Carpet Area vs RERA Carpet in Tender Documents: Why It Matters

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

Carpet area is the net usable floor area inside your flat, measured excluding the thickness of walls. DCPR 2034 uses the same meaning as RERA 2016, so RERA carpet and DCPR carpet are the same thing. The other two are wider:

• Built-up area adds the wall thickness and balconies.
• Super built-up area adds a share of lobbies, staircases, lifts and other common space — a loading the developer decides, not the law.

The same flat can be described three ways, and the super built-up figure always sounds biggest.

What the statute actually says

Section 2(k) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 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 including the area covered by the internal partition walls of the apartment. DCPR 2034 states that carpet area carries the same meaning as under RERA.

Source: RERA 2016, section 2(k); DCPR 2034 (sanctioned), Regulation 2.

The clause to put in the tender

Require every bidder to quote on one basis and to define it in the document itself. A clause along these lines removes the ambiguity entirely:

“All areas offered in this tender are carpet areas as defined in section 2(k) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016, and shall be stated in square metres with the square foot equivalent in brackets. The Developer shall furnish a flat-wise carpet area statement certified by the Project Architect before execution of the Permanent Alternate Accommodation Agreement.”

Insist on square metres as the governing unit. Square feet is a conversion, and conversions drift.

Why do bids become impossible to compare?

Suppose three developers each offer “35% more area”. If one quotes on carpet, another on built-up and the third on super built-up, the flats you actually receive differ a great deal, though the headline number looks identical. This is the commonest way societies are short-changed — not by fraud, but by loose wording.

Insist that every tender response states existing and proposed area on RERA carpet, in sq.ft, flat by flat. Convert any figure a bidder gives you with the carpet and built-up converter, then place the corrected numbers side by side in the offer comparison tool.

What should the society put in writing?

Write it into the tender itself: all areas to be quoted on RERA carpet, with the definition reproduced. Carry the same basis into the registered Development Agreement and the PAAA, and ask for stamped floor plans with dimensions. Under RERA 2016 the agreement for sale must state carpet area, so any other figure is only marketing. If you want a rough sense of the extra area your own building might support before the bids arrive, work it out on the additional area calculator — every plot is different, so use your own numbers rather than a rule of thumb.