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An easy guide to real estate jargons

When buying a house, home buyers are often are confused by the myriad of technical words used in the company. Many customers are hesitant to clarify lest they are seen as ignorant or inadequate. But having a clear understanding of the various jargons used by the seller will help you make a more informed decision and know exactly what you are paying for.

 

Here we give you a lowdown on some of the more important jargons that you will come across with the sales teams, or in the brochures.

 

  1. Acre – Measurement of land. An acre of land comprises 4048.32 square meters or 43560 square feet.
  2. Towers or Blocks – These are the actual number of constructed buildings that will hold the given number of floors and units in each floor.
  3. Carpet Area -The actual wall-to-wall floor space of a unit.
  4. Built-up Area -Carpet area plus the thickness of all the walls of the unit, and balcony space.
  5. Super Built-up Area - Built-up area plus the common areas that are proportionally divided for each buyer. This is also called saleable area.
  6. FAR – Floor Area Ratio. This is calculated by dividing the total area of the building by the total area of the plot. It is used to decide the height of the buildings.
  7. Pre-launch -An offer given to buyers before the formal launch of the project. It is usually done to generate initial revenue to start the project. Buyers get to buy homes at an advantageous price, and also get to choose units at an early stage.
  8. RERA – Real Estate Regulation & Development Act.It is a govt body set up in 2016, to ensure protection for buyers, control the RE sector, uphold transparency of builders and to avoid malpractices.
  9. RERA Registration No. -Every qualifying project needs to register with RERA giving full details of a proposed project. The No. give by RERA needs to be always used in all marketing tools.
  10. Completion Certificate -A certificate given by the local corporation authority after inspection of the property, to say that the building has been completed as per plans and as per the building norms, with no deviations.
  11. Occupancy Certificate – A certificate issued by the local authority to the builder on completion of a project. To avail this certificate the builder has to first ensure civic facilities such as water, electricity, sanitation, etc have been supplied to the project.
  12. Maintenance Charges -This is charged to the owner for the upkeep of the property mainly the common areas, amenities,etc.
  13. Freehold Property -When a site which is completely owned by a person.
  14. Leasehold Property – As the name suggests, it is a property held under a lease.
  15. Katha -A certificate that is applied for by the owner, and given by the corporation authority. It is ultimate proof of ownership of the apartment.

These are the basic information on some of the terms. It is better to get detailed information from the builder, so that complete clarity will help you invest wisely and not face issues at a later stage of owning the property.

Here’s wishing you a happy and smart home hunting!