How to Compare Two Residential Projects Like a Professional: The Carpet-Area, RERA and Track-Record Checklist

Most project comparisons stop at the brochure: price, location, amenities, a render. Professional buyers and advisors compare differently. They normalise every number to what you actually get to use, then test the promise of delivery against public records. The method below works for any two shortlisted projects, whether two towers on the same Gurgaon sector road or a Bengaluru villa project against an apartment in Chennai.

Step 1: Get the right area numbers in writing

Since the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, carpet area has a legal definition. Section 2(k) defines it as the net usable floor area of an apartment, excluding external walls, service shafts, exclusive balcony or verandah and exclusive open terrace, but including internal partition walls. Section 13 requires the agreement for sale to specify the carpet area. Ask each developer for the RERA carpet area, the area of balconies and terraces separately, and the super built-up area they use in marketing.

Ask for these numbers by email, unit by unit, rather than relying on a brochure or a sales presentation. Brochures often quote a range for a unit type, while your specific unit may sit at either end of it because of balcony size, column placement or a corner configuration. Having the figures in writing also helps later: the carpet area in the registered agreement should match what you were told, and if the delivered home is materially smaller, the written record is your starting point.

Step 2: Compute loading and price per carpet sq ft

• Loading % = (super built-up area − carpet area) ÷ carpet area × 100. It measures how much shared and wall area you pay for per square foot you use. Some advisors express it against super built-up area instead; pick one definition and use it for both projects.
• Price per carpet sq ft = all-in agreement value ÷ RERA carpet area. This is the single most comparable price metric across projects.
• Treat balconies and terraces separately. A large deck has real value, but it is not interior space; value it consciously rather than letting it hide in a loading figure.

Worked example: the 'cheaper' project that is not

Two hypothetical 3-bedroom homes, figures chosen for illustration:

• Project A: ₹2.40 crore; super built-up 2,400 sq ft; carpet 1,680 sq ft. Price per super built-up sq ft ₹10,000. Loading about 43%. Price per carpet sq ft about ₹14,290.
• Project B: ₹2.25 crore; super built-up 2,350 sq ft; carpet 1,550 sq ft. Price per super built-up sq ft about ₹9,570. Loading about 52%. Price per carpet sq ft about ₹14,520.
• Reading: B advertises a lower rate and a lower ticket, but you pay about ₹230 more for every square foot you can actually use, and you get 130 sq ft less interior space.

Step 3: Build the all-in cost, not the base price

• Base price, floor-rise and preferential location charges.
• Car parking, club membership, power backup and utility connection charges.
• Advance maintenance and corpus or sinking fund deposits.
• GST if under construction: an effective 5% for non-affordable homes, nil once a completion or occupancy certificate is issued (see our separate GST guide).
• Stamp duty and registration: about 7.6% in Bengaluru, 5-7% plus up to ₹50,000 in Gurugram, 11% in Chennai, per our state comparison.
• Recompute price per carpet sq ft on the all-in figure. Differences of 3-6% between projects often appear only at this stage.

Step 4: Read both projects' RERA pages

• Registration validity and the proposed completion date the promoter declared to the regulator. Compare it with the possession date in the builder's draft agreement; if the agreement promises later, the RERA date is the one that protects you.
• Quarterly progress: promoters must keep their project page updated, including bookings, approvals and construction status. Haryana's Gurugram authority, for instance, has quarterly progress report regulations covering funds withdrawn from the RERA account, sources of funds and tower-wise physical progress.
• The 70% account: promoters must deposit 70% of buyer collections in a separate account used only for that project's land and construction cost, with withdrawals certified by an engineer, an architect and a chartered accountant (section 4(2)(l)(D); Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas).
• Extensions: a project that has already sought, or been refused, an extension is a signal. In April 2024, for example, HRERA Gurugram refused an extension of registration validity for a Godrej Developers project, as reported by The Week.

Step 5: Check the builder's track record in public records

• List the builder's completed projects in the same city and check, on the RERA portal, whether they were delivered by the declared date.
• Search the regulator's orders and complaints by promoter name. A handful of complaints is normal for a large developer; a pattern on delay, refunds or specification changes is not.
• Visit a completed project of similar vintage and price. Look at common-area maintenance, facade condition and how the association describes handover.
• Ask who the contractor is and whether the same team built the projects you inspected.

Step 6: Compare the agreement, not the brochure

• Section 13 bars a promoter from taking more than 10% of the cost as an advance before a registered agreement for sale.
• Look for the payment plan's link to construction milestones, the delay compensation clause, and the specification schedule.
• Remember your statutory rights regardless of the draft: under section 18, if possession is delayed you may withdraw with a refund plus interest or stay and claim interest for every month of delay; under section 14(3), structural and workmanship defects reported within five years of possession must be fixed by the promoter, normally within 30 days.

A one-page comparison template

• RERA registration number, validity, proposed completion date.
• Carpet area, balcony/terrace area, super built-up area, loading %.
• All-in price and price per carpet sq ft (with and without statutory costs).
• Construction status from the latest quarterly update, and date of that update.
• Builder's on-time delivery record in this city; open complaints or orders.
• Density: units per acre and lift-to-unit ratio, from the approved plan.
• Exit view: resale and rental depth in the micro-market, using comparable transactions rather than asking prices.

Step 7: Test location and liveability on the ground

• Commute at peak hours, not on a Sunday, to the places you actually go.
• Visit at night: lighting, noise, and what the approach road feels like.
• Check water source and supply arrangements with existing residents nearby.
• Look at what is approved around the plot. A view sold today can be built out tomorrow.
• Count the lifts per tower against the number of homes they serve.

Weighting the scorecard

Once both projects are on one page, decide what matters to you before you look at the totals. An end-user family might weight delivery certainty and liveability most heavily; an investor might weight price per carpet sq ft, rental depth and exit liquidity. A simple method is to score each line from one to five, multiply by a weight you set in advance, and add up. The point is not the arithmetic; it is forcing the trade-offs into the open so a striking clubhouse render does not outweigh a two-year gap in the builder's delivery record.

If the two projects are close, our suggested tie-breakers are delivery record and then price per carpet sq ft.