Floor areas of a flat

One flat carries several different areas at the same time, and each of them is correct in its own terms — they are measured under different rules. The first question when comparing two flats is therefore not how many square metres, but which area is being quoted. Without that answer the comparison means nothing and the price per square metre is an arbitrary number.

Why there is more than one area

Areas in Lithuania are established by cadastral measurement, and the counting rules sit in construction technical regulations and cadastre rules. One rule counts what a resident actually uses; another counts the whole set of premises; a third adds a share of common areas. The same flat can therefore appear with three different figures in an advertisement, a contract and the register.

None of that is deceptive in itself. The deception begins when one figure is used to set the price and another to invite comparison, and nobody says which is which.

Useful area

The useful area is what the occupant lives in: rooms plus the service spaces inside the flat — kitchen, bathroom, hallway, a storage niche. It excludes everything beyond the flat's walls and does not count structure, such as load-bearing walls and service shafts.

For a buyer this is the most intuitive figure, because it corresponds roughly to what a tape measure finds. That is also what makes it the right figure for comparing flats — provided you are comparing two useful areas, and not a useful area against a total one.

Total area and the share of common premises

Total area is the wider concept and covers the flat's set of premises as the cadastre rules define it. Separate from either figure are the common objects: stairwells, corridors, technical rooms, the building's structure and its engineering systems. They are not part of your flat's area — they are the owners' common property in undivided shares, and each owner's share is set in proportion.

That share is not an abstraction. It is the basis on which the building's costs are divided and votes are counted when decisions are taken. How it works month to month is described separately, under building management and common costs.

Balconies, loggias, terraces

Balconies, loggias and terraces are the usual source of mismatch. Their area is not counted in full but with a coefficient set in the rules, and the coefficient depends on whether the space is glazed, open or heated. A flat with a large terrace can therefore look like one thing in an advertisement and another in the cadastre.

The check is simple: ask for the plan, and ask how many square metres the balcony or terrace amounts to and whether they are already inside the figure you were quoted. If the answer is vague, the cadastral data in the register extract will settle it.

What to pin down in the contract

The contract has to name the area together with its type, not just the number. And in a new building one more thing matters: what happens if the final measured area differs from the figure in the contract. Is the price recalculated, what deviation is treated as normal, and from what difference onwards may the buyer withdraw? That is a clause, not a custom, and its absence always works against the buyer.

Three things worth having in writing: the type of area, a plan annex with dimensions, and the recalculation rule. Everything else belongs in the handover document, which records what is actually there.

This article is general information and is not legal, technical or tax advice. Your flat's areas are determined by its cadastral data and by your contract, not by a general rule.