Stamp duty and registration are the largest one-time costs of buying a home after the price itself, and they are paid entirely from your own funds: banks may not include them in the property cost they finance, except for homes of ₹10 lakh or less, under the RBI's housing finance norms. They are also set state by state, so the three markets Property Point works in carry very different bills for the same price.

Below are the rates as published by reliable sources on or before 3 October 2026, followed by a side-by-side example. States revise these through budgets and notifications; always confirm on the official portal or with the sub-registrar before you pay.

Karnataka (Bengaluru)

  • Stamp duty: 5% for properties above ₹45 lakh, under the slab structure of the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957 (KS&K).
  • Registration fee: 2%, doubled from 1% with effect from 31 August 2025, following a notification dated 29 August 2025 (KS&K; Deccan Herald). The fee had last been revised in 2003.
  • Cess and surcharge: roughly 0.6% of value on top, per Deccan Herald's breakdown, taking the effective total to about 7.6% in Bengaluru.
  • Valuation: duty is charged on the higher of the agreement value and the government guideline value.
  • Why it changed: Deccan Herald reported the Department of Stamps and Registration collected about ₹22,500 crore against a ₹26,000 crore target in 2024-25.

Haryana (Gurugram)

  • Stamp duty within municipal limits, which include Gurugram: 7% for a male buyer, 5% for a female buyer, 6% for joint male-female ownership (Godrej Capital, May 2026).
  • Outside municipal limits: 5%, 3% and 4% respectively.
  • Registration fee: slab-based and capped at ₹50,000 for any property above ₹90 lakh (Godrej Capital).
  • Valuation: duty applies to the higher of the agreement value and the collector (circle) rate.
  • The women's rate is a genuine saving: on a ₹2.5 crore home, registering in a woman's sole name rather than a man's saves ₹5 lakh of stamp duty. Ownership choices have legal and tax consequences, so decide with advice, not just on stamp duty.

Tamil Nadu (Chennai)

  • Stamp duty on a sale deed: 7%.
  • Registration fee: 4%, for a combined 11%, among the highest in India (Square Yards, updated August 2026; KS&K).
  • Valuation: charged on the higher of the transaction value and the guideline value.
  • Women's concession: a 1-percentage-point reduction in registration fee (3% instead of 4%) for properties up to ₹10 lakh registered in a woman's name, from 1 April 2025. Square Yards notes this rarely applies in Chennai because most flats are well above ₹10 lakh.
  • 2026 set-off relief: KS&K reports a mechanism introduced in 2026 that lets buyers adjust stamp duty paid at earlier stages, such as on an undivided-share agreement, against the duty payable on the final sale deed, reducing duplicate duty in staged purchases. Confirm eligibility for your documents with the sub-registrar.

Side by side: a ₹2.5 crore apartment

Assume the agreement value equals or exceeds the government value in each state, and a single buyer. Rounded:

  • Bengaluru: stamp duty ₹12.5 lakh + registration ₹5.0 lakh + cess/surcharge about ₹1.5 lakh = about ₹19.0 lakh (7.6%).
  • Gurugram, male buyer: stamp duty ₹17.5 lakh + registration ₹50,000 = ₹18.0 lakh (7.2%).
  • Gurugram, female buyer: ₹12.5 lakh + ₹50,000 = ₹13.0 lakh (5.2%).
  • Gurugram, joint male-female: ₹15.0 lakh + ₹50,000 = ₹15.5 lakh (6.2%).
  • Chennai: stamp duty ₹17.5 lakh + registration ₹10.0 lakh = ₹27.5 lakh (11%).
  • The spread between the cheapest and most expensive case is ₹14.5 lakh on the same price, before legal fees, brokerage or GST on an under-construction home.

When the government value is higher than your price

All three states charge on the higher of the agreed price and the official value (guideline value in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, collector rate in Haryana). If you negotiate a resale home below that value, you still pay duty on the official figure. There is an income tax angle too. Under the 1961 Act's sections 50C and 56(2)(x), where the stamp duty value exceeded the consideration by more than 10%, the difference could be taxed in the seller's hands as extra capital gain and in the buyer's hands as other income (TaxGuru's analysis); confirm the equivalent provision under the 2025 Act with your CA. Check the official value for the exact survey number or sector before you finalise a price, and discuss any gap with your CA.

The reverse situation is common in prime locations: the agreed price is well above the official value, and duty is simply charged on the price. Either way, the stamp duty base is a number you can know before you negotiate, and it should be part of the negotiation. A seller who insists on recording a price below the official value is asking you to share a tax risk, and that is worth declining.

Practical points for each state

  • Karnataka: budget for the higher 2% registration fee if a builder or broker quoted you an estimate prepared before September 2025.
  • Haryana: decide ownership structure early, because the stamp duty rate depends on it and changing names later is a fresh transfer.
  • Tamil Nadu: many new-launch flats are sold as an undivided share of land plus a construction agreement. Understand which documents attract which duty, and whether the 2026 set-off applies, before you sign.
  • NRIs: the same rates apply. If you are registering through a power of attorney holder, the POA must itself be correctly stamped in the state first.

What else to budget beyond stamp duty and registration

  • Legal fees for title search and document drafting.
  • Brokerage, if a broker is involved, typically agreed as a percentage of price.
  • GST, if the home is under construction: an effective 5% for non-affordable homes (see our GST guide).
  • Society transfer charges and maintenance deposits on resale homes, as set by the association.
  • Home loan processing fees and the bank's legal and valuation charges.
  • Moving, furnishing and the first months of maintenance.
  • A contingency of a few lakh for the items nobody quotes in advance.

Ownership structure: decide before you pay

The ownership pattern you choose at registration affects more than the duty. It determines whose name the title is in, whose income the rent is taxed in, who can claim deductions on a joint loan and how the property passes on death. In Haryana, the women's rate creates an obvious saving, but a home bought in one spouse's name with the other's money raises questions of clubbing of income and of ownership that deserve a CA's and lawyer's view.

The same logic applies across states: settle the names, shares and funding sources before the stamp paper is bought, because correcting them later means a fresh transfer and, usually, fresh stamp duty.

For NRI buyers

Rates are the same for residents and non-residents. The differences are procedural: an NRI executing through a power of attorney must have that POA correctly attested abroad and stamped in the state within the permitted time before it can be used at registration, and in Karnataka the 2025 amendment to the Registration Act requires POAs authorising transfer of immovable property to be registered. Budget a few weeks for this ahead of the registration date.

Not legal or tax advice

Rates are reproduced from the sources below as of the date shown and can change with little notice. This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm the exact duty with the sub-registrar or a property lawyer before execution.