[Q&A]: What’s the Difference between Floor Area, Carpet Area & Built-up Area?

One of our readers, Mrs. S.Jacob, has sent us a query seeking the difference between Floor Area, Carpet Area & Built-up Area of a house.

This is something which every person who wants/ plans to buy a home must know beforehand so that he/ she can have a better deal with the builder/ seller of that particular house/ apartment/ building etc. This is utmost important because the total cost of the deal is worked out based upon one of these area figures only  
[i.e., TOTAL COST = TOTAL AREA x CALCULATED RATE PER UNIT AREA]
As such, it becomes prudent to get accustomed with the various terms used in the realty transactions, like plinth area, covered area, carpet area, built-up area, super built-up area, super area and so on, since the jargon used may leave the customer totally confused and uncertain of what he would be finally getting after getting through the deal putting in his/her hard-earned money.

We, your friendly B-n-M Team, shall chalk out hereunder what the common different terminologies are used for stating the area of a particular house when someone is buying/ selling or even calculating the property tax on it.

The common terminologies used by builders/ sellers/ authorities are:

1. FLOOR AREA (or PLINTH AREA, or COVERED AREA, or BUILT-UP AREA)
2. CARPET AREA,
3. SUPER BUILT-UP AREA

1. Floor Area (Or Plinth Area, Or Covered Area) : It is the area calculated by multiplying the outer-to-outer dimensions of the floor; not considering the boundary walls, but definitely taking into account the house outer walls as well as the inner walls. As such, this term implies to the area covered under outer-to-outer walls of the house.

2. Carpet Area : It is the area which implies to the total clear usable area inside of the house. It is calculated by subtracting the area occupied by the outer and the inner walls of the house from the Total Floor Area. This term, therefore, indicates the area where actually one can walk into, or in other terms can lay a carpet into.

3. Super Built-up Area : It implies to the actual area exclusively for use by the owner (read purchaser or end-buyer) including various floors, and with proportionate addition of the common areas like lobby, staircases, shafts, lift wells and other circulation areas, areas under common facilities like basement, sub-stations, security room, garbage chutes and can you believe even window projections. The area under stilt is also sometimes included in the super area calculations.

Making sense out of these terms, it becomes prudent that the end-buyer must make himself/herself clear as what he/she will get out of a deal as a potential buyer. One can easily realize its importance understanding how each square foot (sq ft) calculated in a particular deal can directly translate into significant amounts that need to be spent purchasing the property.

Hope our dear reader Mrs. Jacob will now have a better idea while making a deal. Hope our other readers also do get benefited understanding this basic realty jargon.

Blog Post Title: [Readers’ Q&A]: What’s the Difference between Floor Area, Carpet Area & Built-up Area?
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