The brochure says Rs 90 lakh. So does the agreement for sale, and so does the bank's sanction letter. None of them is the cost of buying a flat. That cost is the agreement value plus a run of cheques nobody prints on a hoarding: to the state when the agreement is registered, to the builder with every instalment and again at possession, to the bank before it lends, and to the corporation once you live there. This article puts every one of them in a single column, in the order they fall due, on a Rs 90 lakh flat under construction in Pune.
Key takeaways
- On a Rs 90 lakh under-construction flat inside Pune or Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal limits, stamp duty, registration and GST add Rs 11.1 lakh to the agreement value before any other charge.
- Pune's stamp duty is 7 percent: a 5 percent base duty, a 1 percent local body surcharge and a 1 percent metro cess in force since 1 April 2022, charged on the higher of the agreement value and the ready reckoner value.
- Registration is 1 percent capped at Rs 30,000 and falls due with the stamp duty when the agreement is registered; GST at 5 percent is added to every instalment until the completion certificate.
- The builder's possession charges and the bank's fees are set by the agreement and the sanction letter, so their amounts can be asked for in writing before you sign.
- TDS is not an addition: the 1 percent is withheld from the price and paid to the government in the seller's name.
Priya and Arjun add a column
Priya and Arjun (illustrative, as our stories always are) had agreed Rs 90 lakh for a 2BHK under construction inside Pune's municipal limits, and Arjun's spreadsheet already held a row for every instalment. What it lacked was a column headed "beyond 90". When he added one, the first three rows were taxes he could compute himself. The rest he could not, because the builder's cost sheet said "possession charges as applicable", and an amount described as applicable is not an amount.
They asked for figures before signing. The answer came back as five lines adding to Rs 2.2 lakh, the bank's sanction letter added Rs 25,000 of fees, and the column closed at a little over Rs 13.5 lakh, about 15 percent on top of the price they had been quoting to their parents. Names and numbers in this story are illustrative.
What the agreement value covers, and what it does not
The agreement value is the consideration written into the registered agreement for sale. It should already include the floor rise, any location premium and any covered parking the builder prices. Everything else you pay between signing and living there is beyond it.
Two rules make the line matter. Stamp duty and GST are computed on the agreement value, so whatever sits inside it carries both taxes, and the bank lends against it, so whatever sits outside it is cash. The margin is not on this list: it is part of the Rs 90 lakh. If the bank lends 80 percent, the margin is Rs 18 lakh, as in the worked example in the home loan on an under-construction flat, and every line below comes on top of it.
An analogy: the on-road price of a car
Anyone who has bought a car knows the ex-showroom price is not what leaves the account. Road tax, registration, insurance and the dealer's charges turn it into the on-road price, and only the on-road price can be held against a budget. The agreement value is a flat's ex-showroom price. The column below is the rest of its on-road price, and like a car's, part of it is set by the state, part by the seller and part by the lender.
The stack, in the order it falls due
At sanction: the bank's fees
Before a bank lends, it charges for deciding to: a processing fee, and the cost of its lawyer's title opinion and its valuer's report. Each lender sets its own and states them in the sanction letter, so read the letter for more than its rate. Insurance belongs here too, if you choose to take a policy with the loan.
At the agreement: the state's share
On an under-construction purchase the agreement is registered within weeks of booking, and two charges fall due that day, years before possession, as the money timeline sets out.
Stamp duty. Inside Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal limits it is 7 percent: a 5 percent base duty, a 1 percent local body surcharge, often listed as LBT, and a 1 percent metro cess in force since 1 April 2022. It is charged on the agreement value or the ready reckoner value, whichever is higher. On Rs 90 lakh, that is Rs 6.3 lakh.
Registration. One percent, capped at Rs 30,000, so above Rs 30 lakh it is a fixed Rs 30,000.
Together, Rs 6.6 lakh. Mumbai's rate is a point lower, and the city-by-city detail is in stamp duty and registration charges.
With every instalment: GST
An under-construction flat carries GST at 5 percent, without input tax credit, added to each demand as it falls due. On Rs 90 lakh it comes to Rs 4.5 lakh over the build. The 1 percent affordable rate needs, among other tests, a price of no more than Rs 45 lakh, so this flat is outside it on price alone, and a flat bought after its completion certificate carries no GST at all, as GST on a flat explains.
The same months carry a cost no invoice names: interest on the loan as it is disbursed, which pre-EMI or full EMI prices month by month. Before you commit to a 30-month build, look the project up on ReraGenie: its free page shows the first promised possession date against the current one and construction progress building by building, the two facts that decide how long rent and pre-EMI run side by side.
