Design Rules🛏 Rooms & Spaces

Habitable Room — Minimum Area (Single Room)

When the unit has only one habitable room
See also📖 NBC 2016🔗 IS 962🧮 RCC Design📒 Handbook
9.5
PLAN9.5 m²3.0 m3.2 mSINGLE ROOM — PLAN VIEW
Primary value9.5 m²
Applies toStudio apartments · Single-room dwellings · Bachelor accommodation
ExceptionsMinimum width2.4 m
Measured asCarpet area within the room walls — does not include built-in cupboards, wardrobes, or balconies.
SourceNBC 2016Part 4, Clause 5.4.2
✓ Verified
Why this matters

9.5 m² is the smallest area in which a person can sleep, dress, and move around comfortably. Anything smaller fails the basic dignity test that NBC sets as the floor for habitable space.

Typical practice

Most modern studio apartments are 18-25 m², well above the NBC minimum. Affordable housing schemes occasionally hit the floor for cost reasons.

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