Super Built-Up Area
Built-up area plus proportionate share of common areas such as lobby, staircase, lift shaft, and terrace. Used for pricing pre-RERA; now discouraged but still appears in resale transactions.
What is Super Built-Up Area?
Super built-up area — sometimes called saleable area — is the built-up area of an individual apartment plus the buyer's proportionate share of common areas in the building. Common areas included in the calculation typically are: entrance lobby, staircase, lift shafts and machine rooms, common corridors, pump rooms, generator rooms, and sometimes podium and terrace areas.
Pre-RERA, this was the dominant pricing unit. A builder could quote ₹5,000/sqft on a 1,200 sqft super built-up apartment, collecting ₹60 lakh — yet only deliver 780 sqft of usable space (carpet area). The markup was legal but opaque.
Why It Still Matters
RERA mandates carpet-area pricing for all new projects registered after May 2017. However, super built-up area remains relevant in several situations:
- Resale market: Pre-RERA sale deeds and allotment letters use super built-up area. When buying resale, you must convert to carpet area to compare with new projects.
- Society maintenance charges: Many housing societies still levy maintenance on super built-up area, even post-RERA
- Older RERA filings: Some projects registered early in RERA's rollout filed both carpet and super built-up areas; buyers must read disclosures carefully
- Plotted development and villas: These do not follow the carpet area rule in the same way as apartments
How to Calculate Super Built-Up Area
Super built-up area = Built-up area + (Proportionate share of common areas). The proportionate share is typically calculated as:
(Your carpet area ÷ Total carpet area of all apartments) × Total common area of building
In a typical Bangalore high-rise, the common area loading is 30–38% of carpet area, making the super built-up area 1.30× to 1.38× the carpet area. In premium projects with large lobbies, club facilities, and sky decks, loading can reach 45%.
State-Wise Context
Maharashtra and Karnataka adopted RERA most rigorously and today nearly all new projects price on carpet area. However, in some Tier-2 cities and states where RERA enforcement is weaker, super built-up pricing persists informally. Always check the RERA registration certificate to confirm which area type is being quoted.
How Brickplot Uses This
All Brickplot price-per-sqft metrics are on carpet area. When a listing only discloses super built-up area (common in resale data), we apply the project's disclosed loading factor from RERA filings to back-calculate carpet area. If no RERA data is available, we flag the listing and apply a conservative 30% loading assumption, with a disclaimer displayed to users.
Related Terms
- Carpet Area — the net usable floor area, RERA's mandatory pricing unit
- Built-Up Area — carpet area plus wall thickness
- Loading Factor — the percentage premium of super built-up over carpet area
Related terms
Brickplot verifies super built-up area disclosures on every reviewed project as part of the independent 11-axis score. No builder commissions. No editorial override.