“Price on request” is one of the most common phrases in Indian property marketing and one of the least examined. Purva Hennur carries no published price at all, which is why our listing page for it omits the cost sections entirely. Here is why developers withhold prices, what it does and does not signal, and how to get a real number.
Key takeaways
- A withheld price is usually about flexibility, not concealment.
- Published prices go stale and create liability; sales channels move faster.
- It is a negotiating position too — anchoring works better in conversation.
- Insist on a written price for your configuration, on letterhead or official email.
- Then ask what it excludes, which is where the real number hides.
The example: Purva Hennur — no price published anywhere, so our listing page omits the pricing table and cost breakdown rather than estimating them. Details there.
Why prices get withheld
Four reasons, and most of them are commercial rather than sinister.
Prices move. On a long-selling project, pricing changes between phases and as inventory depletes. A published figure is out of date quickly and a stale price on a website is a genuine liability.
Configurations differ widely. A single headline number invites comparison against a unit that may not exist, and a full price list is commercially sensitive.
Negotiation. A developer that opens in conversation rather than in print keeps room to respond to a serious buyer, and anchoring works better face to face.
Pre-launch caution. Before registration, pricing may genuinely not be fixed, and quoting a number that later moves damages trust more than saying nothing.
None of that is a warning sign by itself. What matters is whether you can get a real number when you ask directly, and in writing.
What it does and does not signal
Worth separating, because buyers read too much into it in both directions.
| Reading | Usually accurate? |
|---|---|
| “It must be expensive” | Not reliably — mid-market projects do it too |
| “They are hiding something” | Rarely — it is standard commercial practice |
| “There is room to negotiate” | Sometimes, on slow-moving inventory |
| “The price is not fixed yet” | Often true pre-registration |
The last row is the useful one. On a pre-launch project without RERA registration, there frequently is no settled price, and a figure quoted to you is an expectation rather than an offer.
That is exactly the situation where you should not be paying anything non-refundable — see what you give up buying before registration exists.
The third row deserves a note too. Room to negotiate depends far more on how the project is selling than on whether a price is published, and absorption is something you can check independently.
A project with substantial unsold inventory well after launch has more reason to be flexible than one selling out, whatever its pricing policy — see what an availability figure tells you.
How to get a real number
Six steps, and they work.
- Ask for a specific configuration, not “the price”. Name the bedroom count and the tower if you can.
- Ask in writing — email is fine — and ask for the reply in writing too.
- Ask for it on letterhead or from an official domain, not a channel partner screenshot.
- Ask for the cost sheet, which is the itemised document rather than a headline figure.
- Ask what the figure excludes, item by item.
- Ask how long it holds, because a quote with no validity period is not a quote.
Step four is the one that changes the conversation. A cost sheet is a standard internal document listing base price, floor rise, preferred location charges, parking, club, corpus and statutory charges, and asking for it by name signals that you know what you are doing.
Step six matters more than people expect. On a rising market, a quote that holds for seven days and one that holds for sixty are very different things.
What the base price excludes
This is where the number you were given becomes the number you pay, and the gap is routinely twenty per cent or more.
Floor rise: a per-floor increment above a base floor. On a tall tower it compounds into a large sum.
Preferred location charges: for corner units, better facing, park or lake views.
Car parking: often charged separately, and a second space more so, where available at all.
Club membership or corpus: one-time amounts at handover, sometimes substantial.
Statutory charges: GST, stamp duty, registration, cess and surcharge — roughly 12.6% in Bengaluru and never included in a quoted price. See our Bangalore cost breakdown.
Ask for each of these explicitly. A cost sheet that lists them is a developer being straightforward; a headline price with none of them mentioned is the start of a conversation, not the end of one.
When to walk away from “on request”
Rarely, but the situations exist and are worth naming.
When you cannot get a written figure after asking twice. A serious enquiry deserves a written price, and reluctance after a direct request is informative.
When the written figure differs materially from what you were told verbally. Ask why, and note the answer.
When you are asked to pay before seeing a price in writing. This is not a grey area. Do not.
When the quote has no validity period and no itemisation. That is not a price, it is a number.
Short of those, “price on request” is ordinary and workable. Ask properly, in writing, for a specific configuration with an itemised cost sheet, and most developers will give you exactly that.
What you should never do is budget from a figure on a channel partner page. Those are frequently launch-era estimates that were never updated — see why codename pages carry stale figures.
There is one useful cross-check where a developer is listed. Dividing a disclosed project revenue by a disclosed unit count gives an implied average price, which tells you whether a circulating range is plausible.
It is a sanity test rather than a quotation, and it does not work for private developers, but where it is available it costs ten minutes — see how to check whether a quoted price is plausible.
Common questions
Why do developers not publish prices?
Because prices move between phases and a stale published figure creates liability, because configurations differ and a full list is commercially sensitive, because negotiation works better in conversation, and because pre-registration pricing may genuinely not be fixed.
Does “price on request” mean a project is expensive?
Not reliably. Mid-market projects use it too. It is standard commercial practice rather than a signal about price level, though on a pre-launch project it often genuinely means the price is not yet settled.
How do I get a real price from a developer?
Ask for a specific configuration rather than “the price”, ask in writing and for a written reply, ask for it on letterhead or an official domain, ask for the itemised cost sheet by name, ask what it excludes item by item, and ask how long it holds.
What does a quoted base price usually exclude?
Floor rise, preferred location charges for corner or better-facing units, car parking, club membership or corpus at handover, and statutory charges of roughly 12.6 percent in Bengaluru which are never included.
When should a withheld price worry me?
When you cannot get a written figure after asking twice, when the written figure differs materially from the verbal one, when you are asked to pay before seeing a price in writing, or when a quote has no validity period and no itemisation.
Been told “price on request”?
Tell us the project and configuration and we will get you an itemised cost sheet in writing, with every exclusion listed and the statutory charges worked out. No charge, and it is what we do daily.
Related reading
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.
