Advertisements for second-hand homes will have to show exactly how much space there is in each flat from next year, though estate agents will not be banned from using a controversial measure that can hugely inflate the quoted size of flats.
The Estate Agents Authority yesterday ordered the city's property agents to use the 'saleable area' of a property, which includes balconies but excludes common areas and bay windows, in all promotional material from January 1.
The authority had been expected to set out a timetable to abolish the use of 'gross floor area', which boosts the quoted size of a flat by including its share of communal areas such as lobbies and staircases and has been condemned as highly misleading. But its circular, issued yesterday, said the measure could still be used alongside the saleable area.
The consumer watchdog warned in 2009 that as much as 32 per cent of the quoted size of a flat in some new estates could be made up of communal areas or space that could not be used, such as bay windows.
'It is a colossal task to transform the industry's habits,' William Leung Wing-cheung, chairman of the authority's practice and examination committee, said yesterday. 'We will take a progressive approach to educate and publicise the use of saleable area.' Agents who fail to comply with the new rule will face a penalty ranging from a reprimand to a fine or the revocation of their licence.
But agencies will still be able to quote the gross floor area as long as it is written in text no bigger than that used to show the saleable area.
The Legislative Council is expected to approve a ban on the use of gross floor area in the sale of new flats before the end of the legislative session in July. Developers fiercely oppose the ban, arguing that there will be confusion because of the continuing use of gross floor area in the second-hand market.