How to Read a Foreign Property Listing: Room Counts, Measurements and Floor Numbers

Published on: September 7, 2026

Last reviewed: September 2026. General information about advertising conventions in different property markets, not legal or professional advice. Conventions vary by region, by portal and by individual agent.

Quick answer:

• Every market uses one of two counting systems. Bedrooms-only, or all habitable rooms including the living room.
• The same two-bedroom flat is a 2+1, a T2, a T3, a 2LDK, a 3-Zimmer, a trilocale and a 2-bed depending on the country.
• Bathrooms are counted differently too. A French listing splits salle de bains, salle d'eau and WC into separate lines.
• The ground floor is 0 in most of Europe and 1 in the Americas and much of Asia, which is the difference between a second-floor flat and a third-floor walk-up.
• Square metres are a separate problem again. Never compare a headline area figure across two countries without asking which basis it is quoted on.

A two-bedroom apartment with a separate living room is advertised as 2+1 in Türkiye, T2 in Portugal, T3 or F3 in France, 2LDK in Japan, 3-Zimmer in Germany, trilocale in Italy and 2 bedrooms in the United States. Same flat. Six labels. Three of them contain the digit that matches the bedroom count, three contain the digit that does not.

This is not a translation problem. It is a counting problem, and it costs foreign buyers real money in two directions. Filter a Portuguese portal for T3 when you want two bedrooms and you will be shown three-bedroom homes at three-bedroom prices. Filter a German portal for 2 Zimmer when you want two bedrooms and the results will be one-bedroom flats. Most buyers never notice, because every listing they see is internally consistent. They just quietly search the wrong half of the market.

Here is how the notation actually works, market by market, plus the two other places where listings mislead cross-border readers: bathroom counts and floor numbers.

The one rule that explains almost everything

Every residential market uses one of two counting systems.

Bedrooms-only systems count sleeping rooms and describe the living room separately or not at all. The number in the listing is the number of bedrooms.

All-rooms systems count every habitable room, which means the living room is inside the number. Kitchens, bathrooms, hallways, storage and balconies are almost never counted in either system.

Türkiye sits in a third category of its own: it counts both, separately, with a plus sign. That is why 2+1 is the least ambiguous notation in this entire article, and also the one non-Turkish buyers find most confusing on first contact.

Once you know which system a country uses, every listing in it becomes readable.

Room notation by country

The traps inside the table

Türkiye. The number after the plus is living rooms, not bathrooms. A 4+2 has four bedrooms and two reception rooms, usually a formal salon plus a family room. A 2.5+1 has a small extra room that does not meet the legal minimum for a full bedroom. Studios are marketed as 1+0 or stüdyo.

Portugal. You will see T2+1. That is two proper bedrooms plus one extra room that is not licensed or configured as a bedroom, often an interior room with no window, a converted attic or a basement space. It is not a T3, it does not price like a T3, and if you plan to rent the property out, the extra room may not be usable as a bedroom under local rules. Check the licence (licença de utilização) rather than the listing.

France. T and F are two eras of the same idea and today are used more or less interchangeably. The count is pièces principales: the living room and the bedrooms. Kitchen, bathroom, WC, entrance hall and storage are excluded. So a T3 is a living room plus two bedrooms, and a T1 is a studio with a separate kitchen or a one-room flat depending on the layout. If a French listing says "T3, 2 chambres" it is being helpful, not contradicting itself.

Germany and Austria. The kitchen is excluded from the Zimmer count and the living room is included. There is no binding national definition of a "half room" (halbes Zimmer); the convention varies by region and agent, and it usually signals a room too small to market as a full one. Ask for the floor plan, not the adjective.

Switzerland. Swiss listings run half a step higher than German ones because the kitchen is often counted as the ".5". A Swiss 3.5-Zimmer flat is broadly a German 3-Zimmer flat.

Czechia and Slovakia. The suffix is about the kitchen, not a room. 3+kk means three rooms with a kitchenette open to a living space. 3+1 means three rooms plus a separate closed kitchen. Same room count, different layout, and older housing stock skews towards +1.

Italy. Bilocale and trilocale count total rooms. Vani is the cadastral room unit used for tax and register purposes and does not always match the marketing description, so a flat can be "3 vani" on paper and marketed as something else. Camere or camere da letto are bedrooms.

Japan. The letters describe the shared space. K is a kitchen, DK is a dining-kitchen, LDK is a combined living-dining-kitchen. The number is the count of separate rooms in addition to that space. So a 2LDK has two rooms plus an LDK, which in bedroom terms is a two-bedroom flat. Advertising rules set minimum floor areas before an agent may use the DK or LDK label, and those minimums are higher for units with two or more rooms than for one-room units, which is why some small flats are advertised as 1DK rather than 1LDK even though the space looks similar. Japanese rooms are also measured in jō (tatami mats) and tsubo; one jō is conventionally at least 1.62 m² in advertising and one tsubo is roughly 3.31 m².

Bathrooms are counted differently too

Bathroom notation is less standardised than room notation, and outside North America it is often not standardised at all.

