Stamp duty and registration charges in Bangalore now take roughly 7.5% of a property’s value off you in cash, on top of the price. That number went up in 2025 and a lot of people have not noticed: the registration charge doubled from 1% to 2% on 31 August 2025, the first change to it since 2003. On a ₹1 crore flat that is an extra ₹1 lakh you did not have to find before.
Key takeaways
- Stamp duty runs on a slab: 2% under ₹20 lakh, 3% from ₹20–45 lakh, 5% above ₹45 lakh.
- Registration charge is 2%, up from 1% with effect from 31 August 2025.
- Cess and surcharge add roughly another 0.5%, taking a typical Bengaluru flat to about 7.5% all in.
- These are charged on the higher of your sale price or the government guidance value — not on what you paid.
- None of it is financeable. Your home loan does not cover it. This is cash, at registration.
Want the real number on a specific flat? Send us the project and the size and we will work the whole cost sheet out with you, line by line. Free, on anything — including projects on our Bengaluru listings.
What you actually pay
Three separate charges get collected at registration, and people routinely budget for only the first one.
| Charge | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Stamp duty | 2% / 3% / 5% | Slab by property value — see below |
| Registration charge | 2% | Was 1% until 31 August 2025 |
| Cess and surcharge | ≈ 0.5% | Calculated on the stamp duty; differs urban vs rural |
| Typical total, flat above ₹45 L | ≈ 7.5% | Of the higher of price or guidance value |
The stamp duty slab is the part most people get right:
- Below ₹20 lakh — 2%
- ₹20 lakh to ₹45 lakh — 3%
- Above ₹45 lakh — 5%
Almost every apartment in Bengaluru worth buying sits in that top band, so in practice you are working with 5% plus 2% plus change.
What the 2025 change actually cost you
The registration charge in Karnataka had been 1% since 2003. From 31 August 2025 it is 2%, across residential, commercial and plotted transactions. It is a small-sounding number attached to a large one.
Work it through on a ₹1 crore flat. Stamp duty at 5% is ₹5,00,000. Registration at the old 1% was ₹1,00,000; at 2% it is ₹2,00,000. Add cess and surcharge of roughly ₹50,000 and you are at about ₹7,50,000 against ₹6,50,000 before.
That difference is not trivial and it is not financeable. It is a lakh of cash, due on the day you register, that a budget built on older advice will not have allowed for.
The guidance value trap
Here is the part that catches people who negotiated well, and it is the single most misunderstood rule in Karnataka property.
Stamp duty and registration are calculated on the higher of two numbers: the price on your sale agreement, or the government’s guidance value for that property. Not the one you paid. The higher one.
So a good negotiation does not reduce your stamp duty. If the guidance value is ₹1.1 crore and you talked the seller down to ₹1 crore, you still pay duty on ₹1.1 crore. Your saving is real, but it is smaller than you think, because roughly 7.5% of the gap goes to the government anyway.
Guidance value is revised periodically and Bengaluru saw movement twice in 2026 — reported at 6–15% within urban limits in February, and zone-wise increases of 12–30% announced in April. Check the current figure for your specific property on the Kaveri portal run by the Karnataka Department of Stamps and Registration before you finalise a budget. Third-party sites routinely show values from an earlier revision cycle.
A worked example, start to finish
Take a ready flat at ₹85 lakh — roughly the entry point at a project like Prestige Sunrise Park in Electronic City — and assume the guidance value comes in below the sale price, so duty is charged on ₹85 lakh.
| Line | Working | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Sale consideration | — | ₹85,00,000 |
| Stamp duty | 5% (above ₹45 L) | ₹4,25,000 |
| Registration charge | 2% | ₹1,70,000 |
| Cess and surcharge | ≈ 0.5% | ≈ ₹42,500 |
| Cash needed at registration | ≈ 7.5% | ≈ ₹6,37,500 |
Six and a third lakh, in cash, on top of your down payment. And that is before legal fees, society corpus, maintenance advance, or GST if the property is under construction.
This is why our cost breakdowns always separate the financeable part from the non-financeable part. Your bank lends against the property value. It does not lend you the stamp duty.
When GST applies on top
Stamp duty and registration apply to every transfer. GST does not, and the distinction is worth real money.
- Under-construction property — GST applies, and it sits on top of everything above.
- Completed property with an occupancy certificate — no GST on the sale. This is one of the strongest arguments for buying ready, and it rarely features in a launch pitch.
- Resale — no GST, but watch for a developer transfer fee if the handover has not happened yet.
So two flats at the same headline price can differ by several lakh in what actually leaves your account, purely on construction status. Ask which side of that line you are on before comparing prices between projects.
There is a second-order effect worth thinking about if you are weighing a launch against a ready flat. The launch price is usually lower, and the GST is usually payable, and the two partly cancel. Run both all-in numbers rather than comparing the two headline rates, because the headline rate is the one number in this transaction that nobody actually pays.
