Bengaluru Property Market: What the Official Data Says

1. What the official index says

Source: NHB RESIDEX, HPI@Assessment Prices, quarter ending March 2026, released 18 June 2026. Base FY 2024-25 = 100. Bengaluru’s index rests on a substantial sample.

INTERPRETATIONBengaluru is doing something the other southern metros are not. Hyderabad, often discussed as its direct competitor, grew at a quarter of Bengaluru’s rate over the same year. That divergence is real and sustained — but it is happening in a market with an unusually messy property-records problem, which is where the rest of this page goes.

2. The khata trap: e-Khata does not mean A-Khata

FACTBBMP has stated that both A-Khata and B-Khata properties are eligible for e-Khata.

INTERPRETATIONThis is the single most exploitable misunderstanding in the Bengaluru market. The e-Khata rollout has been publicised heavily, and a great many buyers now treat “it has e-Khata” as a clean bill of health. It is not one. The e-Khata names which register the property sits on. You must read which — A or B. Confirming that an e-Khata merely exists tells you nothing about the property’s legality.

FACTA khata is a property tax register, not a title document. Under the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act 2024, section 2(35), the khatadar is the person “legally responsible to pay the property tax,” and the entry is presumed valid only until the contrary is proven.

So even an A-Khata does not cure a defective title chain. It means the property sits on the lawful register. Run full title and encumbrance diligence regardless.

The conversion scheme, and what its numbers tell you

FACTKarnataka approved B-Khata to A-Khata conversion, covering roughly 7 to 7.5 lakh properties in the Greater Bengaluru area. On 13 May 2026 the conversion charge was cut from 5% to 2% of guidance value for a 100-day window running 15 May to 22 August 2026, after which it reverts to 5%. Properties built on land reserved for roads or public infrastructure are ineligible.

FACTUptake has been minimal. Fewer than 7,000 applications were made in the six months to May 2026, against 7 lakh eligible properties. Roughly 700 conversions were processed between November 2025 and March 2026, raising ₹2.6 crore. Three days into the discounted window, GBA’s own software was still displaying the old 5% fee.

Sources: Deccan Herald reporting of GBA and Karnataka Revenue Department announcements, October 2025 to May 2026. Some commercial sources give the window’s end date as 23 August 2026 rather than 22 August. We could not confirm whether the window was extended — check with GBA directly.

FACTOne protection worth knowing if you are buying new. K-RERA has held that a promoter must complete khata transfer within 30 days of possession, that this is a statutory obligation under section 17(1) of the RERA Act rather than merely contractual, and that legal title transfer is incomplete without khata mutation in the buyer’s name. The developer’s argument that khata transfer was not mentioned in the sale deed was rejected. (Somashekar H.G. v. Kavitha Ramreddy, December 2025.)

INTERPRETATIONWrite khata mutation into the agreement rather than leaving the sale deed silent. It is an enforceable duty with a 30-day clock.

3. What you will actually pay — and two things most calculators get wrong

Sources: Karnataka Stamp Act 1957 (consolidated text) and the Karnataka Stamp (Amendment) Bill 2021; Deccan Herald reporting of the Revenue Department registration fee notification, 30 August 2025. Total transaction cost reported at approximately 7.5%.

The slab trap

INTERPRETATIONThe 2% and 3% concessional rates are commonly described as applying to residential property generally. They do not, on the face of the statute. They sit in Article 20(2A), whose operative words are “first sale of flat or apartment.” The residual rate for a conveyance is 5% under Article 20(1).

So a resale flat, or a plot purchase, may attract the full 5% even below ₹45 lakh. We could not reach the department’s own rate page to check whether a later amendment or circular broadened this. Confirm which article applies to your instrument with the jurisdictional sub-registrar before you budget. Note also that the statutory boundary is “above ₹20 lakh” — the ₹21 lakh figure in common circulation has no statutory basis.

