Karnataka Guidance Value 2026: How It Works for Property Buyers

Karnataka calls its government property valuation the guidance value. It is set by the Department of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka, and is accessible through the Kaveri portal at kaveri.karnataka.gov.in. Every property sale or lease in Karnataka must be registered at the Sub-Registrar Office associated with the property's jurisdiction, and stamp duty is calculated on the higher of the guidance value and the agreed sale price.

This guide explains how Karnataka's guidance value system works, why Karnataka uses square feet rather than the square metres common to Maharashtra and Delhi, how stamp duty is calculated with no gender-based concession, and provides two worked examples — one for a villa in Whitefield, Bengaluru, and one for an apartment in Indiranagar. The guide also notes honestly that circlerate.co.in does not yet carry Karnataka guidance value data and points directly to the Kaveri portal for official lookups.

The Guidance Value System

The guidance value is Karnataka's equivalent of the circle rate. Its key features:

• Set by the Department of Stamps and Registration. Unlike Uttar Pradesh, where each district's District Magistrate sets rates independently, Karnataka's guidance values are set centrally by a single state authority and published through the Kaveri portal. This makes it easier to look up values for any locality in Karnataka from one source.
• Updated periodically — in principle annually, in practice 2-3 years between revisions. The Department has the authority to revise guidance values every year. In practice, revisions in Karnataka have often been delayed or skipped for multi-year stretches due to policy or administrative factors. When a revision does happen, it is typically notified in the state budget cycle (January-March) and takes effect on 1 April.
• Ward-level or village-level granularity. In urban areas like Bengaluru, Mysuru, and Hubballi-Dharwad, guidance values are set at the ward level and often further subdivided by road type (main road versus interior road) and property category. In rural areas, values are set by village (hobli).
• Values expressed in ₹ per square foot. This is an important distinction from Maharashtra and Delhi, which use ₹ per square metre. If you are comparing Karnataka guidance values with rates in other states, you must convert. One square metre equals approximately 10.764 square feet. A Karnataka guidance value of ₹6,500 per sq ft equals approximately ₹69,965 per sq m — comparable to a mid-tier Maharashtra sub-zone rate.
• Property categories. Karnataka guidance values are published for Residential, Commercial, Industrial, and Agricultural use. Within residential and commercial, some localities further distinguish by road frontage — a "main road" plot typically carries a 10-25% premium over an "interior road" plot of comparable size.

Sqft vs Sqm: The Unit Conversion

Karnataka's use of square feet is sometimes a source of confusion when buyers compare rates across states. The conversion is straightforward:

• 1 square metre = 10.7639 square feet
• To convert ₹/sqft to ₹/sqm: multiply by 10.7639
• To convert ₹/sqm to ₹/sqft: divide by 10.7639

In practice, if you know your flat's area in square feet (as most Karnataka builders quote it), you can calculate the assessed value directly: Assessed value = area in sq ft × guidance value in ₹/sq ft. Do not convert to square metres first — the guidance value is defined in sqft and applying it to sqm area produces an incorrect result.

Note that Karnataka guidance values apply to the built-up area of the property, not carpet area. This differs from Maharashtra, where the ASR rate applies to carpet area. Always verify with the Kaveri portal and your SRO whether the applicable area definition is carpet area, built-up area, or super built-up area for the specific property type.

Major Karnataka Cities

Karnataka has significant variation in guidance values between its metro, tier-2, and rural areas:

• Bengaluru (Bangalore Urban). The IT capital has the highest and most granular guidance values in Karnataka. Ward-level values vary enormously — Indiranagar and Koramangala are among the most expensive wards, while peripheral areas like Anekal taluka and Devanahalli carry much lower values. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) boundary covers most of the city; areas outside BBMP (like those governed by Bangalore Development Authority layouts) may have different rate schedules. Electronic City, Whitefield, and the Outer Ring Road belt have seen significant guidance value increases in recent revision cycles reflecting the IT industry's impact on property demand.
• Mysuru. The heritage city has ward-level guidance values with a clear gradient from the central heritage districts (higher commercial rates near Chamundeshwari Road and Mysore Palace) to the newer residential extensions (Vijayanagar, Hebbal). Mysuru is also home to significant institutional land use (university, palace buffer zones) that may carry different rate schedules.
• Hubballi-Dharwad. The twin-city metro in North Karnataka has its own rate schedule distinct from Bengaluru. Commercial rates near the Old Hubli markets and new CBD areas in Dharwad are higher than the peripheral residential areas.
• Mangaluru, Belagavi, Shivamogga. These tier-2 cities have standard ward-level guidance values accessible through the Kaveri portal. Rates are substantially lower than Bengaluru and Mysuru for comparable property categories.

