Carpet, built up, super built-up: which area are you actually paying for?

April 22, 2021

When we buy a property, we are given certain area figures by the builder. Area calculation is one of the major considerations while buying a home. The cost of an apartment is always calculated based on what kind of area and how much area are you paying for. Builders quote these three kinds of areas: Carpet, Built-Up, and Super Built-Up. What do these mean and how are they calculated? Let’s have a look…

1. Carpet Area: This is the area that is actually used by the buyer. The carpet area, as the name suggests is the area where we can place our carpet. It is the area of all the rooms minus the area of walls on a floor.
2. Built-up Area: Built-up Area is the area that includes all the area that has been constructed and have a roof/ceiling on it. It is the areas of the rooms with walls and balconies.
3. Super Built-up Area: Super Built-up area is the area that also considers common areas that come up in that building. In terms of towers, it is generally divided between all the residential units of that particular floor plus society amenities divided among all the flats.

When a client calculates the cost of carpet area and super built-up area, it may seem to them that the price per square feet area is higher in the carpet area than SBU. But the ground reality is they are already paying for more area than the actual area the clients are going to use. When the client pays for the carpet area, the overall amount is going to be less than when they pay for SBU, and hence, paying for the carpet area is always a benefit even when it doesn’t seem like that in the first go.

For eg. In a building, the Carpet area of 612 sq ft. is quoted and in another building, SBU of 800 sq ft. is quoted with the same carpet area and the cost of the unit is about 16 lacs in both. It may seem that when the cost is calculated on carpet area, price per sq ft comes up around INR 2600 per sq ft but in SBU, it seems to be INR 2000 per sq ft. In reality, the client is paying for the same useable area in both.

Most of the builders quote the Super Built-up (SBU) Area to their buyers. SBU is generally 40-60% greater than the carpet area because they include common floor areas, terraces, clubs, green areas, recreational buildings, etc of the society. Subhashray, on the other hand, believes that clients should pay for the area that they are using, i.e. they quote the price of carpet area and not SBU.

Shubhashray works with various banks according to the CLSS scheme of PMAY when it comes to obtaining the subsidy on the loan for buying a home for EWS (annual household income up to 3 lac) and LIG (Annual household income from 3 lac to 6 lac). The limits of the carpet areas of a dwelling unit for the same are 30 sq. meters (323 sq. ft) for EWS and 60 sq. meters (646 sq. ft) For LIG. The loan subsidies can go up to 6 lac for the same. So, Choose what you pay for.