How Tall May a Bangalore Building Be? FAR, FSI, Premium FAR and TDR Explained

Few buyers ask how tall a building was allowed to be, yet the answer shapes the project they sign up for. In Bangalore that permission is a number called FAR, or FSI. We begin with the checks that protect a purchase, then explain the rules behind them, including premium FAR, TDR and the court and policy events of 2025 and 2026.

The Seven Checks

New launch, resale building or small builder-floor block, the same list applies. Approved drawings and a walk around the site cover most of it:

1. Ask for the sanctioned plan and write down the approving body, the date and the plan number.
2. Study the FAR statement printed on it: the area of the plot, the FAR it permits and the FAR the building uses.
3. Match the floors you see on the ground to the floors drawn.
4. Find out if the builder bought premium FAR or used TDR, and look at the receipt or certificate.
5. During construction, the project's Karnataka RERA registration should agree with the plan on FAR and tower heights.
6. If it is complete, the occupancy certificate is the document to ask for, as it confirms the building follows the plan.
7. Where the building looks bigger than the drawings, an architect can measure it.

A builder following the rules has nothing to conceal here. Refusing to share the plan, or describing a floor as waiting for approval, is a reason to hold off.

What FAR Measures

Divide the total floor area that is counted, taken across all levels, by the area of the land. The result is the FAR. Floor space index measures the same thing and sometimes appears as a percentage, so 250% is the same as 2.5.

Consider a 6,000 sq ft plot at 2.5. The counted floor area it may hold is 15,000 sq ft. Setbacks, plot coverage and height limits decide how it is split into floors.

Parking in basements and on stilts, plus some service areas, is usually not counted. That is why a large project's built-up figure is higher than land area times FAR.

How a Plot Gets Its Number

For land inside the city, the controlling document is RMP 2015, the Revised Master Plan, and its zonal regulations. The local planning authority's master plan governs land outside the planning area. Three things carry most of the weight:

• Width of the road in front, because broader roads permit more
• Size of the plot, because large sites qualify for higher slabs
• The zone assigned for land use, and the planning ring

The lowest slab of the tables gives 1.75 as housing FAR to small plots on narrow roads. A site over 20,000 sq m gets 3.00 on roads between 24 and 30 metres in width, and 3.25 where the road is broader still. Two plots close together can differ, and a tall building next door proves nothing about yours.

These values show only the range. The number that applies is on the sanctioned plan of the property in question.

Building Above the Ordinary FAR

Developers have two lawful routes, and the approved drawings must reflect either.

Premium FAR

The planning authority sells additional buildable area under this heading. It was introduced by a notification dated 21 February 2025. Initially the extra depended on the road: 0.2 times for 9 to 12 metres, 0.4 times for 12 to 18 metres and 0.6 times for anything wider, each measured against the ordinary FAR.

Then, on 5 February 2026, another notification extended the 0.6 times ceiling to every road wider than 9 metres. Price is linked to guidance value, the area is valid only for the site it was granted to, and the grant comes from whichever of the five city corporations covers the site.

TDR

Owners who surrender land for public works, such as a wider road, receive transferable development rights. The holder may load them onto another eligible plot, or sell them on. Together with premium FAR, they can raise a site by 60% of its ordinary FAR at most.

At 2.5, the cap works out to 4.0, and at 3.25 to 5.2. So the 6,000 sq ft plot at 2.5 could carry 24,000 sq ft rather than 15,000 sq ft.

Dates to Remember

Rules moved several times over two years, which can leave an older purchase's figure stale. Premium FAR came first, in February 2025, and the wider 0.6 times allowance followed in February 2026. Draft building bye-laws in April 2026 floated a tolerance for small FAR deviations while keeping added floors outside it.

Also in June 2026, the Karnataka High Court upheld the notifications, and drafts amending the zonal regulations went out for objections. A bench threw out one appeal and two petitions on 15 June 2026, which leaves premium FAR settled for now.

The drafts of 4 June 2026 remain proposals only.

A bench threw out one appeal and two petitions on 15 June 2026, which leaves premium FAR settled for now.

The drafts of 4 June 2026 remain proposals only. Under them, 21 metres and above is a high-rise, high-rises are limited to roads of 12 metres or more, and land surrendered at no cost for a wider road would be added in. Because the final text could change, rely on the rules in force at the time the plan was sanctioned.

Effects on a Home Buyer

Two questions follow from the numbers above: how crowded will the project be, and is every floor in it lawful? The first is a matter of preference. The second is a matter of law, and the sanctioned plan answers it.

Extra FAR puts additional households onto shared lifts, car parks, water supply and open space. The land cost is spread across more flats, which can ease each price. Whether density suits you is a personal call.

The legal exposure is the larger worry. Anything above the approved FAR lacks sanction, and it can hold up the occupancy certificate for everyone in the building. Banks are more hesitant to lend against such flats, and the problem is still there at resale. The 2026 drafts pardon only minor deviations, and a whole added floor does not qualify.

Land shares are affected as well, because added floors built with premium FAR or TDR spread one plot across more flats. Whatever share the sale deed states should agree with the final sanctioned plan.

Plans and registrations can be tricky to read. For projects from East Bangalore out to the northern suburbs, send our team the name and we will list the documents to request.