Every brochure prints three area numbers: carpet, built-up, and super built-up. Most buyers sign for the largest one. Here is what each measures, why RERA settled on carpet as the legal price base, and how the loading between them hides your true price-per-sqft.
The three numbers
Carpet area is the area you can actually lay a carpet on — the usable floor within the external walls, excluding balconies and utility. Built-up area adds the wall thickness and the balcony. Super built-up area adds your share of the common areas — lobbies, staircases, lifts, corridors — and is the number developers historically priced on.
Why RERA chose carpet
Before RERA, super built-up was the price base, and the ratio between it and carpet — the "loading" — was opaque. Two projects quoting the same super built-up at the same rate could hand over very different usable homes. RERA made carpet area the legal price base precisely because it is the one number a buyer can verify with a tape after handover.
How loading hides price
Imagine two homes at ₹10,000 per sqft of super built-up. Project A has 30% loading; Project B has 25%. On a 1500 sqft super built-up, A hands you 1154 sqft of carpet; B hands you 1200. A's real price is ₹12,998 per carpet sqft; B's is ₹12,500. Same headline rate, different home.
What we do
Every Sthapatya quotation prints carpet area as the price base, with the loading ratio stated beside it. When you compare us to another developer, ask for the carpet-area price — not the super built-up rate. It is the only number that makes the comparison honest.