The most common way two buildings are made to look comparable is to quote them on different measurements.
This page explains the two figures and how to normalise them. What any specific residence measures is a question for its own documents. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current position on any building we cover.
Most Miami marketing quotes a total figure. That figure typically includes the air conditioned interior plus terraces and balconies, and in some cases a proportion of the perimeter structure measured to the outside face of the wall rather than the inside.
The interior figure is the air conditioned space alone, measured inside the walls. It is the number that corresponds to how the residence lives.
The gap between the two is not small, and it is not consistent from building to building. A residence with deep terraces will show a wider gap than one with a shallow balcony, which means the two cannot be compared on the total figure without distorting the comparison in favour of the one with more outdoor space.
Different developers measure differently, and the market has not settled on one method. Some quote to the inside face of the glass, some to the centreline, some to the exterior face. Some count a covered terrace at full area, some at a proportion.
None of this is necessarily improper. Condominium documents define how the units are measured for the building’s own purposes, and the marketing figure is a separate commercial description.
The problem is not any one figure. The problem is that a buyer comparing three brochures is frequently comparing three different measurement methods without being told, and concluding that one building offers more space when it offers a different accounting of the same space.
Ask each project for the interior air conditioned area, stated as such, in writing. Not the total, not the total with a note, the interior figure alone.
Then ask for the terrace area separately. Now you have two numbers per residence and you can compare buildings honestly, because you can see how much of the headline figure is inside and how much is outside.
The ratio between them is itself informative. A residence where a large proportion of the quoted total is terrace is a different proposition from one where almost all of it is interior, and whether that is good or bad depends entirely on how you intend to use it. In this climate a deep, properly shaded terrace is genuinely usable for much of the year. A narrow west facing balcony frequently is not.
On comparison, it is the mechanism described above. Two buildings look alike and are not.
On resale, the figure that circulates in public records and listing data may not be the figure in the brochure you were shown, which can produce an unwelcome surprise years later when the residence is described differently than you remember buying it.
On expectation, the effect is simplest and most common. A buyer forms a mental picture from a total figure, arrives at a finished residence measured on interior, and finds it smaller than expected. Nothing improper occurred. Two different questions were answered with the same number.
Please confirm in writing the interior air conditioned area of this residence, the terrace area separately, and the measurement convention used for each.
That request is normal, it is easily answered by any organised project, and the answer normalises your entire comparison set.
How long it takes to arrive, and whether it arrives in writing at all, is worth noting alongside the answer itself.
Normalising a shortlist is straightforward, it is just tedious, and it is the sort of thing an independent desk should do rather than a buyer. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will put your shortlist on one basis so the comparison actually means something.
It is the least confrontational question in the process and it changes what your shortlist means. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will go through the current position on any building we cover, including the parts a sales gallery would rather skip. Where a question is legal, tax or structuring, we introduce you to advisers who handle that properly rather than answering it ourselves.