On December 12, according to the Hengyang Evening News, starting from January 1, 2025, the sale of commercial housing in Hengyang, Hunan Province will be priced based on the usable floor area. Yan Yuedjin, deputy director of the Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute, stated that when buyers purchase houses and sign contracts in the future, the area they are buying will be the actual living area, no longer including shared areas such as hallways, stairs, corridors, and other shared spaces. This approach makes it clearer how much money is spent on how large a house and more effectively protects the rights of buyers, truly achieving the guiding principle of 'what you buy is what you get.' Xu Yuedjin, deputy director of research at the China Index Academy, reminded that 'the change in pricing method has a small impact on housing prices, but pricing based on usable area helps buyers understand actual prices more intuitively, reduces disputes caused by information asymmetry, and promotes further regulation of commercial housing sales behavior. It is expected that more cities will follow up with relevant regulations.' Some lawyers also remind that the recent introduction of new policies in many places to explicitly increase the usable area ratio is not equivalent to the marketing practices of some developers in the market, such as 'stealing area' or 'gifted area.' Buyers should also carefully discern. (Securities Times)