The registration fee doubling

INTERPRETATIONKarnataka doubled the registration fee to 2% effective 31 August 2025. On a ₹1 to 2 crore flat that is roughly an extra ₹1.5 lakh. A buyer budgeting from pre-September-2025 guidance will under-provision by about 1% of the consideration — and a great deal of online guidance still carries the old figure.

No women’s concession

FACTWe found no provision granting women purchasers a concessional rate anywhere in the Karnataka Stamp Act text examined — not in the sections, not in the Schedule, not in the 2021 amendment. Buyer-facing content routinely assumes a 1–2% concession exists in Karnataka as it does in Delhi, UP, Haryana and Rajasthan. On the statute, it does not. A concession would have to appear in the Act or Schedule to operate.

Guidance value

FACTThe last confirmed revision took effect 1 October 2023, with an average increase of 25–30% across the state. A further revision of 15% to 20% was under consideration for effect from 1 April 2026; as at March 2026 no final decision had been taken. NOT CONFIRMEDWe could not establish whether it was notified.

INTERPRETATIONThis creates real timing risk, because guidance value drives four separate costs: stamp duty, the registration fee, B-Khata conversion charges (which are a percentage of guidance value), and property tax. A 15–20% rise compounds with the 2025 registration fee doubling. Check the current value on Kaveri on the day you transact.

4. BBMP no longer exists

FACTThe Greater Bengaluru Governance Act 2024 commenced on 15 May 2025. On 2 September 2025 the final notification established the Greater Bengaluru Authority as a coordinating body over five city corporations covering 721 sq km. BBMP was dissolved. Ward boundaries were redrawn into 369 wards in November 2025 — an increase of 171.

FACTThere are no elected councils. The Supreme Court extended the deadline for corporation elections to 31 December 2026, after earlier deadlines of 30 June and 31 August 2026 passed, because of the ongoing revision of electoral rolls. Executive power sits with appointed commissioners.

INTERPRETATIONThree practical consequences for a buyer. You must know which of the five corporations your property falls in — records, offices and jurisdiction all follow boundaries that were newly drawn in 2025. Building permission now comes from that corporation’s Commissioner, with a 30-day statutory clock, and e-Khata has been a precondition for building plan approval since 1 July 2025. And with no elected councillor to escalate to until at least December 2026, the practical cost of fixing a record error is higher than it was.

5. What K-RERA actually delivers

FACTAs at February 2026, K-RERA had issued over 2,300 recovery orders — but only 12% of homebuyers who obtained one actually received a refund.

FACTThe Karnataka High Court has held that RERA orders cannot be executed through civil courts, narrowing the route available to a buyer holding an unpaid order. It has separately held that K-RERA has no authority over projects granted a partial occupancy certificate before the Act came into force.

INTERPRETATIONThe operative lesson is that a K-RERA order is not money. With an ~88% gap between recovery orders and actual refunds, and civil-court execution ruled out, treat K-RERA registration as a disclosure and diligence resource — check the registration, the declared completion date, the litigation history, the quarterly progress updates — rather than as insurance that a defective project will be made good. Enforcement does sometimes bite, but you cannot plan on it.

A note on context: in February 2026 the Chief Justice of India made critical remarks about RERA authorities generally, in a case arising from Himachal Pradesh. Those remarks were not a finding about K-RERA and are not presented as one here.

NOT FOUNDK-RERA’s own portal was unreachable throughout our research. Agent registration fees, validity and renewal terms, and current registered project and agent counts could not be verified and are not stated here.

6. Infrastructure: what runs, and what is contested

Sources: PIB releases of 16 August 2024, 23 May 2025 and 10 August 2025; Karnataka High Court order of 16 July 2026; Deccan Herald reporting to 19 August 2026.

INTERPRETATIONBengaluru’s operating metro network is real and growing — the Yellow Line opening in August 2025 took it past 96 km. Everything else needs care. Phase 3A is the corridor most often cited in marketing for north and north-east Bengaluru, and it has no central sanction at all — it sits awaiting a reply from the state. It is announced, not approved, and certainly not funded.

