With prices correcting and some developers reducing the unit size of their properties, you may be able to purchase a property in prime locations. But there are various other factors that influence the price of a house property. It includes location, age and condition of the property, local amenities such as hospitals, and transit facilities, and economic condition of the market. However, size and usable area play an important role in determining the final price of the house. Therefore, as a home buyer, you need to determine whether the property is worth the price, for its size.

But are you flummoxed by the various jargons that developers and property brokers use? Here is what you should know about the area of a property.

Area concepts

There are three key terminologies or concepts that you as a home buyer should know before purchasing a flat - carpet area, built-up area and saleable area.

Carpet area is the net usable floor area of an apartment and includes all rooms - kitchen, living room, bedroom(s), bathroom and utility room within your home. In other words, it is the area that can actually be covered by carpet. This area, as per RERA guidelines, does not include the area covered by the external walls, balcony or terrace , even if it is exclusive to your home. Also, the vent shafts from the kitchen or toilets and other utility ducts are also not included in the carpet area. However, the carpet area includes the thickness of the inner walls of the house and even inner staircases. Generally, carpet area constitutes around 70-90 per cent of the built-up area.

So if you wish for a large property, you should choose the one which has more carpet area.

Built-up area comes after adding carpet area and wall area. Super built-up area is the total built-up area of your property or flat plus proportionate share of the common amenities in your building complex. It is also known as saleable area. For instance, if have a built-up area of 1,000 sq ft, then the carpet area may be 70 per cent---that is equal to 700 sq ft.

The price of a house property is based on the saleable or super built-up area which not only includes the actual usable area (built-up area) of your flat but also additional areas such as lobbies, staircases, swimming pool, garden and other amenities. Normally, the costs of additional spaces are charged proportionately to each flat. This means, the price of the actual usable area of the housing unit may differ from the area you are charged for (saleable area). This difference (between saleable area and carpet area) is known as loading factor and not often disclosed by developers.

How RERA helps?

Post the implementation of RERA, all the registered builders are mandated to mention the carpet area in the agreement with home buyers. “Developers mention the exact carpet area in the document because it can be measured unlike saleable area which can only be estimated” says Hakim Lakdawala, promoter, Goodwill Developers. RERA allows a 3 per cent deviation from the carpet area mentioned in the document (to the actual), Lakdawala adds.

While carpet area based pricing won’t affect property prices directly, it will infuse more transparency, says Akhil Gupta, Co-Founder & CTO, NoBroker.com.

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