Reserve price versus the final bid
The reserve price is the floor the authority sets for a plot in its notice — bidding starts at or above it, and no bid below it is accepted. It is not the price the plot sells for. The final figure is decided by competitive bidding on the auction day, so it can land at the reserve or well above it, depending on how many bidders compete. When you plan for a plot, the reserve is the lowest the on-paper cost can be, not the likely cost.
On top of whatever the bid settles at, a buyer pays government charges to register the plot in their name — chiefly stamp duty and a registration fee — plus any processing fees the notice names. This guide walks through those charges and shows a worked estimate, so you can see how the numbers stack beyond the reserve. BiddingPulse does not report the final sale price or the result; the estimates here are planning figures, not the price anything sold for.
Stamp duty and the registration fee
Stamp duty is a state or union-territory tax on the transfer of property, charged as a percentage of the transaction value. The registration fee is a separate, usually smaller charge for recording the sale document (the deed) with the sub-registrar — the government office that records property sales — and is sometimes capped at a fixed rupee amount. Both are government charges set by the state or union territory the plot is in, not by the auction authority and not by BiddingPulse.
The rates differ by jurisdiction. In BiddingPulse’s planning estimates, Chandigarh plots use a 5% stamp-duty rate and a 1% registration fee capped at ₹10,000, drawn from the Chandigarh Administration fee schedule. — per the Chandigarh Administration stamp-duty and registration fee schedule.
For GDA (Ghaziabad) plots the estimate uses 7% stamp duty and 1% registration, from Uttar Pradesh’s published rates, and for DDA (Delhi) plots a 6% stamp duty and 1% registration, from Delhi’s public rate schedule. Rates can also differ by who the buyer is — Delhi, for instance, charges women buyers a lower stamp rate. — per the Uttar Pradesh Stamp and Registration Department rates and the Delhi revenue department’s public stamp-duty schedule.
These are estimates, not the authority’s official charge. The final amount is calculated on your accepted bid, and it can change with who the buyer is and the type of sale document. Treat the figures below as a floor for planning, and confirm the live rates with the sub-registrar or estate office.
A worked estimate from a covered plot
Take a real plot from a covered auction: Plot 1366 in Sector 44-B, a 100-square-yard residential site in the Estate Office of U.T. Chandigarh’s e-Auction 2026_CH_189. Its printed reserve price was ₹3,30,18,100. — per the Estate Office Chandigarh notice AuctionNotice02062026.pdf (residential sites table, Sr. No. 9).
Apply the same rates the BiddingPulse bid-cost planner uses. Stamp duty at 5% of the ₹3,30,18,100 reserve is ₹16,50,905. The 1% registration fee works out above the ₹10,000 cap, so the cap applies: ₹10,000. Added to the reserve, the on-paper floor estimate is ₹3,46,79,005. — per the Chandigarh Administration fee schedule, applied on the printed reserve.
Read that figure for what it is: a floor. It assumes the plot goes for exactly the reserve, which competitive bidding may push higher, and it uses estimated rates rather than the sub-registrar’s final calculation. What the example shows is the shape of the cost — the charges beyond the reserve are real and add up, and the reserve alone understates the on-paper total.
Other fees named in the notice
Beyond stamp duty and registration, a notice may name further charges — a non-refundable processing or participation fee to register, and later dues such as ground rent (a recurring charge for the land) on leasehold plots, which you hold on a long lease from the authority rather than owning outright. These charges vary by phase and plot, so no single number covers them — check the fee clauses in the notice you are following so they do not surprise you.
The earnest-money deposit is a separate matter again: it is refundable and is set against your dues if you win, rather than an added cost. Our EMD guide covers how that deposit works. For the fees that genuinely add to the cost of owning the plot, read the notice’s fee clauses in full and confirm each one on the official source.
How BiddingPulse lays out the numbers
For covered live plots, BiddingPulse’s bid-cost planner takes the reserve and the authority’s deposit and payment stages from the official notice and applies the same estimated stamp-duty and registration rates shown here, so you can see an on-paper floor at a glance — each figure labelled an estimate and cited to its source. It computes nothing that the notice does not support, and it names no result. The final numbers are yours to confirm with the registrar and the official notice before you take any step.