Stamp Duty in Karnataka

Karnataka's stamp duty structure is simpler than Maharashtra's and lacks the gender concession that Delhi and Maharashtra offer:

• Stamp duty: 5% (uniform — no gender concession). Unlike Maharashtra (male 5%, female 4%) or Delhi (male 6%, female 4%), Karnataka charges 5% regardless of whether the buyer is male, female, or a joint purchaser. There is no differential for women buyers.
• Registration fee: 1% (no cap stated in standard rules). Karnataka's registration fee is 1% of the assessed value. Unlike Maharashtra's ₹30,000 cap or Manipur's ₹25,000 cap, Karnataka does not impose an explicit cap on registration fees in the standard rules (verify with your SRO for the current notification, as marginal surcharges sometimes apply). This means on a ₹1 crore property, the registration fee is ₹1,00,000.
• No metro cess, no LBT, no city-specific surcharge. The total government charge for a Karnataka property is always 5% (stamp duty) + 1% (registration) = 6% of the assessed value, regardless of city or property type.

Worked Example 1: Whitefield Villa — Bengaluru

Suresh is buying a 1,800 sq ft villa in Whitefield, Bengaluru. Whitefield is part of the BBMP East Zone and has seen substantial guidance value appreciation. The current illustrative guidance value for residential property in Whitefield is approximately ₹6,500 per sq ft. The agreed sale price is ₹1.14 crore.

Step 1 — Guidance value assessment: 1,800 sq ft × ₹6,500 = ₹1,17,00,000

Step 2 — Assessed value: max(₹1,17,00,000, ₹1,14,00,000) = ₹1,17,00,000 (guidance value is higher)

Step 3 — Stamp duty (Karnataka, uniform 5%):

• Stamp duty: 5% × ₹1,17,00,000 = ₹5,85,000

Step 4 — Registration fee (1%, no cap): 1% × ₹1,17,00,000 = ₹1,17,000

Total government charges: ₹5,85,000 + ₹1,17,000 = ₹7,02,000

Note that Suresh would pay the same amount whether he were a male or female buyer — Karnataka has no gender concession. A female buyer in comparable Pune property, by contrast, would pay 6% total (4% base + cess + LBT) rather than Karnataka's uniform 6% (5% + 1%), so the net government charge works out similarly for this value range.

Worked Example 2: Indiranagar Apartment — Bengaluru

Kavitha is buying a 1,200 sq ft 2BHK apartment in Indiranagar, one of Bengaluru's most expensive residential localities. The current illustrative guidance value for Indiranagar residential property is approximately ₹9,500 per sq ft. The agreed sale price is ₹1.10 crore.

Step 1 — Guidance value assessment: 1,200 sq ft × ₹9,500 = ₹1,14,00,000

Step 2 — Assessed value: max(₹1,14,00,000, ₹1,10,00,000) = ₹1,14,00,000 (guidance value is higher)

Step 3 — Stamp duty (Karnataka, 5%):

• Stamp duty: 5% × ₹1,14,00,000 = ₹5,70,000

Step 4 — Registration fee (1%, no cap): 1% × ₹1,14,00,000 = ₹1,14,000

Total government charges: ₹5,70,000 + ₹1,14,000 = ₹6,84,000

Both Suresh (Whitefield) and Kavitha (Indiranagar) pay the same 6% effective rate. The key variable in Karnataka is the guidance value itself — Indiranagar's ₹9,500/sqft rate versus Whitefield's ₹6,500/sqft reflects the premium that the Indiranagar address commands in Bengaluru's residential market.

Karnataka-Specific Quirks

Two features of the Karnataka guidance value system are worth noting explicitly:

• Main road vs interior road differentiation. Many Karnataka localities have separate guidance values for "main road-facing" properties and "interior road" properties. If your plot fronts a main road (or a road above a specified minimum width), a higher rate applies. Verify which category your specific property falls into — the Kaveri portal shows this sub-classification in its lookup results, and your sale deed should specify the road- frontage status.
• Unit consistency check. If you are working with older sale agreements, registered deeds, or builder documents for a Karnataka property, check whether areas were quoted in square metres or square feet. Karnataka has historically used square feet for guidance values, but some older or government-adjacent documentation may use square metres. Applying a sqft rate to a sqm area (or vice versa) will inflate or deflate your stamp duty calculation by a factor of ~10.

Note on circlerate.co.in Coverage

circlerate.co.in currently covers Maharashtra (from the eASR 1.9 portal) and seven NGDRS states (Delhi, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu). Karnataka is not yet in our data set.

The Kaveri portal at kaveri.karnataka.gov.in is the authoritative source for Karnataka guidance values. To look up a value: select the district and SRO jurisdiction, then enter the locality name or survey number. The portal returns the current notified guidance value per sqft for each property category and road type. Karnataka is on our roadmap for a future data phase — when it goes live, we will update this guide to include direct search links.

For a comparison with Maharashtra's ready reckoner rate system — which uses square metres and has metro-specific surcharges — see Maharashtra Ready Reckoner Rate Explained. For UP's district-magistrate-set circle rates covering Noida and Lucknow, see Uttar Pradesh Circle Rate Explained. For Delhi's A-H zone structure and gender-differentiated stamp duty, see Delhi Circle Rate Explained.