What makes up the usable floor area of a flat?

One of the most important factors affecting both the price of a property and the decision to buy it is its floor area. Here we are dealing with the concept of the usable floor area of a given unit. An employee of an estate agency in Katowice will certainly ask you for information on this if you decide to seek their help in selling your property. But what actually lies behind this concept, and how do you properly determine the usable floor area? Let us find out.

Definitions of usable floor area

Before visiting an estate agency in Katowice, let us therefore look up some specific information and try to find out how Polish law defines usable floor area. It turns out that we can come across large discrepancies here, depending on what we need the information on a property's usable floor area for. If we read the definition created for the purpose of determining the property tax base, we learn that usable floor area is to be measured along the inner length of the walls on all storeys, which means that the thickness of partition walls is not included in the area, and this also applies to basements and attics. When we look into the details of inheritance and gift tax, on the other hand, we read that basements do not count towards usable floor area – so we encounter the first of the legal discrepancies. How, then, should we calculate usable floor area when we want to establish the size of a property?

Usable floor area and the size of a flat

Usable floor area in the context that interests us here is defined by the Regulation of the Minister of Transport, Construction and Maritime Economy of 25 April 2012 on the detailed scope and form of a construction design. It tells us that areas with a height of 2.2 m or more should be counted at 100%, areas with a height between 1.4 and 2.2 m at 50%, and areas lower than 1.4 m should be left out entirely. What does this mean in practice? When stating the usable floor area of a house for sale in Katowice, you should include the area measured along the floor, leaving out radiator recesses and low storage spaces or small storerooms. For the remaining rules on measuring the usable floor area of premises, the regulation refers us to the Polish Standard PN – ISO 9836: 1997. There we learn, among other things, that measurement accuracy should be 1 cm. It is assumed that any disputed matters and questions that may arise when measuring properties should be settled by the standard PN – ISO 9836: 1997 cited here. Knowing where to look for the necessary information, we can then proceed to measure the property in question.

How do you take the right measurements?

It is easy to conclude that the usable floor area of a given property will differ depending on the circumstances in which we need to determine it. So we should not always rely rigidly on the information we already have on the size of a unit; instead, we should refer to the specific regulations that set out how measurements should be taken in a given situation and which rooms should be included. When problems arise in this respect, it is undoubtedly worth enlisting the help of an estate agency in Katowice.