Phnom Penh Condo Floor Plans and Usable Space

Price per square metre is where an area-label problem quickly turns into a buying problem. A USD 120,000 condo quoted at 60 sqm gross and another USD 120,000 condo quoted at 60 sqm net both produce USD 2,000 per “sqm” on a calculator, but the denominators may represent different things. The number is only comparable when the underlying area basis is comparable.

Current Phnom Penh listings show how easily the labels diverge. IPS lists Time Square 8 Type DEFGH at 45 sqm net / 60 sqm gross, Type QR at 55 / 73 and Type BCS at 65 / 88. On Realestate.com.kh, the project table groups standard one-bedroom units under a gross-size range, while individual resale cards can show a separate Floor area figure. That does not establish fraud or overstatement; it establishes that the headline field and the developer or agency area labels are not automatically the same measurement.

One Park is an especially clear example of why the description matters. A current one-bedroom listing shows 52 sqm as Floor Area and 69 sqm as Land Area in its structured fields, while the listing text explicitly gives 52.76 sqm net and 69.83 sqm gross. The safest reading is to preserve the labels used beside the detailed figures, not to assume that a portal's generic field name has the same meaning across every condominium.

Parc 21 adds a third layer. IPS publishes 112 sqm net, 134 sqm gross and 22 sqm common area for one specific residence; in that listing, the arithmetic happens to line up exactly. The Bridge uses yet another presentation: a live one-bedroom listing states 48.57 sqm net and 70.15 sqm gross, while an archived copy of the project brochure describes Type A1 as 70.15 sqm total area with 48.57 sqm shown in brackets and notes that total area includes common area. Those sources are useful together because they show why an area label should be treated as a documented definition for that unit, not as a citywide convention.

The strongest comparison in the current material is not between projects at all. It is within a source that uses the same labels across several plan types. IPS publishes a Time Square 8 classic-flat series with both net and gross figures: Type J at 30 / 40 sqm, KLMNOP at 35 / 47, DEFGH at 45 / 60, QR at 55 / 73, BCS at 65 / 88 and Type A at 85 / 111. The disclosed net-to-gross ratios therefore range from roughly 73.9% for BCS to about 76.6% for Type A. That is a calculation from published figures, not a score for comfort or design quality.

Norea Square offers a similar benefit because one project source gives both figures for four residential types: 38.35 net / 49.06 gross for Type 1A, 42.25 / 54.05 for Type 1B, 66.90 / 85.58 for Type 2A and 114.61 / 146.61 for Type 3A. A buyer can compare those types on a more consistent documentary basis than a Norea unit against another development where the only public number is an undefined floor area. The remaining question is still what the project means by each label; the ratio does not answer that by itself.

Cross-project examples are useful as long as they stay descriptive. One Park's published one-bedroom figures produce a disclosed net-to-gross ratio of about 75.6%; Urban Village Phase 2's cited two-bedroom is 75.0%; Norea Square Type 2A is about 78.2%; The Bridge example is about 69.2%; and the Parc 21 listing is about 83.6%. The spread is real in the published numbers, but there is not enough common methodology to convert it into an efficiency ranking. A higher percentage could reflect a different area definition as easily as a different physical layout.

The stop rule matters just as much as the calculations. An Urban Loft listing, for example, states Unit size 66 sqm and Gross size 75 sqm. Because the first label is not explicitly net, treating 66 sqm as net would add information the source does not supply. The same discipline should govern price per square metre: compare gross-based prices with gross-based prices, or net-based prices with net-based prices. A mixed column may look precise while measuring different denominators.

Plan identity is another boundary that is easy to miss. Two resale cards with the same bedroom count and a similar headline size are not necessarily the same plan. Time Square 8 publishes separate type codes with different net/gross pairs, while Norea Square ties Type 2A to its own disclosed figures and floor range. A resale card that merely says “2 bedrooms, 73 sqm” should not inherit the measurements of a named Type QR from another page unless the unit code or plan confirms the match. Reliable comparison follows the chain project → tower or phase → plan type → version → exact unit, not a convenient numerical resemblance.

This is not a ranking. The table preserves the source labels and flags what the public material still does not disclose.

Parc 21 is useful because the source puts three figures side by side: 112 sqm net, 134 sqm gross and 22 sqm common area. The arithmetic matches exactly. That tells us something concrete about this publication; it does not prove that every Phnom Penh developer calculates gross as net plus common area. The other examples reviewed here do not publish the same three-part breakdown for the same unit type.

