This looks like you want to produce a hash, assuming that all your data looks like 'key=value'. If you split on /\s*=\s*|\s+/, you can say,

my @sortrecs = sort { $a->{'area'} <=> $b->{'area'} }
               map { {split /\s*=\s*|\s+/} } @records;
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which is no longer a Schwartzian. It carries the data about in its final form.