• Carpet area as per Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, means net usable floor area of your flat or space excluding external walls, balcony, common passage, open terrace & internal partition walls of the apartment. In simple words, it is the area of your property that can actually be covered by a carpet.
• Built-up area is the area which is used to construct walls and inner partitions of your property. It is generally considered that 20% of area + 10% area from dry balcony, flower beds etc. falls under built-up area, so you get 70% of area to be used actually. For example, if your property is of 1000 sq.ft. then 30% (300 sq.ft) is built-up area and remaining 70% (700 sq.ft.) is your carpet area.
• Super built-up area is the addition of common areas such as corridor, entrance lobby, lift etc. and built-up area of your property. Some builders also add amenities like gymnasium, club house, swimming pool, lawns etc. as a common area to increase their super built-up area.

RERA stands for Real Estate Regulatory Authority. RERA Act was introduced in the year 2016 with a main objective to protect the interest of home buyers as well as bring about standardization in the real estate sector. As a buyer, you must check whether property is RERA registered or not because of following benefits:

• You get the right information about the property like plan layout, plan of execution, completion stages, the status of completion, etc.
• Previously, each builder has its own formula to calculate the carpet area of property, but now with the introduction of RERA Act, a standardized version of calculating carpet area is introduced. All builders now need to clarify how much carpet area they are offering to their buyers.
• As per the RERA Act, builder is responsible for any defect or fault in the construction of your property up to 5 years from the date of possession and repairing has to be done within 30 days once fault is detected.
• According to RERA Act, if builder fails to deliver or complete the project as per their delivery commitments, they will have to face the huge penalties.
• You can file grievances against your builder directly with Appellate Tribunal if you are not satisfied with the construction or if there is any issue with your property. Your case will be surely addressed within 60 days by this tribunal.

According to the Registration Act, 1908, the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 and the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, it is mandatory to register agreement for sale of any immovable property. Once agreement for sale is registered of an immovable property, it becomes a permanent public record. In addition to this, any person becomes the legal owner of an immovable property only after registering such property in his/her name.

Once you have finalized your property, you must check some important documents before proceeding further. You must carry out a thorough search to check the following:

• Approved plan of the building along with number of floors
• Title of land ownership
• Urban land selling NOC
• NOC from electricity, water and lift authorities
• Built up area and carpet area offered
• Sale deed
• Completion Certificate (if newly constructed)
• Commencement Certificate (if under construction)
• Conversion certificate (If agriculture land is used for construction purpose)
• Tax receipts

Once you are done with formal procedures to buy a property, you need to pay the following taxes:

• Stamp Duty
• Goods and Service Tax (GST)
• TDS if purchase of property exceeds Rs. 50 Lacs
• VAT – IF applicable in the concerned state

Many leading banks offer home loan facilities with attractive interest rates and general eligibility conditions to avail home loan are as follows:

• Borrower should be resident of India or NRI
• Age limit – Above 24 years and below 60 years (65 for self-employed)

Bank or financing authorities will need your following documents to process your home loan application:

• Identity Proof – PAN Card, Aadhar Card, Voting ID
• Income Proof –
• For salaried applicant – Last 3 month salary slips & form 16 for last 3 years
• For Self employed applicants – IT returns for last 3 years
• Bank statement – last 6 months