Book Excerpts

Carpet vs Built-up vs Super Built-up Area: An Extract from ‘How to Buy a House’

Buying a house is not simply a monetary decision. It is important to connect with the house for you to be happy there. Sometimes just a window in the wrong place can make you uncomfortable.

After considering all the above, what is most essential is your ability to negotiate! This means leveraging the available information and a fair understanding of the points discussed to strike a good deal.

Remember that the ‘area’ concept is used varyingly in the housing industry. Some builders and sellers take advantage of this ambiguity. A few facts to remember:

  • Carpet area is defined as the precise area within the walls of your home. If you had to lay out a wall-to-wall carpet in your entire home, the area covered would be the carpet area.
  • Built-up area is inclusive of not just the carpet area but also the area occupied by the walls of your house.
  • Super built-up area takes into account all the area under the common spaces, which is the apartment’s proportionate share of the lobby, staircase, elevator and the corridor outside the apartment.

The confusion over the super built-up area arises over what is exactly included in it and the fact that it often varies from builder to builder. Some may even include the terrace, the security room, the electrical room and/or the pump room. So find out what your builder exactly means when he uses the term. The cumulative total of these ‘extras’ is taken into account and divided by the number of apartments in proportion to their size. So keep in mind:

  • If you get a quote for 1000 square feet, find out immediately if it is the carpet area or the super built-up area.
  • There is no fixed ratio of super built-up to built-up or carpet area. Generally, the ratios in multi-storey apartments are about 35-40 per cent loading. This means that you get to use only 60-65 per cent of the area you paid for.
  • In a single-floor unit on plotted developments, there is very little loading of common areas, mostly to the tune of 10-15 per cent. As a result, you get carpet areas of 85-90 per cent of the space you paid for.

    Buy E. Jayashree Kurup’s helpful guide to bagging the house of your dreams here.

HCI

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