LIVEABLE AREA PRICE DECODED


While buying a house, an understanding about the concept of actual Liveable Area Price goes a long way in saving a lot of money.

Building or buying a home is one of the most coveted dreams for anyone. In fact, when one buys a home, the buyer doesn’t just get a set of walls, doors, windows and ceiling, but actually realizes the dream of a lifetime.

Realizing the dream of owning a house is far from easy. Buying a house is an extremely complex activity. Apart from checking on various parameters such as the cost, construction quality, connectivity and the quality of the neighbourhood, it is important to be well informed while buying the house because one pays a hefty sum as the first step of the purchase cycle and goes through repaying the loan through equated monthly installments (EMI) for an extended period of 10/15 or even 25 years. On the one hand, the buyer is eager to buy the house and fulfill a dream and on the other hand, there are immense pressure of the loan repayment.

However, have you ever thought about how much actual liveable area you are getting, when you buy a house? How much area/space are you getting to utilize and live in the house?

That brings us to an important aspect of buying a house – knowing and paying for the Liveable Area of the house. How do you ensure you are paying the Liveable Area Price (LAP)?

A typical house comprises the living room, bedrooms, kitchen, toilets, corridors, passages, verandahs and decks. However, there are many areas in a home that one does not physically live in! These are the passagesways, corridors, decks and verandahs. This means that Liveable Area will comprise the area of the Living Room, Bedrooms, Kitchen, among others, but will not consider the passage space in the lobby, or any deck. Thus price per square feet of this Liveable Area is the Liveable Area Price or LAP.

Home designs that try and reduce these spaces allow for more liveable area to be available in your homes and hence a lower LAP. So in a home that is LAP  efficient, a buyer ends up paying for the space he/she is going to Live In and not for space that is wasted because a LAP efficient home will have minimum space wastage.

Focusing on the Liveable Area Price is crucial for the buyer. Usually 10% - 15% of the Carpet Area is wasted in passages, corridors, decks etc. in most homes and hence Liveable Area left for the customer is about 85% - 90% of the Carpet Area. But the buyer still ends up paying for this wastage area of 10% - 15% even though the buyer cannot use practically.

Being aware of the LAP saves you money. A lot of money!

Take for example: If the Carpet Area of a large 2bhk apartment is 700 sq.ft. you are paying the price of the house as per this size. Let’s say the per square feet carpet area price is Rs.20,000.

So the total cost of the house will be Rs. 1.4 crore.

In a usual home of this size, about 70 sq.ft. from this area is wasted as it is not really accessible or liveable. This would be the passage from the living room to the bedroom (7ft x 3 ft = 21 sqr. Feet), the decks in the living room (4 ft x 5 ft = 20 sqr. Ft.) and bedrooms (4 ft x 6 ft = 24 sqr. Feet), the small niche at the entrance door (5 ft x 1 ft = 5 ft).

To find out the Actual Liveable area in this house, we have to deduct the wastage area from the Carpet Area. So the liveable area would be 700 – 70 = 630 sq.ft.

If the buyer were to buy a home that did not have this wastage space at the same rate that he paid for this house, he would have saved nearly Rs. 14 lakh on the total price of the house.

Just think of all the ways you can enjoy the money you save, but only when you pay for a LAP efficient home.

Without efficient LAP, you are paying an excess of Rs. 14 lakh in the total price. With efficient LAP, you are enjoying a vacation in Mauritius with your family. With efficient LAP, you are on a Tour of India in your new sedan. With efficient LAP, you are multiplying the Rs. 14 lakh in bank at 9% interest rates. With life to the fullers in your dream home without the actual stress of continuous payments.


Now that you are aware of LAP and are convinced about its importance, the question that crosses your mind is – where I can find out he LAP for my dream home? The answer is simple – just log on to www.checkyourlap.com and you are done. The comprehensive, easy to navigate site will help you with computing the Liveable Area Price of the property.

LIVEABLE AREA PLANNING WITH ZERO WASTAGE IN PASSAGE AND LOBBIES