At the end of the day, apartments must fulfil their basic use, which is to be able to provide shelter to people. So naturally the livability of an apartment project is a crucial aspect in measuring luxury.
In 2021, numerous projects were launched in Lahore under the guise of luxury but when we take closer look at the features of the apartments in these projects, it’s a different story altogether. But before critiquing livability, let’s understand what it is.
For the sake of this article, Livability is the utility or satisfaction the residents gain from the various physical characteristics of the apartment project that maintain a certain quality of life. These factors include characteristics such as the size of the apartments, the allied facilities available for them to use, the various amenities at one’s disposal, accessibility to their unit, greenery and openness etc.
Luxury apartments shall always be much larger than the average apartment unit. The TCPA (Town & Country Planning Association UK) in 2019 prescribed a minimum 37m2 (approximately 400 square feet) as the Nationally Described Space Standard for a single person apartment. And yet, we find projects have advertised luxury apartments that are sized at around 300 square feet.
To put this in perspective, the Lahore Development Authority requires parking spaces to have at least 100 square feet of area. So effectively the purchaser is being offered an apartment which has an area of 3 parking spaces; under a luxury apartment moniker. Now I’m not saying that apartments this size can’t be luxurious, but the fittings and fixtures in said apartment must be out of this world to compensate for the lack of livable area.
The TCPA (Town & Country Planning Association UK) in 2019 prescribed a minimum 37m2 (approximately 400 square feet) as the Nationally Described Space Standard for a single person apartment.
