How to Read a Miami Condo Floor Plan: Lines, Stacks and Square Footage

A Miami condo floor plan tells you which units share a layout, how the area was measured and where the home sits on the floor. Three of the four developer sheets compared here measure to the outside of exterior walls, while the recorded declaration defines a smaller unit. On one Ritz-Carlton Residences sheet the gap is 83 square feet.

The label says which units share the layout

The plan's name is your first clue to which units a sheet covers. Echo Brickell's plan set, published at /buildings/echo-brickell/floor-plans, names each sheet for one unit, such as Residence 901, though its fine print warns that units shown are examples of unit types and may not depict actual units. Giralda Place, at /buildings/giralda-place/floor-plans, uses a floor number and a letter, such as Residence 6G. The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Miami Beach, at /buildings/the-ritz-carlton-residences-miami-beach/floor-plans, names layouts by type, and its Type A1 sheet also names one unit, Residence 408.

Eighty Seven Park shows the most explicit convention. Its sheet for a one-bedroom, Type C, is labeled Residence 403-1203. Under the usual numbering, where the last two digits give the position on the floor, that is the 03 line, or stack, from the 4th floor through the 12th. The same set shows why you should never assume a stack repeats all the way up. Position 05 appears on two sheets: a two-bedroom Type E for residences 405 through 1205, and a three-bedroom Type EF for 1405 through 1705. Confirm with the association or developer which plan applies to your unit number.

Three ways a plan sheet states square footage

The four plan sets above state area in different terms, so two figures cannot be compared at a glance. Eighty Seven Park's Type C sheet lists Interior 1,018 square feet, Exterior 564 and Total 1,582. More than a third of that total is outdoor space. Echo Brickell's Residence 901 sheet lists an AC area of 1,418 square feet, a terrace of 566 and a total of 1,984. Giralda Place's Residence 6G sheet lists an interior area of 1,096 square feet and a terrace or balcony area of 274, and prints no total at all. The Ritz-Carlton Type A1 sheet lists a living area of 1,351 square feet, a terrace of 522 and a total of 1,873.

Interior, AC area and living area all describe enclosed space, but the labels alone do not tell you how it was measured. Compare enclosed area with enclosed area, and treat the total as enclosed space plus outdoor space, never as living space.

What the fine print says about walls

The measurement method sits in the small type at the bottom of the sheet. The Eighty Seven Park, Echo Brickell and Ritz-Carlton sheets each say their stated dimensions are measured to the exterior boundaries of the exterior walls and the centerline of interior demising walls, the walls between neighboring units. Each adds that this differs from the unit as defined in the declaration, which generally includes only the interior airspace between the perimeter walls and excludes interior structural components.

The Ritz-Carlton sheet puts a number on the difference. For Type A1 it says the area of the unit under the declaration's defined boundaries is 1,268, against the 1,351 square feet of living area printed on the plan. That is 83 square feet, about 6 percent, before counting the terrace.

Giralda Place does it the other way. Its sheet says dimensions are based on the definition of the unit in the declaration and the Florida Administrative Code, so they include only the interior airspace. Its 1,096 square feet and Eighty Seven Park's 1,018 therefore were not measured to the same lines. All four sheets also say room dimensions are generally taken at each room's greatest points, as if the room were a perfect rectangle, so a room with cutouts holds less floor area than its length times its width.

What Chapter 718 requires the declaration to show

Chapter 718 of the Florida Statutes, the Condominium Act, decides what the legal unit is. Section 718.103 defines a unit as the part of the condominium property subject to exclusive ownership, as specified in the declaration. Section 718.104(4)(d) requires each unit to be identified by letter, name or number so that no two share a designation.

Section 718.104(4)(e) is where floor plans enter the legal record. The declaration must include a survey of the land and a graphic description and plot plan of the improvements, detailed enough to identify the common elements and each unit and their "relative locations and approximate dimensions." Those exhibits may take the form of building plans, floor plans, maps, surveys or sketches. Once construction is substantially complete, a Florida surveyor and mapper must certify that the identification, location and dimensions of the common elements and each unit can be determined from these materials.

Terraces need a separate check. Section 718.103 defines limited common elements as common elements reserved for the use of certain units, as specified in the declaration. Whether a terrace drawn on your plan is part of your unit or a limited common element reserved for it depends on that building's declaration, and it affects who maintains and repairs it.

Why recorded square footage can set your share of costs

Under section 718.104(4)(f), in residential condominiums whose declarations were created after April 1, 1992, each unit's share of the common elements must be based either on its total square footage in uniform relationship to the other units or on an equal fractional basis. Section 718.104(4)(g) then requires each residential unit's share of common expenses to equal that ownership share.

In a building that uses square footage, the measurement in the declaration, not the brochure's total, sets your percentage of the budget. Ask for the declaration exhibit listing each unit's percentage and check yours. To find the association's legal name and records, start at /condo-associations.

Questions buyers ask about Miami condo floor plans

Which documents you are owed

Buying new from a developer, section 718.504 requires a prospectus for residential condominiums with more than 20 residential units. It must give the page where the plot plan and survey are located and include a copy of the unit's floor plan and the plot plan. Under section 718.503(1)(b), the contract is voidable until the developer furnishes the required documents, and the buyer may terminate it by written notice delivered within 15 days after receiving all of them. The Giralda Place sheet itself says oral representations cannot be relied on and refers buyers to the brochure and the documents required by section 718.503.

On a resale, treat the marketing sheet as a guide to layout and check the declaration's exhibits for the recorded unit. Our /condo-floor-plans library groups every published plan set by neighborhood. Miami Condo HQ is a research publisher, not a brokerage, with no live Miami MLS feed, so we publish plans and documents, not Miami prices or availability.