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Real estate in India offers greater potential for growth and high ROI. The promising aspect is that both residential and commercial real estate are gaining equal importance. Home buying requires careful planning, proper budget allocation and scrutiny of properties. The cost of your flat is more often than not based on its saleable zone. But there are numerous ways to translate and calculate the saleable zone this may have an immense effect on the real range you get and your add up to buying cost.

Below terms will give you knowledge of what they mean and will help you in making better decisions:

Carpet Area

According RERA, carpet area is defined 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 includes the area covered by the internal partition walls of the apartment’

While the builders are now legally obliged to mention the carpet area to measure and price units, provisions have also been made for the increase and decrease in its measurement, while developing an under-construction project. If the carpet area is reduced through the course of the construction, the builder will have to refund the excess amount within 45 days, with annual interest, to the buyer. In case of an increase in the carpet area, the developer can also ask the buyer to pay the excess amount. However, the RERA caps the upper limit of the increase in carpet area at not be more than 3%.

RERA Carpet Area Includes             

1. Rooms – Living room, Bedrooms, Study, Dining Room, Dressing Room & Other Rooms
2. Kitchen & Bathrooms
3. Stores
4. Internal Walls
5. Cupboard Spaces
6. Staircases within the property unit

RERA Carpet Area Excludes

1. External Walls
2. Service Shafts
3. Common Areas – Lift, Staircase, Clubhouse etc.
4. Balconies, Terrace and Verandas

Built Up Area / Plinth Area

Built-up Area is total covered area of the apartment or commercial property unit. It can be calculated by adding areas of utility ducts within the property unit, external walls, Balconies / Terraces to the carpet area. 

Built up Area – Includes

1. Balcony
2. Service shafts
3. Mezzanine floor
4. Detached habitable areas such as servant’s room, etc.
5. Columns and Walls

Built up Area – Excludes

1. Lift and Lift lobby
2. Staircases
3. Clubhouse, swimming pool, etc.

Note:

Roughly built-up area is approximately 10% to 15% more than the carpet area 

Super Built up Area / Saleable Area

Super Built up Area is the Built up Area plus proportionate area of common area such as lobby, lift shaft, stairs, etc. Sometime it may also include the common areas such as swimming pool, clubhouse etc.

Generally Carpet area is around 70-80% of super built up area. But this percentage varies from project to project and builder to builder.

Payment is made on Super Built up area or Saleable Area

Super Built up Area includes

1. Entire Built up Area of the unit
2. Built up common areas – Lobby, Lift Shaft, Staircase, Pipe ducts / shafts, Air ducts, Covered club house, other covered common facilities.

Super Built up Area Excludes

1. Roof Terrace
2. Open Areas – Parks, Gardens, Play Areas, Driveways etc.

Note:

Roughly Super built-up area is approximately 25% to 30% more than the carpet area 

At OREL, our teams have extensively helped clients estimate their office space needs, How much space they need to plan for their office now and for their future projected growth.

In this article we will explain:

How to calculate the :

• Space Planning per Employee
• Occupancy and Office Density needs
• Plan for future growth

OREL Office Space Area calculator help you to calculate the area required for your office.                                              

Office Space Calculator

Space Planning  per Employee

Different Companies have varying needs on deliverables, employee comfort, productivity and collaborative space.

To understand these, the basic questions, you would need to as ask yourself:

• Maximize or minimize space allocated to each employee.
• Cabin space or open office.
• Individual desks or shared desks.
• Ratios of Permanent Office employees to Part time, flex or remote working.
• Space requirement of each department, if working styles and deliverables are different.
• Collaborative space, innovation centers, open areas.
• Operational Goals of the Company.

Density of Offices with Operational Examples

• High Density (60 – 100 square feet per employee): Majority open seating with few cabins. Eg: IT Software, BPO, Sales, Co-working, Customer Support.
• Average Density (100 – 200 square feet per employee): Mix of Cabins, Open seating.  Traditional office layout, catering to requirements of various departments.
• Spacious (200 – 400 square feet per employee): Majority of the space consisting of large private offices. Corporate offices, Law firms, consulting firms.

To calculate the Space requirement for your next office, multiply your employee headcount by the number of square feet per employee that best fits your occupancy needs.

For example, a 50 person company with average space requirements would need an estimated _______ square feet (50 people x 150 sf/employee). Keep in mind this number does not account for future growth, but we go into more detail on that topic later in this article.

Space Allocation

When looking at Square feet per employee, this includes the common areas, For example, when we say 150 sft per person this includes the percentage of common areas allocated to that persons with regard to conference rooms, reception area, cafeteria, circulation spaces etc.,

Common and breakout areas are important, as it promotes team work, effective collaboration, innovation, socialization and also has an effect on productivity.

Accommodate space for Future Expansion

When determining how much office space you need, it is vital to plan for growth.

The expense of terminating a lease early combined with the costs of finding and moving offices is expensive. Because of this, it can be beneficial to add 10% to 20% to the total square footage you calculated to accommodate future growth.

Calculate your Office Area

Now that you actually have an Idea of the work stations, private cabins, reception, cafeteria etc., you now need to know the unit sizes, numbers and common areas to actually know the space required for your next office. You can do this using our free Office Space Calculator.

Office Space Calculator

Our calculation is derived from a carefully-designed formula that weighs the number of employees, the amount of space desired for each employee and the use of common spaces.

This article is meant to give you an estimated range of how much space you will need. OREL, highly recommends working with a tenant representative and engaging an architect to determine exact requirements.

For further detailing of space planning for your office, kindly get in touch with us.