Maintenance is the cost buyers forget to model and then pay every month for as long as they own the home. On a township like Sattva City, with four clubhouses and more than 250 listed amenities, it is a substantial line. Here is how CAM, corpus and sinking fund actually work in Bengaluru, and what you can be charged for before anything is built.

The three charges, and what each is for

These get used interchangeably in sales conversations and they are entirely different things.

CAM is the one that lands monthly and the one worth modelling. Corpus is large but once. Sinking fund is the one most associations underfund, and the one that produces surprise levies fifteen years in.

There is a fourth item worth naming, because it appears on bills and confuses people: property tax. That is a statutory charge payable to the municipal body, entirely separate from the three above, and it is not part of maintenance at all.

Some associations collect it alongside maintenance for convenience. If yours does, ask for the split on the bill so you can see what is running cost and what is tax.

How CAM is calculated, and why the rate matters more than the total

In Bengaluru, CAM is almost always quoted per square foot per month, on super built-up area.

So the number to ask for is the rate. A 1,323 sq ft apartment at four rupees a square foot is about ₹5,300 a month. The same flat at seven rupees is over ₹9,200 — nearly ₹47,000 a year more, every year.

Amenity-heavy townships sit at the higher end for the obvious reason. Clubhouses have staff, pools have chemicals and filtration, landscaped acres have gardeners, and all of it runs whether you use it or not.

Ask for the projected rate in writing before booking, and ask what it is based on. A developer projecting a low rate on a 250-amenity township should be able to show the arithmetic.

The charge that catches phase-one buyers

Here is the situation that produces most maintenance disputes on large townships in Bengaluru.

You take possession in an early phase. Two of the four clubhouses are not built. The central park is a construction lay-down yard. And your maintenance bill arrives at the full projected rate.

Whether that is fair depends entirely on what your agreement says. Some developers pro-rate the charge until facilities are delivered. Others bill the full rate from handover, on the basis that the cost structure is already committed.

Neither approach is unusual and only one of them is in your agreement. Find out which before you sign, because it can be years of difference.

Our guide to Lodha Beaumont Estate vs Prestige Parklane covers the wider version of this problem.

Corpus and sinking fund: the two deposits

Corpus is collected at handover, typically as a lump sum per square foot. The principle is that it is invested and the returns subsidise running costs, so it should not be consumed.

In practice, whether that happens depends on who controls it. Ask when the corpus transfers from the developer to the owners association, and in what form. Cash in an association account is a different thing from a promise on a spreadsheet.

Sinking fund is built up from monthly contributions and exists for major capital work. Lifts need replacing. External paint needs redoing. Waterproofing fails.

An association with no sinking fund handles those with a special levy, which means a five or six figure demand landing on every owner at once. It is the single most avoidable financial shock in apartment ownership, and it is avoided by contributing properly from year one.

What to ask before you book

Six questions. They take one conversation and they will save you from the two most common maintenance surprises.

1. Projected CAM rate per square foot per month, in writing.
2. Corpus amount per square foot, and when it is collected.
3. How CAM is billed before all amenities are delivered — full rate or pro-rated.
4. When the association is formed and when the corpus transfers to it.
5. Whether a sinking fund is planned and at what contribution rate.
6. What the developer charges for maintenance during the period it manages the property.

Then do the arithmetic across ten years. On an amenity-rich township, maintenance over a decade can run to a meaningful fraction of the purchase price, and almost nobody models it.

Build in an increase while you are at it. Maintenance rates rise with wages, power tariffs and the ageing of equipment, so a flat ten-year projection at today’s rate will understate the total.

The last thing worth asking is when the association takes over from the developer. Until it does, you are paying rates you did not vote on, for a service level you cannot change, and that handover is often slower than buyers expect.

One final practical suggestion. Find a completed project by the same developer, and ask a resident what they actually pay per square foot and whether the amenities are properly staffed. Owners are candid about this in a way sales teams are not.

That one conversation is worth more than any projection you will be shown, because it is the same developer running the same kind of asset.

Figures above are drawn from published project information and are indicative. Where sources conflicted we have stated both positions rather than picking one. Verify any registration yourself on the Karnataka RERA portal before paying a booking amount.