Bulding's 'Built Area'

[Kahuna]

Its been discussed before but I'd welcome some experienced feedback.

On, say, a 400m2 plot and a house with, say, 250m2 built area, what does the built area refer to exactly?

I realise it includes the area the actual building stands on, and any upper floor area too, but what about the area around the pool - or the pool itself - is that included?

I am at the very earliest stages of looking for a plot to build on and I need to get clear in my mind what the sizes of places and houses I have looked at relate to in terms of Built Area.

I have a town house in the Mountains and it is described, by the Architect who did the reformation for us, as 600m2 - but my measurements would put it at less than that all up - including the pool and every walkway inside the boundary.

[El Cid]

A house usually has three measurements. The first and smallest it what goes down on the application for the building licence as this determines the fees and taxes.

The second is what you actually built, which usually ends up bigger than you declared and the third is the area that you quote when you are trying to sell it. The last is often twice the first!

Seriously though, the measurement used for licence purposes and for any official documents such as Catastral or land registry and your escritura is the Superficie Util or usable space. This is the actual size of the habitable area and doesnt include utility areas such as a pump room etc.

Another measurment often used is constructed area and this is essentially the outside measurements including the walls.

The measurement normally used by estate agents is the constructed area plus 50% of any covered terraces. However I have seen some quoted areas that are well away from reality and probably include the house next door!

Sid

[Kahuna]

Thanks Sid

Approaching it from a new build point of view - I need to start calculating costs (roughly for budgeting purposes), so I'd like to make some comparisons between properties I have seen (and like the design of) and the m2 claimed by the sellers.

For example, I'd like to build a villa with a pool and several terraces. The entire property (including floors / covered patios / staircases etc) will likely be 250-300m2, but there will be a pool etc in addition, with the terrace around it.

I'd like to calculate the build costs per m2 (as a finished project) so I need to determine if the pool area etc should be calculated as a separate entity.

I suspect (for my purposes) a measurement of the outside area of the building would form the basis of the m2 measurement obviously multiplied by the number of the floors, including any balcony / patio.

Think so?

[El Cid]

You need to calculate all the outside stuff seperately and the cost will depend on just what you have - there's no easy formula.

For the rest of the house, the cost will depend on the quality of construction and finish and could be anything from 500 - 1000 euros/m2.

Our build, 3 years ago worked out at 750 and the cost of the outside was 50% of the cost of the house. Todays prices will be higher but it depends a lot on the builder - we had quotes where the highest was twice the lowest.

Sid

[Kahuna]

Cheers Sid

Thats where I was getting to.

[Mariamartinez]

Hi!
I would just say that make sure that all the licences are in place and that you respect them at least at the beginning wherever the house is....