Planning to buy a bigger house? You must consider the carpet area

Home buying activity has picked up in recent times after a lull post the pandemic. According to a report from Anarock, people are preferring bigger houses. “The average flat size of apartments in the top seven cities have gone up by 10% in 2020,” said the report. People are opting for bigger houses post the pandemic as many of them are now working from home. However, if you are planning to buy a bigger house, it is important that you understand the difference between super-builtup area and carpet area.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), 2016, mandates that the seller or developer can sell the property based on the carpet area instead of the super built-up area.

Carpet area as defined by RERA is the net usable floor area of an apartment, excluding the area covered by the external walls, areas under services shafts, exclusive balcony or verandah area and exclusive open terrace area, but includes the area covered by the internal partition walls of the apartment. The super built-up area includes the common area as well.

Super built-up area gives a wrong sense of the area of the house but was often used by the developers as it used to reduce the per square feet cost of the house. For example, if a 2 bhk with a carpet area of 900 sq.ft is priced at Rs50 lakh. This means a per sq.ft rate of about Rs5,556, but bring in the super built-up area and the cost drops to Rs3,846 per sq.ft for a 2bhk of 1,300 sq.ft.

Before RERA came into being, most developers used to sell apartments on the basis of super built-up area, which consists of the apartment area and proportionate area of common areas such as elevators, stairs, lobbies, clubhouses, play areas and other amenities available in the project.

Therefore, there was no clarity for the buyer as to how much area he or she will get in terms of carpet area.

However, to bring in transparency, RERA Act states that developers have to now sell only on the basis of carpet area so that a buyer will get to know how much she is paying for each square foot that she will get for her use.

Typically, carpet area is 25-35% or more lower than super built-up area. For instance, if an apartment is said to be the size of 1,400 sq.ft, the actual usable area, or the carpet area, will be 910-1,050 sq.ft.

Most developers have started quoting per-square-foot rate with the Act bringing in clarity for the homebuyers.