Super built up area & carpet area - What, Why and How!

Published: April 10, 2009

By Sumedh

The terms built up area, super built up area, salable area and carpet area pop up again and
again for an Indian real estate buyer. The apartment that is sold as a spacious 1500 sqft
apartment, is actually not 1500 sqft if you count its actual covered area, or carpet area.

Definitions -

1. Carpet area - The actual area you use. The area on which ‘you can put a carpet’.

2. Built up area - Carpet area + area of walls and ducts. Around 10% more than the carpet
area. A terrace is considered as half the actual area for calculating built up area. Some
projects charge dry terrace same as internal rooms.

3. Super built up / Saleable area - Built up area + markup for common spaces like lifts and
stairs. Usually 25% more than the built up area.

Let us take an example.

Here is the floor plan of one of the apartments at Kumar Periwinkle in Kharadi.

This is a small apartment whose saleable area, or super built up area is 892 sqft. Let us
calculate its carpet area by summing up all its rooms -

Dimensions (ft & Carpet area in

Room
inch) sqft

Living Room 10′ x 15′-9″ 157.5

Dining
7′ x 7′-8″ 53.6
Room

Bedroom 1 11′-9″ x 10′-9″ 126.3

Bedroom 2 11′-9″ x 10 117.5

Toilet 1 8′-6″ x 5 42.5

Toilet 2 8′-4″ x 4′-3″ 35.4

Terrace 10′ x 5′-9″ 57.5

Kitchen 11′ x 8′-6″ 93.5

Now terraces are generally considered by halving their actual area. So, carpet area considered
of the terrace is 57.5/2 sqft = 28.75 sqft.

So, the total carpet area for the rooms of the flat comes to be approximately 655 sqft. Now
there is a passage area at the center of the flat, which looks approximately 11 feet by 5 feet,
which adds 55 sqft more to the carpet area.

So, approximate carpet area of the flat = 710 sqft.

Now, the saleable area as given on the website is 892 sqft. This is the area which is billed to
you by multiplying it with the square foot rate.

This difference is what super built up area is all about. As far as I have seen, a thumb rule is
to take 1.25 as the multiplying factor to calculate super built up area (i.e. saleable area).

So, if we multiply by this factor, 710 * 1.25 = 887.5 sqft is approximately the answer we are
supposed to arrive at.

But this rule of 25% is no written rule, and this multiplier can vary. Ideally, this multiplier
should be more for the schemes where more space is given to amenities and common areas.
This area is supposed to include the common amenities that are built but are not directly
charged to the customer. But there are no concrete formulas for this. The agreement that you
will sign with the builder, should have all the details like carpet area in it. But you will
probably see the agreement in detail only after you decide to buy your home there.

So are you getting cheated when you actually get a 700 sqft apartment when you thought you
got 900 sqft? Not really…
The key is to ask for the carpet area of the property you are buying, and verify it by
doing a calculation as given above, and also verify the dimensions actually on the
ground if possible. As long as we have open market economy, you will always have choices.
So, if you find that a project has a multiplying factor of 25% for super built up area and
another has 30%, the simplest thing you can do, is get the carpet area of the actual rooms and
find out the per sqft rate based on carpet area, to compare the two projects.

Apart from this, there are also several extra bills like electricity backup charges, parking
charges, maintenance charges for amenities, society formation charges so on and so forth. So,
you need to consider and compare all of these charges before thinking of choosing the right
project to buy a property. Give a hard thought to how many of the amenities you are actually
going to use, and how much you are getting charged for them. Will it be simply better to buy
into a no-frills project and join a gymkhana club rathar than paying maintenance charges for
the swimming pool you are not going to use?

Simply create an excel sheet and put all the parameters of the property in it, like carpet area,
parking charges etc. Use that sheet as your basis of taking decision and not the glossy
marketing brochures they give you!

Update: One of our blog reader, Jatin has created a sheet. Putting it here so that you have
something concrete while making your purchase decision. If you have something like this,
please send it to me. I will upload it so that everyone can benefit.
Property Buying Comparison Sheet

Update: TheMinistry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MHUPA) has released the
Model Real Estate Act that aims at bringing in order into the chaotic and less organised Real
Estate Segment in India. The Act aims at creating regulation, transparency and
accountability. You can visit the following post for the important key features of the Act.