What does it mean: plot ratio 0.4, floor area ratio 1.2, floors II - II

Hello everyone,

I found a development plan while searching for a property that I cannot read.

The property has the following:

Site coverage ratio 0.4
Floor area ratio 1.2
Floors II - III

1) What does this mean?
2) Would the Viebrockhaus Maxime 300 also be a 2-story house or only 1-story?

Many thanks and best regards
Yavuz

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Thank you!
Construction expert

Hello,

Floor area ratio 0.4
Plot ratio 1.2
Storeys II - III

1) What does this mean?

**Floor area ratio means groundandarearatio, plot ratio floorarearatio. These are indications of the maximum permissible extent of structural use of the property.

The floor area ratio indicates how many m² of ground area may be built per m² of property area, in your case 40% of the property area. The plot ratio, on the other hand, states how many m² of floor area per m² of property area may be built, in your case 120% of the property area. This counts the floor areas of all full storeys of the building.

It appears to be a property suitable for multi-storey residential construction.

2) Would the Viebrockhaus Maxime 300 also be a 2-storey house or only 1-storey?

This example is a classic single-storey house.

**Source, my homepage

Rhenish greetings

Hello,

thank you for the quick reply. We are talking about a plot with a size of 400 sqm. That means I am allowed to build on an area of 160 sqm. Does the terrace and the driveway to the garage count towards this, for example?

1.2 (480 sqm with 400 sqm plot area) I understood this as meaning that I cannot reach this with 0.4 and 2 floors, but with 3 floors I can actually have 160 sqm floor area per floor. Wow.

Thanks again for the informative and above all very understandable explanation. But I have one more question:

I have read that by increasing the knee wall height, such a house can be made into a two-story building. Is that correct?

The terrace and driveway each count for half. A floor area ratio of 0.4 is already not bad. You can fit a lot on that.

Your Maxime 300 has 8.6*11.6 m = 100 sqm.

So you are allowed to build another 60 sqm with other things, or 120 sqm driveway, terrace, etc... however, your plot is also not particularly large. I would be more concerned about the 3-meter boundary construction that may apply.

2 full floors is e.g. the house type "Stadtvilla", where there are no slopes visible on the upper floor. However, the exact definition is different, as there are also 2 full floors with slopes.

I have read that by increasing the knee wall height, such a house can also be made into a two-story building. Is that correct?

Yes. Whenever in the attic – due to a high knee wall/dormer – a net area of more than 75% of the ground floor area is achieved. Rhineland greetings on the go Building expert

Thank you for the reply, Payday. I actually have the problem of finding a plot with 400 sqm and the appropriate frontage to be able to build such a detached house. Above all, a large garden is important to me, but you can't have everything. If I take 3 m each on the right and left + 9 m house frontage, then I need a plot with a width of at least 15 m. 400 sqm = 15 m x 26 m, that would be. If I subtract the length of the house, 11.6 m, from 26 m, 14 m remain. If there were 2.5 - 3 m terrace here, only 11 m would remain. 11 m x 15 m = 165 sqm garden. I don't know if 15 m garden depth is a lot when everything is finished?

Here is an excerpt from the NRW laws regarding floors:

(5) Full floors are floors whose ceiling upper edge protrudes on average more than 1.60 m above the ground surface and have a height of at least 2.30 m. A top floor (setback floor) recessed compared to the exterior walls of the building is only a full floor if it has this height over more than two-thirds of the floor area of the floor below. A floor with pitched roof surfaces is a full floor if it has this height over more than three-quarters of its floor area. The height of the floors is measured from the top edge of the floor to the top edge of the floor of the ceiling above, in floors with roof surfaces up to the top edge of the roof covering.

(6) Floors above ground level are floors whose ceiling upper edge protrudes on average more than 1.60 m above the ground surface. Cavities between the top ceiling and the roof, in which living spaces are not possible, are not considered floors.

I am learning, but it is complicated and it is still a gigantic pile of mostly completely new/unfamiliar information.