The practical point: a listing that says "3 bath" in Florida and one that says "1 salle de bains, 1 salle d'eau, 2 WC" in Normandy may describe a comparable amount of plumbing. Do not compare bathroom counts across borders without translating the convention first.

Floor numbers: is the ground floor 0 or 1?

This one causes real errors, because it is the difference between "second floor with a lift" and "third floor walk-up".

• Ground floor = 0 in most of Europe, including the UK, Ireland, France (rez-de-chaussée), Spain (planta baja), Portugal (rés-do-chão), Italy (piano terra), Germany (Erdgeschoss), Poland (parter), Greece (ισόγειο) and Türkiye (zemin kat). The floor above it is the first floor.
• Ground floor = 1 in the United States, Canada, Russia, Japan, China and much of Southeast Asia. There, the "second floor" is one flight up.

Extra complications worth knowing:

• Spain and Italy insert intermediate levels between the ground floor and the first floor: entresuelo, principal, ammezzato. A Barcelona flat on the "1º" can be three flights up.
• Türkiye distinguishes bodrum (basement), bahçe katı (garden level), zemin (ground), asma kat (mezzanine) and çatı katı (top or attic floor).
• Buildings in the US and UK often skip the 13th floor. Buildings in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan often skip floors containing the digit 4. In Italy the 17th is sometimes skipped. This means the stated floor number and the actual number of flights can differ.
• "Duplex" means a two-level apartment in most of Europe, but a two-unit building in parts of the United States.

Always ask for the number of flights of stairs and whether there is a lift, in those words. Ask the same about the building's lift, because in France, Italy and Spain a great many pre-1970 buildings of five or six storeys have none.

The square metres are a separate problem

Room counts tell you the layout. Square metres tell you the size, and every market measures those differently too: gross versus net, whether balconies count, whether walls are measured from the centre or the inside face. France has the Carrez rule for apartments in co-ownership, Germany has a national residential floor area regulation under which balconies typically count at a reduced proportion, Spain distinguishes superficie construida from superficie útil, Portugal separates área bruta privativa from área útil, Türkiye separates brüt from net, and Hong Kong requires first-hand sales to be quoted in saleable area.

That subject deserves its own treatment, and we have given it one: see Built Area vs Usable Area for the full comparison. For the purposes of reading a listing, the rule of thumb is simple: never compare a headline square-metre figure across two countries without first asking which basis it is quoted on. The same physical apartment can be advertised as 95 m² in one market and 78 m² in another.

A practical checklist before you filter

1. Identify the counting system for the country before you set any filter. Bedrooms or all rooms?
2. Search one step up and one step down from your target. If you want two bedrooms in an all-rooms market, look at both 3 and 4 room listings.
3. Ask for the floor plan. It resolves every notation question in one document and costs the agent nothing to send.
4. Ask which floor the property is on, how many flights of stairs that is, and whether there is a lift.
5. Ask whether the quoted area is gross or net and whether balconies and terraces are included.
6. For any "+1" or half room, ask whether that space is legally habitable and whether it appears as a room on the registered plan.
7. For older properties, check whether the registered plan matches what you actually walked through. A room that exists in reality but not on the plan is a planning issue, not a bonus.

Frequently asked questions

Does T3 mean three bedrooms?
In France, no: it means three principal rooms, usually a living room and two bedrooms. In Portugal, T3 does mean three bedrooms. The same two letters mean different things in two neighbouring markets, which is exactly why the notation catches people out.

Is a Turkish 2+1 the same as a German 3-Zimmer?
Broadly yes in room terms: two bedrooms plus a living room. The Turkish notation states the split explicitly; the German one does not.

What does 1LDK mean in Japan?
One separate room plus a combined living, dining and kitchen space. Functionally a one-bedroom flat. 1K is a single room with a small separate kitchen, which is considerably smaller.

Why does the same apartment show a different size on two portals?
Usually because one is quoting gross built area and the other net or usable area, or because one includes balconies at full value and the other at a reduced proportion or not at all. Ask both agents which basis they used.

Does the room count affect what I can legally rent out?
It can. Several markets tie short-term rental licensing, occupancy limits and tourist registration to the number of legally recognised bedrooms rather than the number of rooms in the advertisement. Check the licence, not the listing.

Keep reading on JanusHermes

Before you set a single filter, work out which counting system the country uses, then ask for the floor plan and the basis of the area figure. Those two documents settle every question this article raises, and both are free. JanusHermes lists property from local agencies in 11 languages, with the local agency's own contact details on every listing.

Related reading: Built Area vs Usable Area, The Best Property Portal in Every Country, How Much to Negotiate Off the Asking Price, How Long It Takes to Buy Property Abroad and The Property Viewing Trip Checklist.

This article is general information about advertising conventions in different property markets and is not legal, tax or professional advice. Conventions vary by region, by portal and by individual agent, and the legal classification of a room (habitable, licensed, registered) is a separate question from how it is advertised. Verify the registered plan, the occupancy or use licence and the measured area with a qualified local professional before committing to a purchase.