my wife about this and she said they do it all over China (like it was to be immediately accepted). I don`t know if we pay for the space of the stairwell and elevator back home in Canada... I thought the real estate companies eat that space and then just charge for maintenance or something.
It is normal..."frontage" is calculated all over (just like in Canada...you have a sidewalk that cuts across your front lawn with a strip of grass before the curb...still your property). You really have to think of buying an apartment here like buying a condo (not a house!) back home, the rules and fees are similar.
In my home country we operate with three different sq meters:
1. Gross - includes all outside and inside walls and all rooms, but not terrace/garage
2. Net - excludes all walls inside and outside
3. Livable space - includes internal walls, but excludes "non liveable" space such as pantries, washing rooms, wardrobes etc.
The difference between Gross and Liveable Space depends on the size, but I guess it will often be around 10-20%
There are also other ways to messure:
Built area - everything under a roof, inc terrace, garage
Useable space - everything inside (not including outside walls)
And probably others as well.
Robk:
That sounds about right. I just wasn't too savvy on the apartment terms of livable space to frontage. It just sounds kind of weird to me that I actually HAVE to purchase to the stairwell space, elevator space etc. while it is still considered "public space".
I guess I am more of a house kind of guy, but in China... not really an option unless you want to live in a village or pay like 5-10 million RMB.
In the UK a house is described by the number of bedrooms, and they are described as small or large. Size is not important in Britain...its location that matters.
Hotwater:
Disagree mate. Every house I ever looked at had the dimensions for all the rooms listed
ScotsAlan:
I must be thinking of Scotland. yeah, room dimensions are there, but as a footnote not the headline.
so this explains the furniture for shoes and paper delivery that is outside in the hall next to every door on my floor, i paid for it, so i will use it and of course bike parking, some residents even paint a rectangle on the floor to let others know it's my bike parking space.
ambivalentmace:
i guess i should put my own shoe rack outside, not sure they could use size 48, but they would probably steal them and sell them used on taobao.
This is normal. I bought one from the plan....in the contract there is also an allowance for being smaller or larger. If it is more than 3%larger than quoted, I have to pay for that. If it is smaller, I have to suck it up.
Does that mean that the construction company can't follow a plan accurately or is this another plan to get a few bucks for nothing. Interestingly, after we negotiated the price the sales guy (under some pressure to get the sale) went to his boss who approved a 3% further discount. Coincidence?
Robk:
They can do heavy discounts here if you have the right guanxi and tact. Initially we got a much lower rate than others by like 15% per square meter. But we found out after (our apartment being on the third floor)... that the trees blocked the view and the sunlight didn't get in well (yeah, we are picky). So we wanted to move to the 6th floor (which cost a little more cause each floor is a separate cost)... we bargained with them again and got like a 33% discount on the additional costs due to switching the floor.
These real-estate companies are making a damn killing for sure. If you think about it... they are only building concrete boxes with some landscape outside and a parking lot. The owners are pretty much paying for everything... including:
- ownership taxes
- living area
- interior design costs
- maintenance fees
- parking lot costs
... and a bunch of other fees.
I am guessing it takes the real-estate companies like 1/20th of the cost to build it all or even lower. I feel sorry for Chinese people on an average salary of like 2000-2500 per month... these folk usually have no guanxi and have to almost pay the full cost.
Basically, the people who build these apartments (migrant workers) can almost NEVER have the chance to live in them... 
Eorthisio:
China has dozens of millions of empty apartment built using poor materials and thus having a very limited lifespan (look at those built in the early 2000s, they look like dumpsites today), they are desperate to sell, the pressure put on those guys is enormous.
iWolf:
We got a great price for the 4th floor. Apartment 404. The MIL refuses to stay because of her superstitions....I call it a win/win.
ambivalentmace:
what number do i need to have no visitors at all, some number for death or plague would be nice.
