How much cash do I need to buy a house in India?

Substantially more than the down payment. On a ₹1 crore property with 20% down, the cash requirement including stamp duty, registration, brokerage, the processing fee and basic interiors comes to about ₹38 lakh — 38% of the price rather than 20%.

Can I borrow the stamp duty?

Generally no. Lenders finance a share of the property price, and stamp duty and registration sit outside it. Some lenders will lend against a larger valuation or offer a separate top-up, usually at a worse rate, but the assumption to plan on is that this money comes from savings.

What is stamp duty in my state?

It varies, commonly between 4% and 7%, and several states charge a lower rate where the buyer is a woman or where the property is registered jointly. This calculator uses 6% as a default and asks you to set your own — the figures move meaningfully with it.

Should I include interiors in the plan?

Yes. A property handed over without fittings needs work before anyone can live in it, and funding that afterwards usually means a personal loan at a much higher rate. Deciding the number is a choice; treating it as zero is not.

Is a larger down payment better?

It reduces the loan, the interest and the processing fee, at the cost of committing more cash. The affordability and rent-versus-buy calculators show the other side of that trade — a larger down payment also means a larger sum not invested elsewhere.

What return should I assume while saving?

Something modest. Money needed within two or three years should not be anywhere it could fall, so a fixed deposit or a short-duration debt fund is the realistic home for it. Assuming an equity return on a two-year horizon is how down payment plans come undone.

Investment · FINANCIAL TOOLS

Home Purchase Cost Calculator

Work out the cash you actually need before you hold the keys, and the monthly saving that gets you there.

Understand the calculation

Calculation logic, formula, example and guardrails behind the estimate.

How it works

The down payment is computed from the price, and the loan is the remainder. Stamp duty, registration and brokerage are then added as shares of the price, the processing fee as a share of the loan — which is how lenders actually levy it — and the fit-out cost as an amount.

The total is the cash that must be in your account before you hold the keys. None of it can be borrowed: lenders finance a share of the price and nothing else, so stamp duty and interiors come entirely from savings.

More detail

What you have already saved is then grown to the purchase date at the return you set, and the shortfall is whatever remains. The monthly figure is solved from the annuity rather than divided by the months, so the return earned on each new contribution is credited too.

The upfront share is reported as a percentage precisely so it can be compared with the down payment percentage. On the default figures it is 38.4% against a 20% down payment — nearly double, and that gap is what catches people out.

To find the price your income supports, use the affordability calculator.

To test whether buying beats renting at all, see the rent versus buy calculator.

For a fuller plan to reach the target, try the goal SIP calculator.

Formula

Cash needed = Down payment + Stamp duty + Registration + Brokerage + Processing fee + Fit-out; Monthly = Shortfall ÷ annuity-due factor

The processing fee is a percentage of the loan, so a larger down payment reduces it slightly. The monthly figure solves the annuity rather than dividing, which matters over a three-year horizon.

Shortfall: Cash needed, less what your existing savings grow to.
annuity-due factor: ((1+i)^n − 1) ÷ i × (1+i), for a contribution at the start of each month.
i: Monthly return while saving.

Worked example

A ₹1 crore property with a 20% down payment, 6% stamp duty, 1% registration, 1% brokerage, a 0.5% processing fee and ₹10,00,000 of interiors — with ₹15,00,000 saved and three years to go, earning 8%.

01Down payment₹20,00,000
02Stamp duty at 6%₹6,00,000
03Registration at 1%₹1,00,000
04Brokerage at 1%₹1,00,000
05Processing fee, 0.5% of the ₹80 lakh loan₹40,000
06Interiors and moving₹10,00,000
07Total cash needed₹38,40,000 — 38.4% of the price
08₹15,00,000 grows to₹19,05,356
09Shortfall₹19,34,644

The down payment is ₹20,00,000 but the cash requirement is ₹38,40,000 — the other ₹18,40,000 is 92% of the down payment again, and every rupee of it must come from savings. A buyer who planned around 20% and has ₹15 lakh saved is not two-thirds of the way there; they are closer to 40%.

Important considerations

01
The costs beyond the down payment are nearly as large as it
On the default figures they are 92% of the down payment. This is the single most useful thing on the page, because almost every conversation about buying a home is conducted in terms of the down payment percentage — and that figure understates the cash requirement by close to half.
02
Interiors are a real cost, not an optional extra
A flat with no wardrobes, no kitchen and no light fittings is not somewhere you can live. Whether it costs ₹5 lakh or ₹25 lakh is a choice, but zero is not one of the options, and leaving it out of the plan means borrowing for it later at personal-loan rates.
03
Buying later is usually the easiest lever
The months scenario shows why: extra time lowers the monthly requirement and lets existing savings compound. Where the monthly figure looks impossible, moving the date by a year often does more than any other change — and it beats stretching to a larger loan you will service for twenty years.

Limitations

Stamp duty varies by state, and sometimes by the buyer, in ways this calculator cannot look up. Check your own state's rate rather than relying on the 6% default.
An under-construction property attracts GST on the construction component instead of stamp duty on it, which changes the calculation materially and is not modelled.
Society transfer charges, legal fees, technical valuation and builder-levied charges for parking or a preferential location are all excluded.
The return while saving is assumed constant. Money needed within three years should not be anywhere it could fall, which is why a modest default is used rather than an equity-like rate.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about the home purchase cost calculator and the assumptions behind it.

Next useful checks

Move from this result to the next decision without hunting through the full calculator list.

Rent vs Buy CalculatorCompare ownership with renting before committing.Home Loan Affordability CalculatorCheck whether the loan fits your income.

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Disclaimer

This calculator is provided for general information and planning only. It is not investment, tax or legal advice, and it does not take your personal circumstances into account. Outputs are estimates based on the assumptions stated on this page, exclude taxes and charges unless said otherwise, and market-linked returns are not guaranteed — the value of investments can fall as well as rise. Lending terms, rates and eligibility are decided by the lender. For advice on your own situation, speak to a qualified professional, several of whom you can consult on Finvestalk.