Three numbers describe the same flat and only one of them is the floor you walk on. Here is how to compare listings honestly.
If you are comparing two flats and one quotes 1,100 and the other quotes 750, you may be looking at the same amount of floor.
The three numbers
Carpet area is the usable floor inside your walls — the area you could actually lay carpet on. This is the honest number.
Built-up area adds the thickness of your walls and typically the balcony.
Super built-up area adds your share of common spaces: lobbies, staircases, lifts, sometimes the clubhouse. It is the largest number, and historically it was the one splashed across advertising, because it makes the flat sound bigger and the per-square-foot rate sound lower.
The gap between carpet and super built-up — the "loading" — has often run around 25–40%, and it is not standardised. Two developers can quote super built-up on entirely different bases.
RERA fixed the worst of this
Under RERA, developers must disclose carpet area, defined consistently. That was a genuine improvement, and it is why you should insist on carpet area for every comparison you make.
Some resale listings and older marketing still lead with super built-up. That is not necessarily dishonest — but it is not comparable.
The practical rule
Compare carpet to carpet. Always. If a listing will not give you a carpet number, that reluctance is information.
Then look past the number entirely and at the layout. An efficiently planned 750 sq. ft. carpet flat — minimal passage waste, properly proportioned rooms — lives considerably larger than a badly planned 850. Floor plans matter more than totals.
We quote carpet area on every listing on this site, for exactly this reason.
