The setback is the open strip that must be left between the building and each boundary. What sets it varies by state — usually the size of the plot, the height of the building, or the width of the road outside.
1.5 m front setback where the abutting road is up to 9.0 m wide. Front setbacks are measured from the street alignment or new road line where one is prescribed, and otherwise from the property boundary.
TNCDBR 2019, Non High Rise (up to 16 dwellings / 300 m²) table, item E(i) — and 21 related rules below.
1.5 m front setback where the abutting road is up to 9.0 m wide. Front setbacks are measured from the street alignment or new road line where one is prescribed, and otherwise from the property boundary.
| Road width up to (m) | 9 |
| Front setback (m) | 1.5 |
3.0 m front setback where the abutting road is more than 9.0 m and up to 18 m wide.
| Road width from (m) | 9 |
| Road width up to (m) | 18 |
| Front setback (m) | 3 |
4.5 m front setback where the abutting road is more than 18 m and up to 30.5 m wide.
| Road width from (m) | 18 |
| Road width up to (m) | 30.5 |
| Front setback (m) | 4.5 |
6.0 m front setback where the abutting road is more than 30.5 m wide.
| Road width from (m) | 30.5 |
| Front setback (m) | 6 |
1 m on one side only. Tamil Nadu keys the side setback on the height of the building and the width of the plot together, so a narrow plot is allowed to build to one boundary.
| Side setback 1 (m) | 1 |
No rear setback is required for a building up to 7 m in height in this category.
| Rear setback (m) | 0 |
1.0 m side and rear, for Non High Rise buildings exceeding 16 dwelling units or 300 m² commercial. Note the difference from the smaller category, where a building of the same height needs no rear setback at all.
| Rear setback (m) | 1 |
| Side setback 1 (m) | 1 |
| Side setback 2 (m) | 1 |
3.0 m side and rear — the deepest margin in the Non High Rise category.
| Rear setback (m) | 3 |
| Side setback 1 (m) | 3 |
| Side setback 2 (m) | 3 |
The front setback is measured against the wider road. The remaining sides then take the side or rear setback as usual, subject to a minimum of 1 m in Continuous Building Areas.
Where a site has more than one Non High Rise block, the distance between blocks is 3.0 m for buildings up to 12 m in height and 6.0 m for buildings above 12 m and up to 18.30 m. Where blocks differ in height, each block's setback follows its own height.
For buildings up to 16 dwellings or 300 m² of commercial space, rule 35(1)(a) sets out one table with three regimes side by side: Continuous Building Areas, Economically Weaker Section Areas, and Other areas. Only the third is keyed on the width of the abutting road. The first two carry a single flat figure each, and they are not interchangeable — a plot in an EWS area takes 1.0 m at the front, a plot in a Continuous Building Area takes 1.5 m, and neither figure has anything to do with the road-width ladder that governs everywhere else.
1.5 m, whatever the width of the road. Where a street alignment or new road line is prescribed the setback is measured from that line; otherwise from the property boundary.
| Front setback (m) | 1.5 |
1.0 m, whatever the width of the road. The lowest front setback anywhere in the smaller Non High Rise table, and the concession is to the area's designation rather than to the plot's size or the road it faces.
| Front setback (m) | 1 |
Nil on the sides and nil at the rear, in both Continuous Building Areas and Economically Weaker Section Areas. The building may be taken to both side boundaries and to the rear boundary. Only the front setback is required at all in these two regimes — which is what makes them the sharpest departure in the Tamil Nadu rules from the road-width regime that governs other areas.
| Rear setback (m) | 0 |
| Side setback 1 (m) | 0 |
| Side setback 2 (m) | 0 |
1 m on either side, or 2 m on one side. The amendment of March 2024 turned a single requirement into a choice, which matters on a narrow plot where concentrating the setback on one side leaves a usable strip instead of two unusable ones.
| Side setback 1 (m) | 1 |
| Side setback 2 (m) | 1 |
1 m on one side. The band ceiling rose from 12 m to 14 m in March 2024, so a building that would previously have crossed into the taller regime at 12 m now stays in this one up to 14 m.
| Side setback 1 (m) | 1 |
| Height limit (m) | 14 |
1.5 m on one side, for buildings over 7 m and up to 14 m.
| Side setback 1 (m) | 1.5 |
| Height limit (m) | 14 |
1.5 m on either side, or 3 m on one side. Both the band ceiling and the one-sided alternative came in with the March 2024 amendment.
| Side setback 1 (m) | 1.5 |
| Side setback 2 (m) | 1.5 |
| Height limit (m) | 14 |
1.5 m at the rear for a building over 7 m and up to 14 m. Below 7 m the rear setback is nil. In Continuous Building Areas and EWS Areas the rear setback is nil at any height in this category.
| Rear setback (m) | 1.5 |
| Height limit (m) | 14 |
1.5 m on the sides and at the rear alike, for a building over 7 m and up to 14 m. In Continuous Building Areas this category takes nil. The larger category — over 16 dwellings or over 300 m² of commercial — uses one figure for sides and rear together, unlike the smaller category which splits them.
| Rear setback (m) | 1.5 |
| Side setback 1 (m) | 1.5 |
| Side setback 2 (m) | 1.5 |
| Height limit (m) | 14 |
2.5 m on the sides and at the rear, for a building over 14 m and up to 16 m. The floor of this band moved up from 12 m in March 2024, which is where the two-metre relaxation is actually felt: a 13 m building now takes 1.5 m rather than 2.5 m.
| Rear setback (m) | 2.5 |
| Side setback 1 (m) | 2.5 |
| Side setback 2 (m) | 2.5 |
| Height limit (m) | 16 |
G.O. Ms. No. 51 of 11.05.2020 substituted the side and rear setback entries at Sl.No. D of rule 37: nil in Continuous Building Areas and 6 m in other areas, but 2 m for schools in Continuous Building Areas and 3 m for primary schools in other areas. Rule 37 governs a different class of development from the rule 35 tables and its figures should not be read across.
| Rear setback (m) | 2 |
| Side setback 1 (m) | 2 |
Official text: Tamil Nadu Combined Development and Building Rules, 2019 ↗
Rules change and we would rather hear it from you than have somebody build to a stale number. No account needed.
Trace your tatima to get the real area, side lengths and a dimensioned plan. Automatic compliance checking runs on Himachal rules today — for Tamil Nadu the 33 rules published here are the reference, and the check is yours to make.
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