Phuket Condo Floor Plans and Usable Space

A floor-plan headline such as “50 sqm” does not tell you how much of that space sits inside the enclosed apartment. Thailand's Department of Lands requires condominium registration materials to include floor-by-floor plans stating unit dimensions and area, together with information distinguishing private and common property. That registered layer is not the same thing as a sales brochure, and neither should be treated as a substitute for the contract for a specific unit.

Sudara makes the area basis unusually explicit. Its 1 Bedroom Standard is shown as 46 sqm enclosed plus 6 sqm covered, producing a 52 sqm total. The 2 Bedroom Garden keeps 71 sqm enclosed but adds 11 sqm covered, 1 sqm non-covered and 15 sqm of garden for a 98 sqm total. The same brochure warns that the project plans are not drawn to scale and that final designs may change.

The Base Central Phuket illustrates the opposite problem. The 1C plan is published at 30.50–31.50 sqm and 2B at 52.50 sqm, with balconies visible on the drawings, yet the brochure does not provide a numerical indoor-versus-balcony split. It also states that layout and area may be adjusted without substantially affecting use, so the quoted figure should not be silently re-labelled as enclosed area.

MONO Residence Bangtao labels internal and external zones on its official unit plans, but an A1 plan still carries one 27 sqm figure rather than separate numerical totals for each zone. Coralina Kamala publishes unit-type ranges — including 46–49 sqm for a 1 Bedroom Plus — without an internal/external breakdown on the current project page. Those figures are useful for screening options, but they do not create a common denominator for indoor-space comparisons.

For a purchase decision, the relevant area is the one that applies to the exact unit in the current contractual and registration documents. If the sales material and the legal documents describe area differently, the gap needs to be resolved before treating two price-per-sqm figures as comparable.

Each row keeps the area definition published by the project. “Split not disclosed” is a limitation of the source, not an invitation to estimate missing square metres from the drawing.

Outdoor area changes the function of the space, not its quality by definition. Sudara's standard two-bedroom plan has 71 sqm enclosed within an 80 sqm total. The garden version keeps the same 71 sqm enclosed while the total rises to 98 sqm, and the pool version reaches 117 sqm. The extra private area is real, but most of that increase is outside the enclosed apartment.

That can be exactly what a Phuket buyer wants. A terrace or garden may carry more day-to-day value than extra indoor floor area for someone who spends mornings and evenings outside; another household may prefer a larger air-conditioned living room or workspace. Treating every outdoor square metre as “wasted” is just as misleading as treating it as interchangeable with indoor space.

There is also a narrow legal point worth keeping separate from lifestyle preference. In a Department of Lands Q&A dated 16 July 2026, the agency explains that certain exterior perimeter walls falling under the cited rule are common property and are not counted in unit area. The Department also states that the answer is an opinion and that disputes are for the courts, so this should not be stretched into a universal rule about balconies as a whole.

The same restraint applies to circulation inside a unit. If a corridor is visible but no usable dimensions or reliable scale are published, its area remains unknown; the drawing can show how rooms connect without supporting a square-metre calculation.

A bed icon is a layout suggestion, not a measurement. The useful dividing line is whether the drawing provides real dimensions or a reliable official scale. Supalai Vista Phuket's 50 sqm Biella Suite is an example of a plan sheet with printed dimension strings and a scale bar, giving the buyer a measurable basis that an unscaled marketing sketch does not provide.

Furniture also needs to be checked by its outside dimensions. IKEA's BRUKSVARA frame for a 180 × 200 cm mattress is listed at 186 cm wide and 205 cm long. That extra 6 cm in width and 5 cm in length can change whether a walkway remains usable or a nearby wardrobe door clears the bed.

A dimensioned plan still has limits. If the clear doorway width or the exact gap beside built-in cabinetry is not published, the drawing cannot guarantee delivery access or comfortable circulation. A fit conclusion is only as strong as the specific dimensions the source actually provides.

Different documents go missing in different places. Sudara provides a strong component breakdown, but the brochure explicitly says its plans are not to scale, so room sizes cannot be reconstructed from the image. Supalai Vista's Biella sheet goes the other way: it provides a dimensioned drawing, while the published 50 sqm is not split into enclosed and balcony area.

The Base Central Phuket, MONO Residence Bangtao and Coralina Kamala all provide useful unit-type and area information, yet their official materials do not place indoor and outdoor space on the same numerical footing. That is not a judgement on the projects; it simply defines where an open-source comparison has to stop.

Price per sqm adds another denominator problem. The price must belong to the exact unit whose area is being used, and the metric needs to say whether the denominator is total, saleable or enclosed area. Dividing by a garden-heavy total and comparing the result with an enclosed-area metric produces two different measures under one familiar label.

When the area definitions do not match, do not normalise them by guesswork. A valid comparison resumes only after both units can be put on the same stated basis.