INTERPRETATIONThe tunnel road is the weakest possible basis for a location decision. It has administrative approval and a live tender, but the High Court has directed that contracts remain subject to the outcome of pending public interest litigation, the National Green Tribunal has issued notices, and the leading bid was reported at 96% above the original benchmark. Treat it as announced and contested.

7. Who Bengaluru suits — and who should walk

It suits you if

• You are buying A-Khata property, verified by reading the e-Khata rather than by being told one exists.
• You have budgeted the full ~7.5% transaction cost, including 2% registration and no women’s concession.
• You are buying near operating metro — the Purple, Green or Yellow Lines — rather than a proposed corridor.
• You want India’s strongest major-metro price momentum and accept that it comes with the country’s messiest property-records problem.

Walk away if

• The property is B-Khata and you are paying an A-Khata price on the promise of conversion. Roughly 700 conversions have completed against 7 lakh eligible properties.
• The property sits on land reserved for roads or public infrastructure — it is expressly ineligible for conversion, permanently.
• You are relying on Phase 3A, the tunnel road, the PRR or the suburban rail to deliver your appreciation.
• You are treating a K-RERA registration as a guarantee. It is a disclosure resource; 88% of recovery orders produced no refund.
• You cannot establish which of the five city corporations the property falls in.

8. Before you pay anything

1. Get the e-Khata and read which register it names — A or B. Both are eligible for e-Khata. This is the most exploitable gap in the market.
2. If B-Khata, assume it stays B-Khata and price it accordingly.
3. Check the conversion window and fee directly with GBA. The 2% concessional rate was reported to run 15 May to 22 August 2026, reverting to 5%; some sources give 23 August. We found no confirmation of an extension — and GBA’s own software was still charging 5% early in the window, so verify what you are actually charged.
4. Confirm the property is not on land reserved for roads or public infrastructure.
5. Distinguish draft e-Khata from final e-Khata. The process has two stages, and a large number generated remain undelivered.
6. Check the e-Khata’s embedded data — it carries GPS coordinates, photographs of property and owner, and the schedule. Confirm they match the physical property.
7. Remember khata is not title. Section 2(35) gives only a rebuttable presumption tied to tax liability. Run full title and encumbrance diligence anyway.
8. Confirm which stamp duty article applies to your instrument — the concessional slabs are framed around the first sale of a flat or apartment; resale and plots may attract 5%.
9. Budget registration at 2%, and get the current cess and surcharge percentages from Kaveri.
10. Check the guidance value on Kaveri on the day you transact.
11. Establish which of the five city corporations you are in, and expect no elected councillor to escalate to until at least 31 December 2026.
12. If buying new, put khata mutation in the agreement — K-RERA treats it as a section 17(1) duty with a 30-day clock from possession.

Sources and method

Price data: NHB RESIDEX (HPI@Assessment Prices), quarter ending March 2026. Statute: the Karnataka Stamp Act 1957 (consolidated), the Karnataka Stamp (Amendment) Bill 2021, and the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act 2024 — all from official repositories. Infrastructure: PIB and the Karnataka High Court. Administrative developments — e-Khata counts, conversion scheme terms, guidance value revisions, registration fee changes and K-RERA enforcement statistics — are from Deccan Herald reporting of government announcements.

An honest limitation. Every Karnataka state government domain was unreachable throughout our research — the Stamps and Registration department, the Kaveri portal, K-RERA and the GBA site. The statutory facts above rest on primary sources and are solid. The administrative facts rest on press reporting of official announcements, and each is labelled. Before acting on any figure in sections 3 to 5, verify it against the Kaveri or GBA portal directly. No property portal data was used anywhere on this page.

Last verified: 22 August 2026. This page is educational and is not property, legal, tax or investment advice. Property decisions carry financial and legal risk, and guidance values, stamp duty, scheme deadlines and conversion charges change — several on this page were live as we wrote it. Verify every figure that affects your money with the relevant authority before acting on it. This site does not sell listings or leads, does not represent any developer, broker or property portal, and has no commercial interest in whether you buy.