The all-in cost of buying
Stamp duty, registration, GST, brokerage, interiors and moving, in one honest figure — and the cash actually needed at registry. The conversation that prevents a collapse in month three.
Your numbers
| Cash needed at registryDown payment plus the taxes and fees that cannot be financed. | — |
| Stamp duty + registration | — |
| GST | — |
| Brokerage | — |
| Legal, society, interiors, moving | — |
| Cash needed AFTER the loanThe number that decides whether the buyer can actually transact this quarter. | — |
First-time buyers budget the down payment. Then the first year arrives with stamp duty, registration, a society transfer charge, and an interiors bill roughly twice what they assumed.
None of this is hidden. It is just never discussed until it is too late to plan for, which is how a buyer ends up short at exactly the wrong moment.
Run this at the first meeting. Handing a buyer one honest number is the fastest trust-building thing an agent can do, and it costs you nothing.
What goes into it
Stamp duty and registration are levied on the agreed value (or the circle/ready-reckoner value, whichever is higher, in most states). GST applies only where the property is still under construction — a completed property with its certificate issued does not attract it, which is a real and frequently overlooked price difference.
Then the costs nobody lists: legal and loan processing, society transfer charges and deposits, interiors, and moving. Interiors is the line that is wrong most often, usually by a factor of two.
Worked example
₹80 lakh flat, 6% stamp duty, 1% registration, 1% brokerage, ready-to-move so no GST. That is ₹4.8 lakh + ₹80,000 + ₹80,000 = ₹6.4 lakh in duties and fees.
Add ₹60,000 legal and processing, ₹50,000 society, ₹6 lakh interiors and ₹25,000 moving, and the all-in cost is around ₹93.75 lakh — roughly 17% above the price on the listing.
With a ₹60 lakh loan, the buyer needs about ₹27 lakh of cash at registry and a further ₹6.75 lakh over the following months. A buyer who has ₹20 lakh saved is not buying this flat this quarter, and it is better for everyone to know that in week one.
Use it as a filter
Ask the total-cost question before showing anything: not "what's your budget", but "what do you have available in cash, and what are you borrowing?" The all-in number turns that into a realistic price band.
Rates vary by state, by property type and by buyer. Confirm the applicable stamp duty and GST treatment locally before a client relies on any figure.
Questions
Is GST payable on a resale flat?
Generally no. GST applies to under-construction purchases; a completed property where the completion or occupancy certificate has been issued before sale is normally outside it. That alone is a meaningful price difference between two otherwise similar options.
Can stamp duty be added to the home loan?
Usually not — most lenders exclude it from the funded amount, which is exactly why the cash-at-registry number matters more than the down payment number.
Why is interiors on a property cost calculator?
Because the buyer cannot live there without it, and it is the line they underestimate most. A flat that needs ₹8 lakh of work is not the same purchase as one that needs ₹1 lakh, whatever the listing price says.
The number convinces. The reel gets you the call.
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