All About Carpet Area, Built-up Area And Super Built-up Area

Going for a house purchase and still confused how carpet area is different from built-up area? Before you start to comprehend that, your attention wanders to another question: how is built-up area different from super built-up areas?

Here is a quick guide:

Carpet area is the area that can be used to spread a carpet inside the house. It is the net usable area of the apartment. It includes the thickness of the internal wall but excludes balcony or terrace. Technically, the distance between inner walls is carpet area. Also, it will include staircase only if it is inside the apartment, but balcony, lift, lobby, etc. will not include in carpet area. 

There are several ways of calculating carpet area. Firstly, you should know that carpet area is 70 per cent of built-up area. For instance, assuming that the built-up area is 1,000 sq ft, your carpet area should be 70 per cent off 1,000 sq ft, which is, in this case, is 700 sq ft. So your carpet area is 700 sq ft.

In easy words, built-up area is the carpet area plus the area covered by walls. The built-up area includes balconies, terraces (with or without roof) , mezzanine floors and other detachable habitable areas such as servant room, etc. You should also know that walls which are shared with other units are factored in at 50 per cent while other walls are computed fully.

Logically, built-up area = carpet area + areas covered by walls. Generally, it is 10-15 per cent more than the carpet area. This can be understood with this following example.

Suppose, areas covered as dry balcony, terraces add up to the 10 per cent of the built-up area while the usable area is just 70 per cent of the built-up area. So, if built up area is 1,000 sq ft, it implies that 30 per cent i.e. the 300 sq ft is not usable while 700 sq ft is the remaining area that will be used.

Super built-up area is the built-up area in addition to the proportionate share of entrance lobby, corridors, stair cases, lift shafts, lift lobby, generator rooms, club house, security room and any other common areas in the complex. However, underground sump, water tanks, walk ways, swimming pool, open sports facilities, weather sheds, inaccessible flower beds, lofts shall not include in super built-up area.

Since super built-up area factors in the common areas such as elevator, veranda, clubhouse, etc, developers consider 1.25 as a multiplying factor to calculate super built-up area. This increases the total saleable area by 25 per cent. This percentage is called loading. Few developers tend to quote loading figueres while computing saleable area. For instance, if the carpet area is 600 sq ft, the builder adds loading of 30 per cent, you have to pay for 780 sq ft, whereas you are using just 600 sq ft.

Also Read: How carpet area definition changes in RERA