Gujarat has Highest Quantum of SBUA in the Country
Today real-estate projects in Gujarat have the highest quantum of super-built-up-area (SBUA) in the country, even more than some of the Tier-I cities like Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore. Developers in the state employ the maximum SBUA, which stands at 50% of the carpet area (defined as the actual area the buyer uses) of both residential and commercial spaces. This means that for every 1000 square feet of space a customer buys, he gets to use only half the area.
Nandlal Kishore got the shock of his life when during a routine search for a house in Ahmedabad, he found a builder selling houses that had sizes only half of what he would actually pay for. In this case, for a 1200 square feet house that Kishore planned to buy, he would get to use only 600 square feet. The rest of the area that he is supposed to pay for were common areas like passages, cellars, foyers, staircases that form a part of the super built-up area, a vaguely calculated concept that experts believe have to be done away with.
A few years ago, developers used to employ the concept of Built-up area (BUA). This will involve the space covered by the thickness of the inner and outer walls of the flat. Thus BUA turns out to be around 15% of the carpet area of the flat. The developers later brought in the concept of SBUA where common areas were also added to the BUA.
“About a decade ago, builders used to employ super built up of a maximum of 15%, today this proportion has risen across cities in the country,” says Jaxay Shah, vice-president, CREDAI (Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India), a national body of developers which has floated “mission transparency” that aims to bring about greater clarity in dealings of the real-estate sector, including the concept of SBUA. CREDAI had recently asked all developers association across the country to declare the carpet area in their brochures of their projects.
“Developers in Surat on an average employ one of the highest percentages of SBUA in the country. At 50% of the carpet area (defined as the actual area the buyer uses), the city has the highest percentage of SBUA,” says Nirav Kothary, regional director , Jones Lang LaSalle while explaining the concept of SBUA which has no set method of calculation to include common areas in a project passages, foyers and staircases. Similarly, developers in Ahmedabad and Rajkot employ 40% and 45% respectively of super built-up in both residential and commercial structures. Only Mumbai has similar figures. While the maximum SBUA employed for a residential unit in Mumbai is 50%, it is as high as 70% for a commercial structure.
When compared with Tier-II cities like Chandigarh (30%), Kochi (25%) this percentage of SBUA employed by developers in Gujarat is much more. Even in bigger metros where real-estate has a higher premium, the SBUA is far lower than those in Gujarat. For instance, Bangalore has the lowest percentage of SBUA in the country – 20%. Larger property markets like Delhi, Chennai , Kolkata have a maximum SBUA of 30%.
Old hands in the profession say that this quantum of SBUA has steadily risen over the years and today stand at a point when some sort of intervention or self-discipline seems necessary.
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