Buyer’s guide
Carpet area, built-up, super built-up
Three numbers describe the same flat. One of them is defined in law. The other two are defined by whoever is selling.
The only one that is law
The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 defines carpet area at section 2(k). In plain terms it is the net usable floor area of the apartment.
What it includes: the area inside your walls, including the area taken up by the internal partition walls.
What it excludes: the external walls, the area under service shafts, and any exclusive balcony, verandah or open terrace.
That last exclusion surprises people. Your balconies are real and you will use them, but they are not carpet area. If balconies matter to you — and at Prime Mundhwa every home has two — ask for their size as a separate figure.
The other two are not defined anywhere
Built-up area generally means carpet area plus the walls and usually the balcony. Generally. There is no statutory definition, so the word means what the person using it wants it to mean.
Super built-up area, sometimes called saleable area, adds your share of everything the building holds in common: lobbies, staircases, lifts, corridors, the clubhouse, sometimes the amenity podium. The proportion added is a decision, not a measurement. It is why the same home can honestly be described as 1,150 square feet and as 1,650 square feet in two different conversations.
None of this is illegal. What is regulated is the basis of sale: under RERA, homes are to be sold on carpet area.
How to compare two projects without being misled
Put both on carpet area and work out the price per square foot on that number alone. A project quoting a lower rate on super built-up area can easily be the more expensive home once you do this, and that reversal is common enough to be worth the two minutes.
Then ask three questions, and ask for the answers in writing rather than in conversation:
What is the carpet area, in square feet, as it will appear in the agreement? Not the brochure figure — the agreement figure.
What is the balcony area, separately? Two homes with identical carpet area can live very differently.
What exactly is included in the loading? If a number is being added to carpet area, you are entitled to know what it represents.
One more thing worth knowing
The carpet area stated in your agreement is not a decoration either. If the home delivered is smaller than what was agreed, RERA provides for the difference to be refunded. That is only useful if the figure went into the agreement in the first place, which is the entire reason to insist on it early rather than late.
Pricing and carpet areas for the project we represent have not been made public yet. When they are released they will go to the priority access list first, and they will be stated as carpet area. See the Mundhwa guide for the other checks worth running before you book anything.
Questions we have not answered here?
Ask us directly. We would rather talk you out of the wrong home than into it.