Guidance Value
The minimum price per square foot at which a property can be registered in a given location, fixed by the state government and used to calculate stamp duty and registration charges. Known as guidance value in Karnataka, ready reckoner rate in Maharashtra, circle rate in Delhi/UP, and DLC rate in Rajasthan.
What is Guidance Value?
Guidance value is the floor price the state government has notified for property in a specific micro-area — a street, a village, a layout, sometimes a single survey number. The seller and buyer are free to transact above this floor, but they cannot legally register a sale deed below it. Stamp duty and registration charges are levied on the higher of the actual sale price or the guidance value.
Different states use different names for the same instrument: guidance value in Karnataka (notified by the Department of Stamps and Registration on kaverionline.karnataka.gov.in), ready reckoner rate or RR rate in Maharashtra (notified yearly by IGR Maharashtra), circle rate in Delhi, UP, Haryana, DLC rate (District Level Committee) in Rajasthan, and market value in Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
Why it matters for property buyers
Three reasons it directly affects your cheque:
1. Stamp duty floor. Even if you negotiate the seller down to ₹6,500 psf, if the guidance value is ₹7,200 psf, you pay stamp duty on ₹7,200 psf. In Karnataka that is 5% + 1% cess + 0.5% surcharge — a meaningful gap on a 1,500 sqft flat.
2. Capital gains exposure. Under Section 50C of the Income Tax Act, 1961, if the actual sale consideration is below the guidance value, the income tax department treats the guidance value as the deemed sale price for computing capital gains — both for the seller and the buyer under Section 56(2)(x).
3. Loan eligibility. Banks use the guidance value as a sanity check on the property's market price. If you declare a sale price 25–30% above guidance value, expect the bank's valuer to push back or request justification.
How to verify or calculate it
Step 1 (Karnataka): Visit kaverionline.karnataka.gov.in → Services → Guidance Value. Enter district, taluk, hobli, village, and survey number. The portal returns the current notified rate per sqft for built-up and per acre for vacant land.
Step 2 (Maharashtra): Visit igrmaharashtra.gov.in → e-ASR (Annual Statement of Rates). Pick year, district, taluka, village, and zone number.
Step 3 (Delhi/NCR): Visit doris.delhigovt.nic.in or the relevant state revenue portal; select locality and property type.
Step 4: Compute stamp duty as max(actual price, guidance value × area) × stamp duty rate. Add 1% registration charge in most states.
Step 5: Compare the guidance value with recent registered sale instances in the same micro-area (Kaveri "Encumbrance Certificate Search" surfaces the last 30 years of registrations). A wide gap (sale price 40%+ above guidance value) is normal in hot markets; a sale price below guidance value is a red flag — it usually means cash component or distress.
How Brickplot uses Guidance Value in its score
Guidance value is one of the inputs into Axis 7 — Value & Price Trajectory (weight 9%). Brickplot compares the project's quoted base price against the latest guidance value for the same micro-market and against recent registered sale instances. Projects priced more than 60% above guidance value with weak supporting comparables get an axis penalty; projects priced within 25% of guidance value and supported by recent registered comparables earn the full axis allowance. The same data also feeds the fair-price calculator at /tools/fair-price/.
Related terms: Stamp Duty, Registration Charges, Capital Gains Tax on Property, Sale Deed
Related terms
Brickplot verifies guidance value disclosures on every reviewed project as part of the independent 11-axis score. No builder commissions. No editorial override.