How to read a cost sheet
The base price is roughly two-thirds of what you will pay. Here is the rest of it, line by line.
8 min read · last reviewed 5 August 2026
Ask a sales office for the price and you get the basic sale price. Ask for the cost sheet and you get eleven lines, several of which are negotiable and one of which is refundable. Buyers who have not seen one before are routinely surprised by 25–35%.
The stack
| Line | What it is | Negotiable? |
|---|---|---|
| Basic sale price (BSP) | Rate × saleable area. The headline. | Yes — this is where discounts land |
| PLC | Preferential location charge: park-facing, corner, pool view. ₹100–₹500 per sq ft. | Yes, often waived |
| Floor rise | A per-sq-ft escalation above a base floor, typically from the 4th up. | Sometimes |
| Car parking | ₹2–8 L per covered bay. Cannot legally be sold as an independent unit, but is charged as an amenity. | Sometimes |
| Club membership | One-time, ₹1–5 L. Ask what it entitles you to and whether there is an annual fee on top. | Rarely |
| IFMS | Interest-free maintenance security, ₹50–150 per sq ft. Refundable in principle, transferred to the society on handover. | No |
| EDC / IDC | External and internal development charges levied by the state authority and passed through. | No |
| Power backup | Per-KVA charge for the DG allocation. | Sometimes |
| GST | 5% on under-construction, 1% on affordable housing. Nil once the Occupancy Certificate is received. | No |
| Stamp duty | State rate on the agreement value — 4% to 7.5%. | No |
| Registration | 0.5% to 4% depending on state, often capped in rupees. | No |
Three things to insist on
- 1Get the sheet in writing, on letterhead, with the unit number on it. A verbal quote is not a cost sheet.
- 2Ask which lines are one-time and which recur. Club membership is one-time; club maintenance is not. IFMS is a deposit; maintenance is a monthly charge.
- 3Ask for the possession-stage charges too — advance maintenance (usually 12–24 months), electricity and water meter deposits, society formation charges and the corpus fund. These arrive at handover, when your loan is fully drawn and your savings are not.
The GST trap on ready inventory
GST is levied on an under-construction sale because it is treated as a supply of service. Once the Occupancy Certificate is issued, the same flat is an immovable property transfer and attracts no GST. On a ₹1 Cr agreement that is a ₹5 L difference, which is why a ready flat at a slightly higher headline price is frequently cheaper all-in than an under-construction one.