Reading a MahaRERA Carpet Area Without Getting Fooled
Ask about the size of an apartment in Mumbai and you can be given three different numbers for the same home, all of them true in their own way, only one of them defined in law.
The three numbers
Carpet area is the usable floor area within the walls of the apartment. Under Section 2(k) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, it is the net usable floor area, excluding the external walls, areas under service shafts, and any exclusive balcony, veranda or open terrace — but including the area of the internal partition walls.
Built-up area adds the walls and usually the balcony. There is no statutory definition, so what it includes varies.
Super built-up area adds a share of the common areas — lobbies, staircases, lifts, sometimes the clubhouse. There is no statutory definition of this either, and the loading factor applied is entirely a matter of convention.
Only one of them is enforceable
Since RERA came into force, a developer in Maharashtra must quote and sell on carpet area. That is the figure registered against the project, the figure on the approved plan, and the figure a regulator will hold the developer to.
Super built-up area may still appear in conversation, and it is not illegal to mention it. But if a price is quoted per square foot on super built-up, you are not comparing like with like against a carpet-area quote. A 30 per cent loading factor makes a home look considerably cheaper per square foot while changing nothing at all about the home.
What to do with a floor plan
Approved plans carry a schedule of rooms with dimensions, and a stated RERA carpet area. Three checks are worth making:
- Find the stated carpet area and the MahaRERA number on the same sheet. If the registration number is missing from the drawing, ask why.
- Read the room schedule, not the furniture. Renderings show a bed that fits. The dimension line tells you whether it fits with the wardrobe open.
- Check what is excluded. Balconies and terraces sit outside carpet area. A plan can be honest and still feel larger than the number suggests, or smaller.
Verify it yourself
Every registered project in Maharashtra is searchable on the MahaRERA portal by registration number. The registration lists the promoter, the sanctioned plans and the declared completion date. It takes about two minutes and it is the single most useful check a buyer can make.
Avenor Park is registered under P51800000340. The carpet areas on our floor plans page are the RERA carpet figures printed on the approved drawings — the same numbers, not a marketing version of them.
