What is Non-FSI Area? All You Need to Know

This ultimate guide covers all essential aspects of the Non-FSI Area. Find out how crucial it is for buyers.

Everybody wants to buy a property to have a valuable asset for future purposes. An expensive and valuable asset works like magic. The property or any land piece possesses a reasonable amount, and this value increases every passing year due to various factors that enhance the value of a property.

However, many individuals need more knowledge of many terms that help in purchasing a decent property that possesses high value in the future.

Investing in a property can be a boom or degrade the possession value. With the increase in consumer demand and competition, a buyer needs to be updated in this game. Also, the government is revising the real estate rules and regulations according to the current scenarios and norms. Let's see what the non-FSI area is.

What Does FSI Area Mean?

Before moving forward to learn about Non-FSI Areas, it is crucial to understand what FSI Area means. This term is essential to know as it looks at the floor area index or floor area ratio. FSI is a permissible limit the government gives on which a builder can build their property.

Before beginning the construction process, the construction company needs permission from the city development authority to proceed. The rules and regulations differ for every city; they vary from city to city.

What Factors Determine FSI?

FSI consideration is essential. If the value of FSI is too high, the builders will likely end up in a concrete jungle. If the value is taller, the buyer will end up in urban development, presenting housing affordability challenges for the public.

So, to reduce any development problem, the government considers various factors for FSI. These are:

• Property Category- Residential property or Commercial property.
• Location
• Size of the property
• Accommodation
• Availability of essential amenities to the residents.

These values vary from city to city. So, it still needs to be fixed. Also, it goes with the additional facilities like lifts, porches, service areas, parking areas, etc.

What Is A Non-FSI Area?

Now the most important term to know before proceeding with building any property. A non-FSI Area is not the floor plan or floor size, and it includes space for a lift, basement, staircase, and foyer.

So, calculating the FSI area, excluding non-FSI area, gradually decreases because there will be no size plan for the basement, staircase, and lift. It falls on the actual place that will be covered under construction. It is helpful as the developers are benefited by getting their plans approved early and quickly by the local authority.

It also saves a lot of time, money, and complications that a builder faces in passing their plan. So, in layman's language, Non-FSI Area is an additional space given to the residents as a part of building lifts, staircases, and other amenities to make the design more impactful. However, this term will not count the size occupying these amenities.

What Is The Formula For The Floor Area Index? How Is It Calculated?

It is the ratio between the total covered area of all the floors of a building and the plot size. For Example, if the size of a particular plot is 10,000 square metres, the value of FSI is allotted as 1, then the construction will be allowed for the project.

Similarly, if the floor space index or FSI is 1.5 and the builder has land of 1,000 square feet. Then, the builder can build up to 1,500 square feet of a covered structure.

The formula calculation is simple:

Plot Area x Floor Space Index= Built-Up Area.

Here, 1.5 is expressed as an FSI of 150% and applies to commercial buildings too. FSI means Floor Space Index, or Floor Area Ratio (FAR), and it is the ratio of the total building area to the entire area of the plot.

The difference in the terms is FSI calculation is expressed in percentages. The municipal council of the area in which the builder decides to build, the city council is responsible for establishing the FSI limit in a particular range.

How Does Non-FSI Area Impact the Environment?

The development of the property affects the ecosystem to a greater extent. With the increment in urbanisation and industrialisation, the ecosystem is getting involved a lot. FSI and Non-FSI areas are essential while planning a property, and this has caused issues in the ecosystem.

NGT had published its decision for the developers to obtain environmental clearance before being approved. This decision was made specifically for adding Non-FSI areas to the built-up plan. The parking space, staircases, lift space, and safety routes are a part of the Non-FSI area.

The condition to get environmental clearance is to add both Non-FSI and FSI areas. This decision applies to all the plans above 20,000 square meters.

NGT discovers various discrepancies and malpractices in developing building residences or commercial properties. The developers also pass their plans with their FSI area value, and some of their plans are different from the requirement, still, they are given. They only considered their FSI area index and sent it for approval, creating issues in the development of the buildings and other neighbourhoods.

How Did the Exclusion of Non-FSI Areas Impact the Residents?

The best practice of building a property came after NGT. Individuals consider adding extra space in front of their houses as their property. This has impacted the road space. If the building area increases, the civic amenities will be affected. Amenities such as road and parking space need to be reduced.

However, this creates a problem for the residents. Having enough space for recreation will often lead to unhygienic living conditions.

It will create tensions among the residents and impact the peace and sanity of the region.

So, development must be done according to the government norms that will be safe and secure for the future.

Why is Floor Area Ratio Crucial For Developers?

It is a term used for calculating the crucial factors for real estate development. Approval while proceeding with the building procedure is a must; without permission, the building is illegal and will be seized. A high value of FAR will make more space for selling resulting in the growth of high rises with more construction. The developers and builders are fighting to make this happen. It will gradually add a positive outcome in their sales, directly enhancing their business. It is not only improving their business strength and making them more reachable in real estate and development.

Benefits of Floor Area Ratio

Floor Area Ratio is quite interesting as it helps get a good knowledge about how things work and how to pass the plan by only adding FAR value. Several benefits are also there for the Floor Area Ratio, such as The rules and guidelines concerning FAR helping keep the construction of the building under consideration. It also ensures the safety of the building to a greater extent. If the builder adds unnecessary floors to make a building a skyscraper, it can cause casualties too. High altitude is not approved in some regions as it acts as a coverage against sunlight. If this value is not supported, multiple unauthorised constructions will increase. The benefits are:

• There is a demarcation between open spaces and building spaces.
• Helps the authorities in fostering stable planned growth of the property.
• It helps in reducing the malpractice that the developers do.
• It can be used in zoning out the limit of urban density.

That is why FAR and FSI values are crucial because they will restrict urban density by dividing the land into zones and also help in building legal buildings following government norms.

Disadvantages of Floor Area Ratio

There are certain disadvantages of the Floor Area Ratio, and the disadvantage is that it is taken as an FSI value, a bad indicator of physical form.

• Less value of FSI impacts the level of accommodation and employment chances per the population growth.
• The mean value of FSI may be changed into an asset.

Conclusion

Before deciding to buy a property or a plot, it is necessary to cross-check that the firm is offering fair practices and everything is in proper order. This will lead to appropriate development procedure which directly gives positive results to both developers and residents and will be free from any tensions in future. The accuracy in the calculation of the property's FSI value along with the Non-FSI value will give an idea about whether the buyer can utilise all the civic amenities and the perks that come with the property.

The buyers must ensure the property rates. The rates are regulated every time as per the government's norms. It is done to maintain the city's skyline and provide the best residents or commercial buildings to the buyers without harming the city's beauty with less effort.