3 BHK flats in Hyderabad- Importance of visualizing & analysing ‘available floor space’ of your 3 BHK floor-plans
If you are planning on buying your 3 BHK in Hyderabad, among other things like location, price, specifications, one element that is often not see hard enough is- How much ‘effective floor space’ am I getting after knocking off space taken away by furniture etc.?
In simple words, your floor plan tries to tell you how much of floor-space you can walk on (visible & available to you) after furniture, shelves, wardrobes, equipment/gadgets etc. have occupied the carpet area.
Let us call this 3rd dimension as ‘available area’ for ease of reference.
- Carpet area– this is the ‘net usable area’ available to you- RERA prescribes this to make it simple and easy to understand for the home buyer. This way, we exactly ‘how many square foot of area will actually be available to us’
- Built-up area– This is carpet area + walls
- Available area– This is [Carpet area] – [Covered area i.e. ‘area used-up’]
- Covered area includes anything that covers-up the floor space…like furniture, kitchen top, wash basins, WC, beds, wardrobe, sofa, chairs, tables, washing machine, bicycle etc.
- Covered area keeps reducing with time, as we keep adding items to the household with all the items purchased. These continuously occupy ‘carpet area’ space
- The result- AVAILABLE AREA keeps shrinking with time
AVAILABLE AREA = [Carpet area] – [All floor space occupying items]
Why is available space important now more than ever if you are looking for 3 BHK flats in Hyderabad?
It is common phenomena even for spacious apartments seeming small when the items we buy are not well-managed. Plus, the family needs sometimes puts a constraint on the available spaces
One major factor is the work-from-home and study-from-home furniture that has further burdened our existing ‘available spaces’. The conventional, economy-range floor plans ranging between 1400 sft to 1800 sft, particularly, have NOT been made with an eye to embedding an ‘office’ or a ‘study area’ in the floor designs.
In a post-pandemic era, we need to be even more conscious of how we live, and how our available spaces inside the apartment enable us in living a comfortable life.
How to read into the AVAILABLE AREA of your 3 BHK apartment?
- While viewing floor plans, not just focus on how the furniture etc. are placed, but to watch how much walkable area is squeezed-up (eaten-up) or made available
- While watching dimensions of every room, look for how much of spaciousness is impacted with furniture well-laid out
- For example-
- Bedroom- bed, study table, sofa, area occupied by TV stand take away more than 35% space of your bedroom. So, if bedroom is 140 square feet big, you are effectively left with no more than 85 square feet of floor space
- Kitchen- kitchen top, wash-basin, accessories, small tables, kitchen gadgets, kitchen cabinets also take away approximately 40% or more of your kitchen space. So, if your kitchen is 80 square feet on floor plan, you are effectively left with no more than 55 square foot of walking space. This reduces your work triangle in the kitchen
Let’s look at how the AVAILABLE AREA shrinks with an example of actual floor plan measuring 1400 sft
[Website address- https://www.squareyards.com/hyderabad-residential-property/cybercity-marina-skies-apartment-3bhk-1600sqft/8925/36824/unit ]
Given above is an excellent design, and we shall use this only for our ‘available area’ related enquiry.
Let’s calculate the ‘available area’ on the plan given above to get a perspective on how comfortable a floor plan feels when we add furniture and other household items into it.
Let us explore how ‘spacious’ vs. ‘congested’ the rooms actually feel. Read into the last 4 columns of the table given above to get the right perspective.
Bedrooms-
- Except the master bedroom, the other two rooms will feel quite tight on spaciousness
- There is hardly any room to place a study table and chair comfortably in bedroom 2 & 3
- A bit difficult to walk around comfortably in room 2 & 3. You can’t take a post dinner walk in these smaller bedrooms. You have to be careful manoeuvring your way to the washroom or outside the room when the lights are switched-off, especially at night
- Wardrobes make the room even more congested. It is good to have rooms with ‘niche’ area made separately (embedded inside wall) for wardrobes, so that it does not eat into available space
Living & Dining
- These are just about average after adjusting dining table and a few sofas
- Seem fine and reasonably airy and spacious after furniture occupies the floor space
Drawing room
- A bit cramped, with not much room for a comfortable spacing
- As you can see, it’s difficult to walk around with the furniture adjusted
Washrooms
- These are fine as you do not spend too much time of you day in them, and the space is adequate for a good shower as well as toilet purposes
- Some people keep washing machine or dryer in the washroom that makes it congested
Utility
- Utility area is just about average, with only washing machine depicted in the plan
- Modern day utility needs to double up for your laundry/clothing needs, and food & beverage storing area too. Pets are normally kept in the utility area
- Considering the above factors, the utility area is pretty small, and will soon start seeming small as items are bought
- Sometimes, we see a lot of junk, and items like bicycle etc. being kept in utility which virtually makes it cluttered and unpleasantly crowded
The available space is an important factor, and you should NOT just see how the furniture etc. is place, but give a deep hard look to the open spaces left for use.
So, while buying your 3 BHK apartment in Hyderabad, go beyond the obvious, and look for ‘actual space available’ to accommodate all the existing and future needs of each member of your family!
“Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.”
– David Ogden Stiers
To know more about “Reading ‘dimensions’ of a floor plan: a perspective to get a ‘feel of space’ while buying your 3 BHK flat in Hyderabad”. Click here!
