'Don't judge a book by its cover' is the golden phrase to remember when judging people.
This phrase is equally important when buying apartments.
The size of a residential area printed in a brochure may not match what you actually get because the number of square feet may include the stairwell or other infrastructure stuck next to your future home.
Before you get ready to buy an apartment, make sure you ask your agent to state the actual living space.
Jimmy Kwok, branch manager of Midland Realty, says most new properties will have only about 80 per cent of the living space stated in advertisements, whereas properties of more than 20 years will have a higher percentage of actual living space.
An apartment for sale at Baguio Villa, Pok Fu Lam, presents few such problems. Baguio Villa is well known for its accuracy of actual living space compared with claims made in brochures and advertisements.
'The actual living space [of the apartment on sale] is about 90 per cent of what is stated in the advertisements and this is considered high,' Kwok says.