A 2032 possession date, which is what secondary sources report for Sattva City, is not just a long wait. It is a cost. Between EMI starting before handover and rent continuing until it, buyers routinely pay for two homes at once for years, and almost nobody models the number before signing.

What cost of carry actually means

Cost of carry is everything you pay between booking and moving in, over and above the price of the home itself.

It has three parts. Interest on the amounts disbursed so far. Rent on wherever you are living meanwhile. And the return you are not earning on the money already paid in.

On a two-year build, this is a manageable number. On a six or seven-year one, it becomes one of the largest costs in the transaction and it is entirely invisible on the price list.

The reason it matters now is that possession horizons have stretched. A township launching in 2026 for 2032 delivery asks you to carry the position for six years before you get a key.

There is a fourth component people forget: the statutory charges. GST, stamp duty and registration are paid during the build, not at handover, and on a Bengaluru purchase that is roughly 12.6% of the price leaving your account years before you move in.

That money is not financed by the bank and earns nothing while it sits in the transaction. It belongs in the carry calculation as much as the interest does.

How construction-linked payment works against you

Most large projects use a construction-linked plan. You pay in tranches as slabs are cast, and the bank disburses against those tranches.

Interest starts on each disbursement from the day it is made. By the third year of a build you may be servicing interest on half the loan value while living somewhere else entirely.

Banks usually offer a pre-EMI option, where you pay only interest until possession. That keeps the monthly figure lower and builds no equity whatsoever — your principal at possession is exactly what it was at the start.

Full EMI from the start costs more monthly but reduces principal throughout. Which is right depends on your cash flow, but you should choose it deliberately rather than default into pre-EMI because the number looked smaller.

The tax position, stated carefully

This is the part most buyers get wrong, and it is worth checking with your own advisor because personal circumstances vary.

The broad position is that the deduction on home loan interest under the relevant provisions generally becomes available from the year construction is completed and possession taken, not during construction.

Interest paid before possession is generally claimable afterwards, in instalments over a number of years, subject to the applicable ceiling.

The practical consequence on a long build is that you may be paying substantial interest for several years while getting no current-year relief on it. If your purchase model assumes the deduction from day one, the model is wrong.

This is general information, not tax advice. Rules change and individual positions differ. Confirm with a qualified advisor before relying on it.

A worked way to think about it

You do not need precision here. You need the order of magnitude, and it takes ten minutes.

1. Take the payment schedule and note roughly when each tranche falls due.
2. Estimate the loan disbursed at the midpoint of the construction period.
3. Apply your interest rate to that average, across the number of years to possession.
4. Add your current annual rent across the same years.
5. Compare the total to your booking amount and to the price of the home.

Most buyers are surprised by step five. On a six-year horizon the carry frequently exceeds the entire down payment, and it is money that buys no equity in anything.

Run the same sum on a shorter-horizon project for comparison. A ready or nearly ready home at a higher price can work out cheaper in total once the carry is included, which is the comparison almost nobody makes.

That is the useful output here. Not a verdict on any one project, but a number that lets you compare an under-construction purchase with a finished one on the same basis.

When a long possession is still the right buy

None of this argues against buying early. It argues against buying early without doing the sum.

A long-horizon purchase makes sense when the entry price is genuinely below what the finished product will be worth, when you are not simultaneously paying high rent, or when you are buying a unit position that will not be available later.

It makes poor sense when you are stretching, when you need the home by a particular date, or when the rent you are paying meanwhile is close to what the EMI will be.

The clearest test we know: if the carry number makes you uncomfortable, the purchase is too large, not the timeline too long. Buy a smaller unit in the same project rather than the same unit on hope.

Keep one more thing in reserve. A long build is exactly the period in which job changes, relocations and family circumstances happen, so ask what the agreement says about transferring or exiting your booking before possession.

Those terms vary widely between developers and they are rarely discussed at booking. They are worth reading closely when the horizon is six years rather than two.

Tax and lending commentary here is general information, not personalised advice; rules change and individual positions differ, so confirm with a qualified advisor. 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.