Builders sell more than carpet area

Navi Mumbai and Raigad builders will sell properties at exhibition from November 29 to December 3 at Seawoods on saleable area, which includes built up and super built up area

Builders sell more than carpet area

After the builders of the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI) in Mumbai sold properties on saleable area instead of carpet area earlier this month, the MCHI Navi Mumbai and Raigad units will hold a property exhibition from November 29 to December 3 at GS Tandel ground, off Palm Beach Road, Seawoods on similar lines.

This, in spite of MCHI’s code of conduct that builders should sell on carpet area — the area buyers will actually get to use.

According to builders, they don’t want homebuyers to get confused between saleable and carpet area. Saleable area includes carpet (area of house), built up (area of walls) and super built up (lobby, passage) area.u00a0

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Arvind Goel, president of MCHI-Navi Mumbai, said, “The government wants us to sell on carpet area, but then it goes on to register flats on the built-up area. Most of the buyers ask for saleable area.”

Rajesh Prajapati, the president of MCHI-Raigad unit agrees. “Instead of confusing the buyer with concepts of saleable and carpet areas, it’s better that the buyers are shown the saleable rates. We know the code of conduct says otherwise. However, selling on the basis of carpet area will confuse the buyer.”

On the other hand, homebuyers claim builders are trying their best to confuse them. “A common man understands the difference between carpet and built up, so there’s really no confusion. Builder can be honest and mention the carpet area rate,” said Purshottam Lakhani, a marketing profession.

Practially, builders do not suffer any loses even if they sell flats as per carpet area. A builder, on condition of anonymity, explained, “On the carpet area, the price goes up. So buyers think the builder is selling at a higher price than compared to the saleable price. Till the time there is no uniformity among builders, it is difficult to sell only on carpet area.”

Saleable v/s carpet
The prices in saleable are lower than carpet. If a 1,000 square foot carpet area flat is sold quoting the carpet area price at Rs 1 crore, the price per sq ft will be Rs 10,000. However, if the same flat were to be sold on the saleable area, the area will go up to 1,500 sq ft and the price per square foot will be Rs 6,600u00a0

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