The costs that come on top of the flat price

Budgets go wrong when the quoted price is treated as the total. It is not, and none of what follows is hidden. It is simply quoted separately, so it has to be added up deliberately.

Stamp duty and registration charges are set by the Karnataka government and fall due when the sale deed is registered. They are calculated on the value of the property, so they scale with what you buy. Rates get revised, so ask the sales team or your lawyer for the figure that applies on the day rather than working from an article.

GST applies where you are buying an under-construction property. It does not apply to a completed one, which is part of why a finished flat and an unfinished flat at the same headline price are not the same price at all.

If you are taking a loan, the lender charges a processing fee, and there are legal and technical valuation charges for the bank's own checks on the property. These are usually a modest share of the loan, but they are real and they fall due early.

Then the development's own charges: maintenance deposits, and any one-time charges specific to the project such as a corpus fund or infrastructure charges. Ask what is included, what the deposit covers, and for how long.

If you take property insurance or loan protection cover, that is another line. It is optional, and worth pricing separately rather than accepting whatever is bundled at the loan desk.

Finally, if you are on a floating rate, the instalment you start with is not necessarily the instalment you keep. Run the numbers at a rate somewhat above today's, so a rate movement is an inconvenience rather than a problem.

The EMI calculator on this site works out the monthly instalment on the loan alone, which is the largest of these numbers but not the only one. Treat what it gives you as the opening of the conversation with your bank, not a substitute for it.