Plot Size for a House: What Fits on 6, 10 or 15 Sotkas

2026-10-05

The question "how many sotkas do I need for a house" sounds simple, but there is no honest one-number answer. Sotkas alone tell you nothing. Two 10-sotka plots will hold completely different houses if one is square and the other is a long strip. What matters is not the plot area but three things together: the footprint of the house, the setbacks from the boundaries, and the shape of the plot. Below is how it actually works out on real projects, and how much yard is left once the house is in place.

What a sotka is, and how much land you really buy

A sotka is 100 square metres — a 10-by-10 square. So the math is simple: 6 sotkas is 600 m², 10 sotkas is 1,000 m², 15 sotkas is 1,500 m². But none of those metres go fully under the house. The law takes a share through the building-coverage limit, setbacks eat the perimeter, and you yourself will want to keep part of it as yard, driveway and greenery. So the real question is not "how many sotkas" but "how much of them can carry the house, and how much stays open".

There is a second trap — shape. A 10-sotka plot can be 25 by 40 metres, or it can be 12 by 83. Same area, but a house on the second one has to be half as wide. The listing shows only the sotkas, because that number looks bigger. The shape and proportions you have to check yourself on the cadastral map.

How much of the plot the law lets you build on

The key document is DBN B.2.2-12:2019 "Planning and development of territories" (in force as of 2026). Under it, a plot for individual housing can be occupied by the house and structures by no more than 30% of its area. For homestead (sadyba) development the limit is higher — up to 40%. In practice, plan around 30%: that means up to 180 m² of footprint on 6 sotkas, up to 300 m² on 10 sotkas, up to 450 m² on 15 sotkas.

Do not confuse that percentage with the floor area of the house. The footprint is the projection of the house onto the ground — the ground floor plus terraces and garage if they share the same volume. A two-storey house of 200 m² floor area sits on a footprint of about 100 m², because half of its area is on the second floor. That is exactly why a second floor saves a small plot: the same number of metres, half the land under the house.

On top of the coverage limit there are setbacks. DBN sets them too, and they eat the plot around the perimeter:

from the house wall to the neighbour's boundary — at least 3 metres;
to the red line of the street or road — from 5 metres;
to the fence — from 1 metre;
to outbuildings (garage, shed, summer kitchen) — from 1 metre.

Local urban-planning conditions can be stricter than the general norm — you check this at the architecture department before buying, not after. How to seat the house correctly within these setbacks and by the points of the compass is covered separately in the article on placing a house on a plot.

The usable rectangle: where half the plot disappears

Take an average ten — a plot 25 by 40 metres. Set back 3 metres from each side boundary and 19 metres of width remain. Set back 5 metres from the street in front and 3 metres from the rear boundary, and 32 metres of depth remain. You get a usable rectangle of roughly 19 by 32 metres, inside which the house must fit with all its dimensions, including the roof overhang and the porch.

And that is not all. Inside that rectangle you need more than walls. A driveway and parking is 30–50 m². Paths, a terrace, a seating area — about as much again. A septic tank and a well also have their own distances from each other. So when someone says "on 10 sotkas you keep 70% open yard", that is true only on paper: once you subtract the hard surfaces, the driveway and the utility zones, there is less living lawn than it seems.

Sotkas measure the land. The house stands not on sotkas but on the usable rectangle inside the setbacks. That is what you measure first.

What actually fits on 6 sotkas

6 sotkas is the minimum on which a full private house still works, rather than a summer cottage. The coverage limit here gives up to 180 m² of footprint. In the DOMRIY catalogue, of the 201 projects with a calculated footprint, 115 fit under that line — most of them. But there is a catch: almost all of them are two-storey.

The reason is simple. A single-storey house, even at 150 m² of floor area, sits on a footprint of 150 m² or more — which is almost the entire allowed coverage of a six, leaving no yard. Among the single-storey projects in the catalogue, only 7 of 38 stay under 180 m² of footprint. Two-storey houses, on the other hand, slot onto the same plot easily: 104 of the 154 two-storey projects fit within the coverage limit of 6 sotkas.

Catalogue examples that genuinely fit a six: KT-277 — three levels, 135 m² of floor area, footprint only 68 m²; KT-144 — 107 m² over two floors, footprint 73 m²; KT-155 and KT-156 — 115 m² each, footprint 75 m². All of them are stretched upward rather than outward, so they leave a yard even on a small plot. If the plot is also narrow, the choice tightens further — for those cases there is a separate selection of projects for a narrow plot.

What fits on 10 sotkas

10 sotkas is the most comfortable ten for a country house, and it is no accident that this is the most common plot size in the suburbs of Kyiv. The coverage limit gives up to 300 m² of footprint. In the catalogue, 158 of 201 projects fit under that line — almost the entire catalogue, including large two-storey houses of 250 m² or more of floor area.

The main thing a ten opens up is the choice of storeys. If a single-storey house is almost impossible on a six, on 10 sotkas 18 of 38 single-storey projects already fit under 300 m² of footprint. In other words, here you can afford a house without stairs — a decision valued by families with small children and by older people. An example of a balanced option: KT-267 — 201 m² of floor area over two floors, footprint only 102 m², with the rest of the ten left for a garden and a seating area.

