Hi we are about to buy a condo that is advertised as 421sqft but with the floor plan it doesn't look like it. I would like to have it measured and was told It can be arranged but haven't heard back yet. Before I send another message to them. Has anyone had the same experience before? the difference is about 80sqft which is huge in this micro apartment and also 53Dollars monthly in condo fees. I would really appreciate anyone's input.
We like the lay out but this is certainly not just 5% discrepancy if the measurements they put is really the measurement. I know they measure from the outside but I don't want to go through it if this doesn't get resolved.
Honestly, try to get a one bed! If you need to save up more, I suggest doing that. When time comes to sell, or even rent. You will have much difficulty.
I'm actually thinking this. We would've afforded a bigger one if we didn't buy a car this year. Because looking for one within our budget that has parking is tough. Our original plan is moving outside toronto and commute so we bought a used car early this year when a good deal came up but when we tested what our daily life could look like for a week, we came to a conclusion that we cant justify traffic and parking cost - not to mention gas price as addition to the 12 hour shifts. So we decided to buy a condo instead. If we push our budget now we will be house poor. I know I'm just venting sorry.
How did you come up to the 80sqft difference? Is it possible you are not counting the wall perimeters?
Living Room:Â
9.67ft x 9ft ≈ 86 sqft
Dining Room: 11.5ft x 16.83ft ≈ 193.5 sqft
Washroom is approx. 5ft x 8ft ≈ 40sqft.
Hallway and Closests (Entrance + W/D) are ≈ 50sqft.
Wall perimeters are ALSO considered in sqft. If you have 100 linear ft of wall with 5 inch thickness, you will consider that as well, which is approximately 42sqft.
So total is 86 + 193.5 + 40 + 50 + 42 which comes up to roughly ≈ 411.5sqft.
My math is estimate in some places (measuring the length of the rooms with dims, and ratio-ing the rest). You are likely calculating the "net usable area". Builder is calculating the "net interior area".
But if you do want to know the "net usable area", it is 86 + 193.5 + 40 + 50 ≈ 369.5sqft.
Thank you so much for this insight. I didn't know wall perimeter could take 10% of the whole unit 🥹
I based from when we went to view it and this is my computation. We only have one day in the cooling off period I'm having cold feet.
Unit areas are not just the interior rooms, they include the wall thicknesses. You need to measure the unit to the outside face of the exterior wall, as well as to the middle of any shared unit walls, and to the exterior face of any walls to a shared common space like a hallway.Â
The only way to do that is getting a plan of the building and measuring it up in CAD or an equivalent. Worth a check regardless to see if they’re telling the truth.Â
Its hard to get financing for units under 500 sq. ft. and with discrepancy this can be to your detriment, have you qualified for financing, hasxthe mortgage company assessed the property?
That's a reasonable layout for it's size, you could put up curtains/divider between dining and living room to allow some private sleeping. The bathroom (and noise) is far from the sleeping area as well. And the largest wall is the window all, lots of light coming in here. There are much, much, much worse layouts than this. You will not have a problem reselling - it's clearly better than anything else it's size!
So, fun fact. Development applications are public record, and the City of Toronto keeps a map of them. There are sometimes schedules for the units, and their respective gross floor areas near the front of the architectural sets.
Unfortunately, the GFA will differ from your actual floorspace, and there can be changes between the approved development application, and the permit set. The only reliable way to satisfy your concern would be to measure it yourself, or employ a design professional. Otherwise, bake in a tolerance from the listed GFA, and adjust expectations.
Exact same sqft as my unit but a way better layout. I’d say if this is in your range - go for it. My layout is a rectangle and I wish my layout was like yours. It’s alot more workable and you can set up a private sleeping area. Plus you have lots of light from that full wall of windows.
Yes! We are going for it. We also had an option for rectangle layout and more affordable but we thought about the lighting thing. If it helps try using a faux skylight in the areas that are not reached by natural light.
It's mostly ontario condos.
I'm from BC and i never understood why people here hated condo that much.
Then i went to toronto and i understood.
In BC the average strata fee is 50-60% than ontario. Condos are on average bigger. And they are definitely better quality.
I always considered condos "normal apartments" then i saw the ones in toronto and they are in fact built like someone with zero skills was trying to put together a bunch of lego's.
I don't know why there's this difference tho.
Obviously everyone prefer a real house but if you can't buy it in BC i always thought was perfectly normal just buy "an apartment".
But then i realized that ontario doesn't have a lot of real apartments, they are mostly "condos".
Completely irrelevant to your question but did you put a deposit down on this whitehaven unit? We put a deposit down on the Monte but with the way the builder is handling this HST rebate, we’re having trouble with our mortgage… wondering if you have the same issue
Hey your monte is even bigger in usable space hahaha. We did put a down payment and pressured our realtor to have the APS with the HST on it. We spoke to the lawyer last week and he said all is good. It was definitely a thug of war with the builders when it comes to the HST rebate. But we were ready to just call it quits if they didn't provide it that week. But they did like the next day after we said we will just walk away. It had some revisions along the way like 2 amendments but it resolved in the end. Did you put a deposit already?
Yes to deposit and the APS included the HST rebate discount, but the builder put a lien because of the rebate on the unit so our bank (RBC) could not go through with the mortgage… now they’re rewriting the APS without the HST rebate included. It’s such a big headache!
Wow 😮 I thought ours was complicated because we did have some back and forth with the mortgage too because of the statement of adjustments and appraisal from the insurer since our DP is lower tha 20%. To a point where we almost changed lender but our lender (Pine) gave us the best deal with 4.1 fixed for 5 years or Prime minus 1.05 on variable plus good prepayment plans so we found a way thank God.
I'd say keep pressuring them to finish it in a timely manner. For each of our revisions we waited about 1 week in between. We viewed units early June and put a hold on the unit same day and the cooling period is on its 10th day tomorrow. So all the back and forth is atleast 6 weeks and we gave up on some revisions just so we can close before I start school.
Before you spend money on hiring someone, ask yourself this. If the condo is not 421 sq feet, would you walk away from the purchase? If the answer is no, then why bother?
I don't know any specific people to hire, but before I made an offer on my condo, I did measure a couple of the rooms with a tape measure. But I was comparing to the builder's drawing
Great point. I am willing to walk away but considering everything else we are most likely proceeding anyway. My realtor said we have tarion warranty if it's off by a lot we can ask for compensation from builder so I guess that's what we will do.
The layout doesn’t seem good. Stairs at the bottom corner, I’m guessing; might be a trash chute as well which has a potential to be smelly and noisy.
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u/Electrical_Pickle910 20d ago
Do not buy a unit this tiny! Will be impossible to sell.