Carpet Area vs Super Built Up Area: What You Actually Get in Gujarat

Carpet area is the floor you can actually use inside your flat; super built up area is carpet plus walls, balconies and your share of the building’s common spaces. In the Adani Shantigram projects we track, carpet area works out to only 52% to 56% of the super built up figure on the price sheet. So a “3,000 sq ft” flat in Ahmedabad often has around 1,600 sq ft of usable floor.

The gap is a pricing convention, not a trick, but it makes super built up prices useless for comparison. Compare flats on carpet area. Since RERA, you can.

What is the difference between carpet, built up and super built up area?

Three numbers turn up on Ahmedabad brochures, and only one of them has a legal definition.

Built up and super built up are trade terms. Two builders on the same stretch of Sindhu Bhavan Road can calculate them differently, and both can be telling the truth. That alone is a reason to stop comparing flats on super built up area.

CREDAI Ahmedabad promotes what it calls “RERA Area”, defined as RERA carpet plus balcony plus wash area, with no common areas loaded on. If a developer quotes that way, check which of the three bases the price sheet uses.

What does RERA count as carpet area?

The RERA Act, section 2(k), defines carpet area as “the net usable floor area of an apartment, excluding the area covered by the external walls, areas under services shafts, exclusive balcony or verandah area and exclusive open terrace area, but includes the area covered by the internal partition walls of the apartment.”

In plain terms:

• Inside walls between your rooms count.
• Outer walls do not.
• Your balcony and private terrace do not, even though they are yours alone.
• Duct and shaft areas do not.

Gujarat’s RERA rules of 2017 add that a promoter must disclose the size of every flat on carpet area “even if earlier sold on any other basis such as super area, super built up area, built up area”. The model agreement for sale in those rules then sells the flat by carpet area and caps any change in the final carpet area at 3%, with the price recalculated at the agreed rate per square metre. The rules and each project’s unit list are on the GujRERA portal.

How much loading do Ahmedabad projects add?

Here is what we found when we divided carpet area by super built up area for every Shantigram configuration in our data that publishes both. Where a range is given, we used the midpoint.

Across the 14 Adani Shantigram configurations we track with both figures (the table shows 11; Belrosa’s two 5 BHK plans and Greenfield’s penthouse sit in the same band), carpet runs from 52.0% to 55.7% of super built up. The median is 53.9%. Put the other way, the price sheet adds 80% to 92% on top of the carpet area.

Two cautions. This is one developer’s township, so treat it as a reference point rather than an Ahmedabad average. And a lower ratio is not automatically worse. A plan with deep private balconies loses carpet share because balconies are excluded, yet many families would take the balcony.

How do you convert a super built up price into a carpet price?

Divide the price by the carpet area, not the super built up area. That single change reorders most shortlists.

Take two 3 BHK plans in Adani Shantigram. Greenfield’s starts at ₹1.83 Cr for 2,653 sq ft super built up and 1,379 sq ft of carpet, so it costs ₹6,898 per sq ft of super built up but ₹13,270 per sq ft of carpet. Embrace starts at ₹1.42 Cr for 1,966 sq ft super built up and 1,082 sq ft of carpet: ₹7,223 per sq ft of super built up, yet only ₹13,120 per sq ft of carpet. Greenfield looks cheaper on the price sheet, and Embrace is cheaper for the floor you actually use, because Greenfield carries the heaviest loading in the table above.

Price sheets do not print this figure, so you have to work it out. Our Adani Shantigram price guide does it for every plan in the township, and full price lists for each tower are on our Adani Shantigram project comparison.

How much carpet area is good for a 3 BHK or 4 BHK?

There is no rule, only what a family can live with. Our data gives a useful range.

In our experience, a 3 BHK under about 1,000 sq ft of carpet gets tight once wardrobes go in, and 1,200 sq ft or more is comfortable for a family that entertains. For a 4 BHK, below 1,700 sq ft the fourth bedroom is closer to a study than a room for a grown child.

For a bigger home on the west side, our post on 4 BHK flats in Ambli applies the same carpet first approach.

Which area appears in your sale deed and on GujRERA?

On GujRERA, carpet area in square metres. The unit wise booking list shows the RERA carpet area of every flat, with balcony and terrace area in a separate column. To convert, multiply square metres by 10.764. Skyline Block B’s 1,596 sq ft, for example, is about 148 sq m.

In the agreement for sale, carpet area again, because the Gujarat model agreement is written that way. Check that the number in your agreement matches the GujRERA unit list for your exact flat number.

In the sale deed, ask for carpet area to be stated. For stamp duty, the 2023 jantri guidelines treat built up area as 1.2 times the carpet area when a document shows carpet. Notice the gap: the government’s valuation assumes walls and balconies add about 20%, while the price sheets we track add 80% or more. Most of the difference is the common area you share with every other owner in the tower.

What we would ask the site office

Ask for three numbers for the exact flat you are offered: RERA carpet area, exclusive balcony area and the super built up figure used for pricing. Then divide the all in price by the carpet area and compare that figure, and only that figure, across your shortlist.

If you want us to build that comparison for the towers you are considering from the projects we list across Ahmedabad, send us your shortlist and we will return it on a carpet basis.