The Bridge makes the source-specific nature of the labels even clearer. An archived copy of the project's floor-plan brochure describes Type A1 as 70.15 sqm Total Area with 48.57 sqm in brackets and states that total area includes common area. A current listing for a one-bedroom at The Bridge uses 48.57 sqm net and 70.15 sqm gross. The matching figures are useful evidence for that plan, yet the wording still belongs to that document set; it should not be imported into One Park, Norea Square or any unrelated project.

Cambodian property law draws a legal boundary that is related to this discussion but not identical to the marketing labels. Article 178 of the 2001 Land Law says that parts reserved for the exclusive use of a particular co-owner are private parts and that the ownership certificate is to define their type and size. Article 179 treats parts allocated for the use or benefit of co-owners as common parts. The 2010 law on foreigners owning private units in co-owned buildings likewise defines private units separately from common areas. Those rules support the distinction between private and common property; they do not say that every commercial “net area” figure is the registered private-unit area or that every “gross area” figure includes the same categories.

Balconies are a good example of the remaining gap. The One Park, Urban Village Phase 2 and Norea Square material used here all mention balconies, but the public text for these examples does not assign a separate balcony area. It is therefore not possible to subtract the balcony from net area, add it to an interior figure, or claim how much of the quoted size is indoor space. Walls, shafts and structural elements create the same problem: unless the project defines how they are measured, a buyer cannot recover the methodology simply by subtracting one headline number from another.

The practical document trail is more useful than a universal formula. If a brochure uses gross and net, while the sale paperwork or unit sheet uses a different term, keep those figures separate until the exact unit is tied to the exact document. A marketing area can be a valid disclosed figure, but it is not automatically the legally documented size of the private unit.

This distinction also affects a price comparison when the listing platform calculates its own USD-per-sqm figure. If the portal uses its Floor Area field while the description quotes gross and net separately, the displayed unit rate may be based on a field whose relationship to those labels is not stated. Recalculating the price against each disclosed basis is more transparent: label one result as price per disclosed gross sqm and another as price per disclosed net sqm. The two figures answer different questions and should not be merged into a single market benchmark.

A floor plan can be informative without being measurable. One Park's official accommodation pages list one-bedroom types such as A1 at 70 sqm, A1b at 72 sqm and A3 at 87 sqm, yet the accessible text does not provide bedroom, living-room or kitchen dimensions. Norea Square lets a visitor open the real floor plan for a residential level and select a unit, while its text specification gives gross area, net area, view and balcony information rather than individual room lengths. Time Square 8 is unusually detailed on net and gross figures by type, but those totals still cannot tell you whether a particular bed or wardrobe fits.

An archived copy of The Bridge brochure goes a step further because its diagrams contain dimension lines and plan measurements. That is useful evidence of geometry, but the values should still be read from the original drawing in context. A number such as 6036 or 7705 beside a plan contour is not automatically a bedroom dimension, and a text extraction cannot reliably assign every line to a particular wall. Furniture decisions need a dimensioned drawing where the relevant measurement is visibly tied to the room or wall in question.

The missing details are often more practical than the headline square metres. A wardrobe needs an uninterrupted wall length. A double bed needs door and circulation clearance, not merely enough room area. A desk may be affected by glazing, columns, sockets or an air-conditioning position. None of those can be proven from a marketing render without scale. Furniture icons on a plan show a suggested arrangement; they do not establish real clearances unless the drawing itself provides the necessary dimensions.

That makes “not disclosed” a useful conclusion, not a research failure. A plan may confirm the sequence of rooms, balcony access and basic zoning while leaving furniture fit unresolved. In that case, the next useful item is the dimensioned plan or unit sheet for the exact apartment. A plain two-dimensional drawing with readable measurements can answer more buying questions than a polished three-dimensional visual that cannot be measured.

Room area alone would still be insufficient. A 12 sqm bedroom can be close to square or long and narrow, and those shapes behave differently once a bed, wardrobe and door clearance are added. Without labelled wall lengths, a total apartment area plus an attractive plan image cannot establish that distinction. Image proportions can change when a drawing is exported or resized, and furniture symbols are not a measuring scale. For furnishing decisions, a handful of explicit wall dimensions is often more valuable than another total-area figure.