Everything Homebuyers Should Know About The Metric System

In 2019, the Noida legal metrology department (weights and measure department) fined several developers for using square foot (sq ft) instead of square metre (sq mt) as the measuring units while selling flats and plots. According to officials, the use of square foot and square yard as measuring units are no longer allowed; square metre is the only valid unit for that. 

On developers who still use square foot and square yard in their sale brochures, the department slapped fines ranging between Rs 40,000 and Rs 70,000 over the violation of the Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976.

“Though the sale deed is executed in square metre measurement, the size, in square feet was mentioned within brackets,” said Anshul Sharma, a representative of one of the developers fined by the authorities in Noida over the violation of laws.

The law of the land

According to the Act, every unit of weight or measures should be based on the units of the metric system. For instance, the base unit of length is metre; for mass - kilogram; for time - second; for electric current - ampere; for thermodynamic temperature - kelvin; for luminous intensity - candela; for amount of substance - mole, etc.  

Among real estate developers as well as real estate agents, the use of square feet has been popular to calculate the area. Homebuyers, too, are quite familiar with this form of calculation since property prices displayed, are often indicated by developers and agents, on a per sq ft basis.

“It is a fact that homebuyers are more comfortable knowing the pricing on a square foot basis because it sounds more affordable when you calculate that way. The sound of space that is being sold for Rs 4,000 per square foot is more soothing than the sound of a property being sold at Rs 40,000 per square metre. It is all about the person,” explains Dayanand Wariko, a real estate agent from Noida. 

Sanjeev Srivastva, CREDAI UP-West member, said, “Developers should mention the size of the apartments in square metre as per the rules of the weights and measurement department. However, to make common people understand the measurement of the land, the size should be mentioned in square feet in brackets. We should also mention the conversion of square metre to square foot.”

Common conversions for land measurement