62 house plans. One of them could be your family's home.

Scale: 1:100 for floor plans

By-law 9 requires site plans to be drawn at a scale of no less than 1:1000, and other building plans at no less than 1:100 (the council may allow down to 1:200 for buildings too large for the paper). At 1:100, 1 cm on paper is 1 m on site. The scale is only true when the drawing is printed at its original paper size, so when reading a PDF on screen, read the written dimensions rather than measuring with a ruler.

Four kinds of drawing in one set

By-law 10 lists what building plans contain. The site plan: lot number, access, the distance from the building to each boundary, the north point, drainage, existing and proposed ground levels, and the location of the rainwater tank. A floor plan for each floor: the length and width of every room, wall thicknesses, door and window sizes, and room names. Sections: ground levels, the width and depth of the foundations, storey heights, stairs, roof structure and materials. Front, rear and side elevations: wall, window and roof materials.

Millimetres, feet and square feet

By-law 9 allows plans in SI units, and plans submitted to councils are usually in millimetres: MBSJ's own building plan checklist writes setbacks in mm with feet in brackets. This catalogue gives floor areas in square feet. To convert: 1 foot = 304.8 mm, and 1 square metre = 10.76 square feet.

House area is not land area

The area on each card is the house's floor area, not the size of the land. A single-storey house puts almost all of that area on the ground; a two-storey house only about half. The roof area is usually larger than the floor area because of the eaves, and that is the figure that counts for the rainwater tank (see below).

Setbacks are set by your council, not by a catalogue

The minimum distance between the house and the lot boundaries comes from the planning guidelines and checklists of the council where your land is, and it varies by council and by type of lot (corner lot, lot facing a road). As a real example, MBSJ's building plan checklist (in force from 1 October 2025) for a detached or semi-detached house: front, and the side of a corner lot, 6,096 mm (20 ft); car porch, balcony, shared side boundary and rear, 3,048 mm (10 ft). Eaves may come closer: 5,334 mm at the front and 2,286 mm at the sides and rear. A septic tank must be at least 6,096 mm from the front boundary, and a driveway at most 6,096 mm wide.

Other councils have their own figures, and we have not listed them here because we have not verified them one by one. The land estimate on each design page is a guide using typical setbacks, not your council's figures.

Example: two 6,000 sq ft lots, different results

Apply the MBSJ setbacks above (20 ft front, 10 ft each side, 10 ft rear) to two lots of the same area. A 60 × 100 ft lot leaves a building area of 40 × 70 ft = 2,800 sq ft. A 40 × 150 ft lot leaves only 20 × 120 ft = 2,400 sq ft.

Of the 50 single-storey designs in the catalogue, 50 have a floor area of 2,800 sq ft or less, and 48 of 2,400 sq ft or less. But area alone is not enough: for the second lot the house must also be no wider than 20 ft, and the porch and eaves need room too. Check the outside dimensions on the floor plan, not just the square footage. A long, narrow lot often suits a two-storey design better.

Orientation: keep big windows off the east and west

MS 2680:2017 gives the general rule: avoid facades with most of their openings facing east or west. For a rectangular house, the long axis is best run east-west, so the long walls and most windows face north and south. On narrow sites, other building shapes and window shading are needed. The standard also says orientation to the sun takes precedence over wind direction.

When reading a plan, picture it placed on your lot: which way do the living room and bedroom windows face? A room with west-facing windows will take the afternoon sun.

Wind, rain and cross-ventilation

MetMalaysia describes two monsoons: the Southwest Monsoon from late May to September (relatively drier), and the Northeast Monsoon from November to March (the main rainy season). Between them winds are weak and from varying directions, with afternoon thunderstorms. On the west coast, squall lines ("Sumatras") during the Southwest Monsoon bring sudden strong gusts and heavy rain.

Because the wind here is unreliable, layout matters more than wind direction. MS 2680 recommends openings on opposite walls, inlets and outlets of roughly equal size, and nothing blocking the path between them. A room with windows on one wall only ventilates to a depth of about 6 m; with windows on two opposite walls, up to 12 m. A stairwell can work as a chimney: a low opening lets air in, a high one lets hot air out.

Roofs and eaves

For low-rise houses, MS 2680 says the roof is the most exposed part of the building, and 80% of the heat entering through the roof comes from radiation. The standard recommends a steep pitch to shed heavy rain, wide eaves to shade walls and windows, low parapets so they do not block airflow, roof or ceiling insulation, and ventilation of the roof space. The Selangor UBBL (by-law 38A) also caps the U-value of roofs on all buildings, houses included.

Rainwater tanks (SPAH) in Selangor

Under the Selangor UBBL, bungalows and semi-detached houses with a roof area of 100 m² (about 1,076 sq ft) or more must install a rainwater harvesting system (SPAH), with its pipes, tank and pump shown on the site plan. Rainwater must not flow into the mains water tank, its outlet is marked "Not For Drinking or Bathing", and rainwater pipes are green. Because roof area includes the eaves, a house with a floor area under 1,076 sq ft can still reach this threshold.

Flood-prone land

CIDB's design guidance asks for flood risk to be assessed at the planning stage, using JPS and JMG hazard maps, and for the floor level to be raised above the highest flood level ever recorded. If your land is low-lying or near a river, this question shapes the choice of plan before any other.

Stairs take space on both floors

The UBBL limits each step to a 180 mm rise and a tread of at least 255 mm, with a 1.8 m deep landing every 4.25 m of height. As a rough example, with 3 m from floor to floor the stair needs at least 17 risers (3,000 ÷ 180 = 16.7). The stair and its landings come out of the floor area of both storeys.

Ageing in place

By-law 34A (access for disabled persons) exempts single family private dwelling houses, and the scope of MS 1184:2014 (universal design) excludes landed properties. In other words, no rule forces your house to be wheelchair-friendly: that is your choice at the plan stage. For reference, MS 1184 asks public buildings for paths at least 900 mm wide with a 1,500 × 1,500 mm turning space, steps as well as a ramp where the level changes by more than 300 mm, and a lift in buildings of more than one storey. For a family planning for parents to live with them, a single-storey house avoids stairs entirely; for two storeys, check that the ground floor plan has a bedroom and a bathroom.