Carpet area or super built area: buyers in dark over pricing

KOCHI: Leading real estate companies in the state seem to be disregarding the Kerala Real Estate Regulatory Authority (K-RERA) rule that requires them to price apartments or real estate units only on ‘carpet area’.

Until the RERA rule on pricing came into existence in 2018, the real estate companies were unrestrictedly selling their units quoting the price in terms of built up area or super built up area.

Hence the companies were able to even advertise the per-square-foot price during the launch. But with the ‘carper area- based pricing being insisted by K-RERA, the real estate companies have switched to pricing per flat (apartment) instead of pricing per square foot.

While the built up area factors in the space occupied by the walls used for the flat, the super built up area system adds the proportionate allocation of common spaces too in the building to each apartment area while doing the final pricing.

According to experts in the field, there could be a difference of up to 30 per cent between the areas represented by super built up and carpet areas.

A visit to the property exhibition organized by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) in Kaloor (Kochi) by myfin TV recently has revealed that most property developers were quoting their prices in terms of super built up area at the outset, and not on carpet area.

A few of them have clearly mentioned in their brochure that the super built up area is the ‘saleable area’ for the company. Some real estate developers have even argued that they are not required to quote the price in terms of carpet area rather they are only expected to mention the area of the flat in carper area.

Talking to myfinpoint, PH Kurian, chairman of K-RERA clarified that the builders are compulsorily required to quote the price in terms of carpet area. Moreover, the builders are free to give the break-up of the pricing to the buyers.

CREDAI is of the view that though the builders are required to mention the area of the flat (apartment) in terms of carpet, they are not mandated to price the flat on the carpet area basis.

Talking to myfinpoint, Sethunath M, the state chief executive officer (CEO) of CREDAI, said that one should remember that builders incur cost not only on carpet area, but on built up area and even the super built up area.

“So I think there’s no harm in quoting price of the flat in terms of built up and super built up area as the builder spends money not only on the area between the walls but rather on the walls as well as the common spaces in the building,” Sethunath added.