Carpet Area, Built up and Super Built up area

 What does carpet area, built up and super built up area means

When you go for purchase of an apartment, there are several terms which a builder uses to denote size of the apartment. These commonly are called, carpet area, built up area and super build up area. Lets look into what these terms means

1. Carpet area: This is the area between the walls of the apartment. Think of it, as if you want to have a carpet for the complete floor of the apartment, this is what counts for the size of the carpet including in every room, bathroom, living room, kitchen, usable balcony etc. No common area like corridors, lift area etc will be included and the area occupied by the external walls will not be counted (Internal Wall area will be included). Non usable balcony like one for AC Vent is not included. As per RERA, Carpet area is "The net usable floor area of an apartment".

2. Built up area: This will include everything in the carpet area plus, Wall thickness and Balcony. No common area will be included. non usable Balcony like AC Vent is included in the same. 

3. Super Built up area: This includes everything in Built up area and a share of common areas like corridors, lift, stair case, Club house, swimming pool etc. Typically, it is 30% more than carpet area but sometimes can be as high as 40% more. This 30% (or 40%) is also called Loading (or Load) factor. 

Previously, before RERA, builders used to use Super Built up area while selling by saying this (super built up area) is the size of the apartment. Now, after RERA, builder has to clarify the same. in some states, they sell preferably on carpet area while in some, they sell as super built up area. but either ways, they now need to clearly call our in the agreement of sale and sale deed. 

There is psychological price advantage builder or seller has when they sell the apartment quoting Super built up area. That is the price looks lesser. As an example, take an apartment which is 1000 sq ft carpet area selling for 50 Lacks. Say super built up area comes to 1400 sq ft. So quoted by carpet area, price per sq ft comes to 5K while quoted via Super Built up, price per sq ft comes to ~3.5K.  So buyer will have mindset that 3.5K is lesser then 5K so an apartment with area 1400 sq ft is cheaper than apartment with area of 1000 sq ft. Thats why it is good to have apples vs oranges comparison and know which area is being quoted and what it means,