On a ten you no longer have to wedge the house into the setbacks — there is room for a proper driveway, a garage or carport, a terrace and a lawn. This is the plot where the trade-offs between "a big house" and "room to breathe" have not yet begun.

What fits on 15 sotkas

15 sotkas lift almost every limit. The coverage cap gives up to 450 m² of footprint — 187 of 201 projects fit under it, meaning practically anything in the catalogue except the largest residences. But the point of a fifteen is not to put up a huge house. The point is that a spacious single-storey home finally becomes realistic here.

Single-storey houses in the catalogue have a median footprint of about 307 m² — on a six or a ten they simply do not fit within the coverage limit. On 15 sotkas there is room for them. A large single-storey house like KT-311 (383 m² of floor area, 710 m² footprint) would need a plot from 20 sotkas, but a fifteen holds most of the catalogue's single-storey projects comfortably, leaving space for a garden, a vegetable plot and a seating area for the whole family.

A fifteen also gives the architecture freedom: the house can be laid out horizontally, with a wide facade and windows on two or three sides, seated to take in the view. For such plots there is a separate selection of projects for a wide plot.

One storey or two — the key decision for a small plot

Most people arrive with a dream of a single-storey house: no stairs, everything on one level, convenient in old age. The dream is sound, but it runs straight into the size of the plot, and the people selling plots rarely mention that.

The logic is this: a single-storey house takes up exactly as much land as it has floor area, plus walls. A two-storey house of the same area sits on half the footprint, because half the metres are lifted to the second level. In the catalogue numbers it shows sharply: single-storey projects fit the coverage limit of a six in only 7 cases out of 38, and a ten in 18 of 38. Two-storey ones fit almost everywhere.

Want a single-storey house from 150 m² of floor area — budget at least 10, and comfortably 12–15 sotkas.
A 6–8 sotka plot is almost always a two-storey house; there is no other way to keep a yard.
The smaller the plot, the narrower and taller the house has to be — and the more important a proper adaptation of the project to the exact dimensions becomes.

You can see how these two approaches look in projects in the single-storey and two-storey selections of the catalogue.

In short: what fits on each size

6 sotkas (600 m²): up to 180 m² of footprint; realistically a two-storey house up to 200 m² of floor area with a compact yard; single-storey almost ruled out (7 projects of 38).
10 sotkas (1,000 m²): up to 300 m² of footprint; almost the whole catalogue, including large two-storey houses; a single-storey choice appears (18 projects of 38); a comfortable yard.
15 sotkas (1,500 m²): up to 450 m² of footprint; any project except the largest residences; a genuinely spacious single-storey home; freedom for the garden and the architecture.

What the plot listing does not show

Sotkas and price are the only things a seller shows willingly. But whether your house fits is driven by what the listing leaves out: the real shape of the plot, the change in level, where the red line runs, how the neighbours' houses stand and which way the facade faces by the compass. A 10-sotka plot with a two-metre drop across the diagonal is already an addition to the budget for the foundation and retaining walls, not a clean site.

So the correct order of actions is the reverse of the usual one: first you settle on the type of house, then you look at which plot will carry it, and only then you buy — not the other way round. Before buying, a plot is worth checking against a checklist and, if in doubt, having an audit done — it is cheaper than any mistake you would otherwise fix with the foundation.

Questions and answers

What is the minimum plot size for a house?

For a full private house — from 6 sotkas. On a smaller plot you can formally still build, but after setbacks and the 30% coverage limit there is very little room left for the house and almost none for a yard. 6 sotkas is the real minimum for a two-storey house up to 200 m² with a compact yard.

Can a single-storey house fit on 6 sotkas?

Technically yes, if the house is small — up to 120–140 m² of floor area. But the footprint of a single-storey house almost equals its area, so it eats nearly all the allowed coverage of a six and leaves a minimal yard. In the catalogue only 7 single-storey projects of 38 fit the coverage limit of 6 sotkas. For a single-storey house 10–15 sotkas is more comfortable.

What percentage of a plot can be built on by law?

Under DBN B.2.2-12:2019, for individual housing — no more than 30% of the plot area, and for homestead development — up to 40%. That is the house, garage and outbuildings together. Local urban-planning conditions may set stricter limits, so they are checked at the architecture department.

What matters more — the plot area or its shape?

Shape is often more important. Two 10-sotka plots will hold different houses: on a square 25-by-40 almost any project fits, on a narrow 12-by-83 only elongated two-storey solutions do. Before buying, look not only at the sotkas but at the proportions and where the usable rectangle can sit after the setbacks.

How much yard is left after the house?

If you build the allowed 30%, 70% stays free — but that is before you subtract the driveway, parking, paths, terrace and utility zones. In practice the living lawn comes out smaller. On 6 sotkas the yard is minimal, on 10 it is comfortable, on 15 there is a surplus for a garden and a vegetable plot.

If you are already looking at a specific plot or choosing between several — don't guess what will fit on it. DOMRIY visits the plot for free, looks at the shape, the slope and the setbacks on site, and tells you plainly which house it will carry and how much yard will be left. The first meeting commits you to nothing — you pay only when you decide to move forward.

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