Placepoint

Primary rooms (P-rom)

P-rom stands for primary rooms and covers every room in a home that counts as living space. That means the living room, kitchen, bedrooms, home office, bathroom, toilet and laundry room, plus the hallways and stairs that connect them. Traditionally, P-rom has been the area used as the basis for statistics on square metre prices in the Norwegian housing market.

The counterpart is secondary rooms (S-rom): rooms used mainly for storage or technical functions, for example store rooms, garages and boiler rooms. P-rom and S-rom together make up the home's usable floor area (UFA). The split between P-rom and S-rom has been used in Norwegian estate agency since 2008, when it replaced the earlier term boligareal (housing area).

With the 2024 update of NS 3940, the P/S-rom split is being replaced by the new UFA categories:

  • UFA-i: internal usable floor area inside the dwelling unit.
  • UFA-e: external usable floor area that belongs to the dwelling unit but lies outside it (for example a store room in the basement).
  • UFA-b: glazed balconies that do not count as open.

In practice, both P-rom and UFA-i will be used side by side for a period. Older sales prospectuses, valuation reports and statistical series use P-rom and S-rom, while new condition reports and measurements use the UFA categories directly. The difference is that P/S-rom is a functional split (is the room suitable for living in or not?), while UFA-i, UFA-e and UFA-b form a spatial split (where is the area located?). A building surveyor measuring to NS 3940 documents both the total UFA and the breakdown, so that comparison across sales prospectuses is possible.

For buyers and estate agents, P-rom indicates how much usable living space a home actually has. Two homes with the same UFA can have very different utility value if one has a large share of store rooms and technical area. Statistics from Eiendom Norge, SSB and the estate agency chains are still largely based on P-rom as the basis for price comparison, even though the move to UFA-i is under way. Measurement errors can give grounds for a price reduction under avhendingslova (the Norwegian Alienation Act).

In Placepoint, UFA per building and unit is shown in the building panel and in total in the property panel.

How it looks in Placepoint

In Placepoint you find this in Building panel:

Primary rooms (P-rom) in Placepoint

From Placepoint's glossary: Primary rooms (P-rom)

More information: Standard Norge: NS 3940, Store norske leksikon: primærrom, Eiendom Norge: Boligpriser

English: Primary rooms (P-rom, per Norwegian Standard NS 3940).

Common questions we come across

What are primary rooms (P-rom)?

P-rom (primary rooms) are rooms in a home intended for permanent occupation, such as the living room, kitchen, bedrooms and bathroom. The term was previously used as an area standard, but has now been replaced by UFA-i in NS 3940.

What is the difference between P-rom and S-rom?

P-rom are living rooms intended for permanent use. S-rom (secondary rooms) are rooms such as store rooms, technical rooms and garages. P-rom and S-rom together make up the home's UFA (usable floor area).

Is P-rom still used in home sales?

The term P-rom is still used informally in marketing and by many estate agents, but the 2024 revision of NS 3940 formally replaced the P/S-rom split with UFA-i, UFA-e and UFA-b.

Why does P-rom matter when you buy a home?

P-rom indicates how much usable living space the home actually has. A home with a large UFA but a low share of P-rom can have a lot of storage and technical area, which affects how usable it is.

Who measures P-rom and UFA?

Area calculation is carried out by a valuer or building surveyor in line with NS 3940. The measurement must be correct and follow the standard, because errors can give grounds for a price reduction when the home is sold.