At possession: the builder's lines
The last group arrives with the possession letter, and buyers know least about it, because its amounts live in the agreement rather than in any rate schedule. Typically: share money and the society's entrance fee; the cost of forming and registering the society; legal charges for its documents; maintenance collected in advance, often for a year or more, as society maintenance charges explains; a corpus or sinking fund contribution where the agreement provides one; and deposits and connection charges for electricity, water and piped gas.
Parking should not be among them. A covered or garage space the builder prices belongs inside the agreement value, and stilt or open parking cannot be sold as separate premises at all, as what a builder can sell you explains.
This is the planning total, not a test of each line. Whether a particular possession charge is properly due is a question for the day the demand arrives, read against the agreement. For now the point is to know its size before the booking.
After the keys
Two costs no agreement lists: the corporation's property tax, once the flat is assessed, and the interiors, which in an unfurnished flat can rival any line above. One familiar item is missing on purpose. TDS of 1 percent on a purchase of Rs 50 lakh or more is withheld from the price and paid to the government in the seller's name, so it moves money without adding to it; the filing is yours, as TDS on your flat purchase explains.
The column, added up
Source: Stamp duty (5% duty, 1% local body surcharge, 1% metro cess in PMC and PCMC limits), registration (1%, capped at Rs 30,000) and GST (5%) computed on Rs 90 lakh at 2026 rates. The bank's fees and the possession lines are the illustrative figures from Priya and Arjun's story, not benchmarks.
The statutory lines alone are Rs 11.1 lakh, or 12.3 percent of the agreement value, the same for every buyer of a Rs 90 lakh flat in these limits. Add the Rs 18 lakh margin and the cash needed before possession is about Rs 29 lakh, the figure the home loan guide reaches by the same arithmetic.
Two market figures show why the column belongs in the budget. Knight Frank's Affordability Index put Pune at 28 percent in H1 2026, meaning the EMI on a typical home takes 28 percent of a typical household's income, as how to read the affordability index explains. That ratio prices the EMI, not the Rs 11.1 lakh paid in cash, most of it before the EMI reaches full size. And the state's share is not small change: IGR Maharashtra collected Rs 21,928 crore in stamp duty between April and July 2026, as reported by Punekar News on 6 August 2026.
Where buyers get it wrong
Budgeting the margin and stopping there. The margin is the visible cash. The 12 percent of statutory charges is cash too, most of it due in the first months, and the loan is calculated on the agreement value, not on them.
Comparing base rates instead of totals. Floor rise, location premiums and a priced parking space sit inside the agreement value, so each carries 7 percent duty and 5 percent GST as well: Rs 3 lakh of parking costs Rs 3.36 lakh. Compare total consideration per square metre of carpet area.
Leaving possession charges as "applicable". A line without an amount at booking becomes a line without negotiation at possession, when the keys give the builder the leverage.
Copying a budget from another city. Mumbai pays 6 percent stamp duty and Pune 7 on the same price, which is Rs 90,000 on this flat.
Before you sign the agreement, ask for a cost sheet that puts a rupee figure against every item in its possession clause. Where a line says "at actuals", ask what it came to on the builder's last completed project. A figure in writing at booking is something to plan around; a figure that first appears with the possession letter is something to argue about.
What the report adds to the budget
Every line above is fixed once the price is agreed, except one: time. Each month the building runs late is another month of rent beside a growing pre-EMI. That is what the Rs 499 ReraGenie buyer report reads for a Maharashtra project: the possession story, with the first promised date set against the current one; construction pace measured against the district; and your rights under RERA with a worked delay-interest example, so the cost of a slip and what the law returns for it sit on the same page. The reports page sets out what it contains, with a sample.
The one-line summary
On a Rs 90 lakh flat in Pune the state takes Rs 11.1 lakh in duty, registration and GST, the builder and the bank add their own lines, and the corporation and the carpenter come after the keys: put all of it in one column before the booking amount, not after.
Methodology and sources
- Stamp duty and registration: 2026 rates for PMC and PCMC limits as published in lender and developer guides, with the metro cess applying since 1 April 2022. Confirm the rate for your own document with IGR Maharashtra before paying.
- The bank's fees and the possession lines in the chart are Priya and Arjun's illustrative figures; your agreement and sanction letter state yours.
- Affordability: Knight Frank India, Affordability Index, H1 2026. Stamp duty collections: IGR Maharashtra, April to July 2026, as reported by Punekar News, 6 August 2026.
This article is educational and not tax advice. Confirm the figures for your own case with a chartered accountant.
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