One more thing on timing. Stamp duty is due when the document is registered, not when you book. On an under-construction purchase that can be years after you commit, by which point the rate may have changed — as it just did. Budget against today’s rate, and treat any increase between booking and registration as your risk, because that is exactly where it sits.
The charges nobody quotes in the first conversation
Stamp duty and registration are the two everyone knows about. They are not the whole of what lands in the same fortnight, and the rest is where budgets quietly break.
| Charge | Roughly | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Khata transfer | Varies | Getting the civic record into your name after registration |
| Legal and documentation | ₹15,000 – ₹50,000 | Title check, drafting, vetting. Worth every rupee on a resale |
| Society corpus / sinking fund | One-off, often lakhs | Collected by the developer at handover |
| Maintenance advance | 12 – 24 months up front | Charged per sq ft, payable before you get keys |
| Parking | Project-specific | Sometimes bundled, sometimes a separate line |
| Loan processing | 0.25% – 1% of loan | Plus valuation and legal fees the bank charges you |
None of these are statutory, which is exactly why they vary so much and why they are negotiable in a way stamp duty never is. Corpus and maintenance advance in particular are developer-set numbers, and on a large project they can add up to more than the registration charge you have been worrying about.
The practical move is to ask for a written, itemised statement of everything payable from booking through to handover, before you pay the booking amount rather than after. A developer who will not produce one is telling you something useful. So is one who produces it immediately, and we have seen both.
For an under-construction purchase, ask specifically when each item falls due. Some are payable at booking, some at agreement, some at each construction milestone and some only at handover. Two projects with identical totals can have very different cash-flow demands, and on a four-year build that difference matters more to most buyers than a small gap in the headline rate.
What to do before you sign anything
- Pull the guidance value yourself on the Kaveri portal for the exact property, not the locality average.
- Budget 7.5% in cash for a flat above ₹45 lakh, separately from your down payment, and confirm the rate on the day — statutory charges change and this one changed in 2025.
- Establish the GST position in writing: under construction or completed with OC.
- Ask what else is collected at registration. Khata transfer, legal charges and society deposits all land in the same week.
- Check the Khata before, not after. A property with the wrong Khata status can stall a registration entirely — our e-Khata sample walkthrough shows what to look for.
The order matters more than it looks. Guidance value first, because it sets the base everything else is calculated on. GST position second, because it can move the total by lakhs. Khata third, because a problem there delays the registration rather than changing its cost. People tend to do these in the opposite order and find out about the expensive one last.
And get the final figure from the sub-registrar’s office or your lawyer on the day, not from a blog. That includes this one. We have set out the rates as they stand in September 2026 and shown our working so you can check it, but statutory charges are exactly the thing that changes without much warning, and the 2025 registration increase is proof of it.
Common questions
What are the stamp duty and registration charges in Bangalore in 2026?
Stamp duty runs 2% below ₹20 lakh, 3% from ₹20–45 lakh and 5% above ₹45 lakh. The registration charge is 2%. Cess and surcharge add roughly another 0.5%, so a flat above ₹45 lakh costs about 7.5% of value in statutory charges.
When did the registration charge in Karnataka change from 1% to 2%?
With effect from 31 August 2025. It was the first revision since 2003 and applies to residential, commercial and plotted transactions. On a ₹1 crore property it adds ₹1 lakh.
Is stamp duty calculated on the sale price or the guidance value?
On whichever is higher. If the guidance value exceeds the price you negotiated, duty is charged on the guidance value, so a good negotiation does not reduce your stamp duty proportionally.
Can stamp duty be included in a home loan?
No. Banks lend against the property value; stamp duty, registration and cess are paid in cash at registration. Budget them separately from your down payment.
Do I pay GST as well?
Only on under-construction property. A completed flat with an occupancy certificate attracts no GST on sale, and nor does a resale — though a pre-handover resale may carry a developer transfer fee.
Where do I check the current guidance value?
On the Kaveri portal run by the Karnataka Department of Stamps and Registration, for the specific property rather than the locality. Bengaluru guidance values were revised twice during 2026, so older third-party figures are unreliable.
Related reading
- The under-construction buyer’s checklist for Bengaluru
- What ₹1.5 crore buys on Sarjapur Road, after statutory charges
- Occupancy certificate vs completion certificate, and why the OC decides your GST
- How to check a project’s RERA registration in Karnataka
- BBMP is gone — the Greater Bengaluru Authority, explained
- e-Khata sample: a real certificate, field by field
- What buying a plot in Karnataka actually costs
- Prestige Sunrise Park, Electronic City: ready to move, no GST
Want the full cost sheet on a specific flat?
Tell us the project and the size and we will work out everything that leaves your account — duty, registration, cess, GST where it applies, and the charges nobody quotes up front. No charge, and booking through us costs exactly what going direct costs.
