Carpet, built-up and super area — and why you pay for all three
The single largest source of confusion in an Indian sale deed, settled in five minutes.
5 min read · last reviewed 14 July 2026
Three numbers describe the same flat, and a developer will quote whichever one makes the price per square foot look best. Understanding the difference is the cheapest hour of research you will do.
The three definitions
| Measure | What it covers | Typical share |
|---|---|---|
| Carpet area | The floor you can actually lay a carpet on: rooms, kitchen, bathrooms, internal partitions. Excludes external walls, balcony and any shaft. | 100% (the base) |
| Built-up area | Carpet plus the thickness of your walls, plus balcony and utility. | Carpet + 10–15% |
| Super built-up (saleable) area | Built-up plus your share of lobbies, staircases, lifts, clubhouse, generator room and society office — the 'loading'. | Carpet + 25–45% |
A 1,000 sq ft carpet flat in a project with 35% loading is sold as 1,350 sq ft super area. At ₹8,000 per sq ft on super area the price is ₹1.08 Cr — which is ₹10,800 per sq ft on the space you can stand in. Neither number is a lie; only one is comparable across projects.
What RERA changed
Section 4 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 requires the carpet area to be stated in the agreement for sale, and RERA defines carpet area precisely — net usable floor area, excluding the external walls, service shafts, balcony and open terrace, but including internal partition walls. Since 2017 a registered project must disclose carpet area on its RERA page.
How to compare two projects honestly
- 1Get the carpet area from the RERA filing, not the brochure.
- 2Divide the all-in price — not the base price — by the carpet area. That is your true rate.
- 3Do the same for the competing project. Loading varies from 20% to 45%, so two projects at the same 'per sq ft' can differ by 20% on real cost.
- 4Ask what the loading buys. A 40% loading with a genuine clubhouse, wide lobbies and three lifts per tower is worth more than a 25% loading with none of it.
Every project page on Just Prop shows carpet area from the RERA filing alongside the developer's quoted saleable area, and prices per sq ft are computed on the saleable figure with the carpet figure shown next to it. You can see the loading without asking for it.