Buyers routinely budget for the price and treat the statutory cost as a rounding error. In Karnataka it is not a rounding error, and it moved recently.
Stamp duty is slabbed
Broadly: 2% up to ₹20 lakh, 3% between roughly ₹21 lakh and ₹45 lakh, and 5% above ₹45 lakh. The duty is computed on the consideration or the guidance value, whichever is higher — which is why a transaction priced below guidance value does not save you duty.
The registration fee doubled
Karnataka raised the registration fee from 1% to 2% in 2025, the first revision in more than two decades. On a ₹2 crore transaction that single change is an additional ₹2 lakh.
Plus cess and surcharge
Within BBMP limits there is an additional cess. Taken together, a buyer above the ₹45 lakh threshold in Bengaluru should budget roughly 7.5% of value as statutory outlay before any professional fees.
Why this belongs in the model, not the footnotes
On a large land transaction, statutory cost is frequently larger than every professional fee in the deal combined. Model it at the start. It also affects structure: the stamp duty treatment is one of the genuine differences between an outright purchase and a development agreement, and it should be part of that comparison rather than a surprise at the end of it.