A 30 x 40 ft plot in Bangalore carries a FAR of 1.75. Multiply it out and you are allowed 2,100 sq ft of built-up area across all floors. That is the number everybody quotes.
You will not get 2,100 sq ft. On that plot, the setbacks leave you a footprint of about 745 sq ft, the bye-law caps you at three floors, and the honest answer is two full floors of 745 plus a partial third. The FAR was never the binding limit. Something else was, and nobody told you which.
Four different rules, often confused for one
FAR — Floor Area Ratio. Total built-up area across all floors, divided by plot area. An area rule. FAR 1.75 on 1,200 sq ft means 2,100 sq ft of floor in total.
FSI — Floor Space Index. The same thing with a different name. Maharashtra and Gujarat say FSI, Delhi and Karnataka say FAR, and some states express it as a percentage, so FAR 110% and FSI 1.10 are identical. If someone tells you FAR and FSI are different, they are thinking of a local premium or incentive component, not of a different quantity.
Ground coverage — the maximum share of the plot the building may cover at ground level. Also an area rule, but it applies to one floor only. 60% coverage on 1,200 sq ft means a 720 sq ft ground floor.
Setbacks — the clear open strip you must leave on each side between your building and the plot boundary. Not an area rule at all. A geometric one, measured in metres, and that difference is the whole of this article.
Why setbacks bind small plots and coverage binds big ones
A setback removes a border of fixed width. A border is a large fraction of a small rectangle and a small fraction of a large one. Work it through on a uniform 1 m setback:
The same rule takes 35% of the small plot and 13% of the large one. So on a big plot the coverage percentage is usually what stops you, and on a small plot you almost never reach the coverage percentage, because the setbacks have already taken more than it would have.
That is why the FAR and FSI calculator prints the setbacks alongside the result instead of folding them into one number. Its floor count works off the coverage limit, because that is how the rule is written. The footprint left after setbacks is a second, usually tighter subtraction, and you have to do it against your own plot dimensions.
The same plot, six cities
A 30 x 40 ft plot, frontage on the 30 ft side, against the bye-law rows this site holds. All figures in sq ft except the setbacks.
| City | FAR | Coverage | Setbacks F/R/S | Coverage allows | Setbacks allow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bangalore (BBMP / BDA) | 1.75 | 75% | 1.5 / 1.0 / 1.0 | 900 | 745 |
| Delhi (MCD / DDA) | 1.75 | 60% | 3.0 / 3.0 / 0.0 | 720 | 610 |
| Chennai (CMDA) | 1.50 | 60% | 3.0 / 1.5 / 1.5 | 720 | 509 |
| Pune (PMC / UDCPR) | 1.10 | 55% | 3.0 / 3.0 / 1.5 | 660 | 409 |
| Hyderabad (GHMC) | 1.75 | 65% | 3.0 / 2.0 / 2.0 | 780 | 398 |
| Mumbai (MCGM / DCPR) | 1.33 | 50% | 4.5 / 3.0 / 3.0 | 600 | 159 |
In all six, the setback footprint is smaller than the coverage allowance. The coverage percentage never gets a chance to apply. Here is one row's arithmetic so you can redo your own:
Five and a bit floors to use your FAR on a house plot. That is not a drafting error on our part — it is what happens when a setback rule written with larger plots in mind is applied to a small one.
FAR is not a reward for a bigger plot
Most people assume a larger plot carries a higher FAR. Delhi's bye-laws do the opposite, and the ladder is steep:
| Plot size | FAR | Coverage | Max floors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 50 sqm | 2.00 | 90% | 4 |
| 50 – 100 sqm | 1.80 | 75% | 4 |
| 100 – 250 sqm | 1.75 | 60% | 4 |
| 250 – 750 sqm | 1.50 | 50% | 4 |
| Over 750 sqm | 1.20 | 40% | 4 |
FAR falls from 2.00 to 1.20 as the plot grows, and coverage from 90% to 40%. The logic is straightforward once you see it: a tiny plot would be unbuildable under big-plot rules, so it is given a higher ratio and almost no setbacks. A large plot is expected to carry its share of the open space, light and air in the neighbourhood.
Bangalore does something different again — FAR stays flat at 1.75 across the first three bands while coverage steps down from 75% to 65%, then FAR jumps to 2.25 above 480 sqm. Two cities, two opposite shapes. There is no national pattern to learn here, only your own plot's row.
Stilt parking and basements
These are the two areas where bye-laws differ most, and where assumptions cost the most.
Stilt parking is commonly left out of the FAR count where it is genuinely open on all sides and used only for parking, with the clear height capped — usually somewhere between 2.4 m and 2.8 m. Several authorities still count the stilt in the permitted floor count even while exempting its area from FAR, so a "G+2 over stilt" may or may not be three floors in the eyes of your bye-law.
Enclosing the stilt later is the trap. Put up grills, a wall and a door and you have converted exempt area into FAR area, which makes the whole building a deviation from the sanctioned plan. It is one of the most common deviations found at completion-certificate stage.
Basements are usually exempt from FAR when used only for parking and services, usually not permitted to extend past the building line into the setback, and almost always counted in FAR the moment they become habitable. A basement also needs its own structural and dewatering design, and on a plot with a high water table the waterproofing cost can exceed the cost of the floor itself.
What overbuilding actually costs you
There are two completely different situations and people confuse them.
Caught at plan scrutiny. The drawing is objected and returned. You lose three to eight weeks and some architect's time. Annoying, cheap, and the system working as intended.
Caught after it is built. This is where it gets expensive, in several ways at once:
| Consequence | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Compounding fee | Most authorities can regularise a small deviation on payment. Nearly all have a threshold beyond which there is no provision at all. The threshold and the fee are local. |
| No completion or occupancy certificate | In several states this blocks a permanent water and electricity connection and complicates property-tax assessment. |
| Loan disbursement stops | A bank lends against the sanctioned plan. Area built beyond it is not security, and the last tranche can be withheld. |
| Resale problem | Your buyer's bank will refuse a loan on the whole property, not just the extra portion. You end up selling to a cash buyer at a discount. |
| Demolition notice | Reserved in practice for the deviations that cannot be compounded — chiefly setback encroachment. |
Note where the hard line sits. Extra floor area can usually be compounded. A building inside the setback usually cannot, because the setback is not there for you — it is there for your neighbour's light and air and for fire access down the side of the building. That is also why the setback is the one dimension worth marking on the ground and measuring yourself with a tape before a single footing is dug.
Some cities will sell you more FAR
Premium FSI in Maharashtra, transferable development rights in several states, and various incentive-FAR provisions elsewhere let you buy additional buildable area on payment, usually linked to the width of your access road. These are real and they are also almost entirely a large-plot and apartment-project instrument. On a single-family plot the arithmetic rarely works once you account for the charge and the extra structure, and the setbacks will still be sitting exactly where they were.
The order to do this in
- Get your plot's exact dimensions and area from the sale deed, and the width of the access road. Both drive which bye-law row applies.
- Find the row — plot-size band, FAR, coverage, setbacks, floor cap, and the small-plot relaxation if there is one.
- Subtract the setbacks from your plot dimensions to get your real footprint. Compare it to the coverage allowance and take the smaller.
- Divide your FAR allowance by that footprint to see how many floors it would take to use your FAR, then compare against the floor cap. Whichever bites first is your answer.
- Only then work out the cost. Your built-up area is now a real number, and the construction cost calculator has something honest to work with.
If the answer comes out as two floors on a 30 x 40 plot, you are in the most common situation in Indian house building, and the 1200 sq ft cost breakdown picks the story up from there — including whether to spend your footprint going wide or going up.