Wild. In Netherlands (and I assume other European countries as well) there’s a regulatory norm for how spaces should be measured - what counts as liveable, non-liveable, etc. It’s so much fairer and clearer for everyone involved.

https://www.nen.nl/bouw/beheer-en-onderhoud/oppervlaktebepal...

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preg_match 27 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

We largely have these regulations in the US too (at the state level), we just don't reuse them. Naturally there are rules about what is livable versus what is not. A balcony is not. A room with no windows isn't even a bedroom. That kind of stuff.

It would be truly trivial to then just transform that to calculating square footage, and many states do just that. But not all. It's a problem of motivation, not necessarily ability or cost.

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Laurel1234 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Back in the third world I remember my parents looked up the reference price per m^2 in the area and would divide the price by that to estimate the size.

Advertised amounts would be off by 20-25%. When you confronted them about it realtors would just give you the real number, I guess most people wouldn't go through the trouble so it was worth trying for them.

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hdgvhicv 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Regulations? That sounds very anti freedom.

	▲	mikojan 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Can you ever truly be free if you can’t unload an assault rifle into the night sky from the comfort of your apartment?

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9dev 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Right? Germany too. I wouldn’t even have thought this could be a problem…

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ExoticPearTree 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

In some countries, like a poster mentioned, they include the “built” size, not the actual liveable size. Sometimes the balconies are included in that, and it is misleading. Two bedrooms in 900sqf liveable is one thing vs 3 bedrooms in 900sqf built area including balconies.

	▲	rsynnott 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		... Huh. This actually explains something I'd been confused about before; people on this site claiming that a 1000sqft apartment was small. Which, I suppose, if you include the entire footprint of the apartment including balconies, sure. It would never have occurred to me to do it like that.

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cr1895 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Maybe it’s different for rentals but you’d think the banks would also want accurate data on the properties they’re mortgaging…and cities for tax revenue…so strange!

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everforward 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

For big commercial rental properties they probably don’t care because it doesn’t really push the property value.

I don’t think it really changes the property value because those interior walls are usually cosmetic and not load bearing. If the bank has to foreclose, the next buyer will be well aware they can strip those walls out for nothing relative to the cost of buying the building.

I’m doubtful it pushes the tax revenue for the same reason, everyone is already evaluating based on what it could be.

Smaller units are probably just not worth the effort to manage. It’s a lot of over head to start auditing old duplexes where the owner has a property or two and isn’t a giant company with a whole compliance department.

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pandaman 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Why? Banks and cities only care about the price. They also want price to be under and over estimated respectively, neither would want the accurate price, even less so the accurate area.

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Kwpolska 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Are there no property taxes in the US? And how do you know if the price is reasonable without knowing its relationship to the property size?

	▲	pandaman 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		There are property taxes in the US, they are levied on the appraisal price of the property, not on the living area. You know the price is reasonable from the comps. As you're overestimating or the appraisal is already at the legal cap (in case of taxes) you don't really care about the living area.
	▲	HWR_14 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		There are no US-wide property taxes. However, almost every home in the US has to pay property taxes to at least one level of government. That's what pandaman was referring to when they said the city (which would be levying the taxes) would want the footprint overstated so they could get more tax revenue
	▲	bragr 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Well technically, if anything, overstating the area available for rent would increase the paper value of your property, and thus usually your taxes.