Apportioned Floor Area

Also called the commonly shared floor area, it refers to the floor area of the common parts of a building that is shared by the property owners of the whole building. It became an institution for the sale of commercial property firstly in Hong Kong in the 1950s and was introduced to China’s mainland in 1995 after its reform of housing commercialization. According to the Administration Measures for the Sale of Commercial Housing issued in 2001 by China’s former Ministry of Construction, the apportioned floor area of a building includes the floor area for elevator shafts, stairwells, garbage chutes, substation rooms, equipment rooms, public foyers and aisles, guard rooms on duty, and other public and management rooms that serve the entire building, as well as the projected area of the partition walls between a housing unit and the common parts and half of the projected area of exterior walls. The gross floor area of a commercial property purchased by a buyer consists of the interior floor area of a housing unit and the apportioned floor area.