How big is 30 m²? Polish flat sizes, visualised

The listing says “cosy 30 m²”, and that can mean anything. If home so far has meant a room at your parents’ place or in a dorm, a number of square metres tells you very little until you are standing in the doorway.

You can get the feel of it earlier. A few comparisons to things you already know, and one look at the floor plan, are enough.

See the size before you go and view it

Every preview below is drawn at the same scale, so the flats can be compared with each other. The green rectangle is a parking space and the orange one is a bed: two things whose size you know from life.

Pick a size and compare

Small studio (5 × 5 m)One room where you sleep, cook and work, plus a bathroom. 2 parking spaces would fit. A fold-out sofa instead of a bed is a common compromise here.

Typical studio (5 × 6 m)Still one room, but there is space for a real bed and a small table. A kitchen annexe rather than a separate kitchen. Comfortable for one person, tight for two.

Large studio or a small 2-room flat (5 × 7 m)The threshold where developers start walling off a bedroom. At this size the separate bedroom tends to be small: 7-8 m², little more than half a parking space.

2 rooms (6 × 7 m)A living room with a kitchen annexe and a bedroom that fits a wardrobe next to the bed. The size at which a couple stops getting in each other's way.

2-3 rooms (5 × 10 m)4 parking spaces. 2 bedrooms and a living room, or 2 large rooms with a separate kitchen. In blocks from the 1960s and 70s, 50 m² sometimes held 3 small rooms.

3-4 rooms (7 × 10 m)Family size: a living room, 2 bedrooms, often a separate kitchen and a second toilet. That is over 5 parking spaces, or 22 beds laid side by side.

Parking space (12.5 m²)
Bed 160 × 200 cm (3.2 m²)
One grid square is 1 m².

A note on counting: in Poland a “2-room flat” (dwupokojowe) counts the living room as a room. What a Polish listing calls 2 rooms is what many countries would call a 1-bedroom flat.

Comparisons that are easy to remember

The numbers below help when you are scanning listings on the go and want to turn a size into something tangible.

Flat sizes compared to things with known dimensions
	Area	How many fit into 30 m²
Bed 160 × 200 cm	3.2 m²	about 9
Parking space	12.5 m²	about 2.5
40 ft shipping container	about 28 m²	about 1
Volleyball court	162 m²	0.2 (30 m² is 1/5 of a court)

The middle one helps the most: a typical studio has the footprint of 1 shipping container, or 2.5 parking spaces. Next time you cross a car park, count it out with your own eyes.

The size in the listing is not the floor you walk on

Two traps make flats with the same listed size differ by several real metres.

The first is sloped ceilings. In attic flats, the usable area excludes parts where the slope is below 1.4 m, and the band between 1.4 m and 2.2 m is sometimes counted at half, depending on which norm was used. In practice “40 m² in the attic” can mean much less floor you can stand upright on, so ask directly which norm the size was measured by and what the actual floor area is.

The second is walls and corridors. The size says how much area there is in total, not how it is carved up. A long hallway can eat 4-5 m² that give you nothing but a walk-through.

A floor plan says more than the number

Before you book a viewing, ask for the floor plan. It tells you 3 things the size alone never will.

1
How many metres the corridors eatRoughly add up the rooms and the kitchen; the gap between that sum and the total size is walls and circulation. The smaller the gap, the more flat you get in your flat.
2
Whether the rooms have workable proportionsA room 2.2 m wide takes a bed in exactly one arrangement. Look for rooms where furniture can be rearranged, not merely squeezed in.
3
Where the windows are and what could be divided laterA living room with two windows can one day become 2 rooms. A walk-through room with no door will always be walk-through.

How to check the size at a viewing

You do not have to take the listing’s word for it.

Bring a phone with a measuring app, or a plain tape measure, and measure the largest room: length times width. Compare the result with the floor plan. If the plan checks out in the largest room, the rest usually does too; if it does not, you have a topic for the price conversation before you sign anything.

Frequent questions

Is 30 m² enough for a couple?

It can be done, but it means living in one room: no place to work in silence and no door to close behind you. Couples usually start being comfortable from 2 rooms, in practice from about 35-40 m².

What is the difference between usable and total area?

Usable area is the sum of the rooms of the flat, and it is what the price per metre refers to. Total area may be measured along the outline and can include walls. In listings and in the contract, look for the usable area.

Why do two 40 m² flats feel completely different?

Because size says nothing about layout. A short hallway, well-proportioned rooms and windows on two sides make 40 m² comfortable. A long corridor and a walk-through room make the same metres feel cramped.

How big is a typical studio in Poland?

Most often 25-32 m². Below 25 m² you enter micro-studio territory, where the kitchen annexe, the bed and the table compete for the same wall.

One sentence to remember

30 m² is about 2.5 parking spaces: before a viewing, ask for the floor plan and check how much of the size corridors eat, and on site measure the largest room and compare it with that plan.