Property Buying Cost Add-Up Calculator

The quoted price is not the cost. Enter the base price and the rates you have actually been given — they differ by state, by buyer and by year — and this adds up what you will really pay, then restates it per carpet square foot so two flats can be compared on the same basis.

The calculator

How it works

Each percentage is applied to the base price you entered, the flat amounts are added as given, and the total is divided by the carpet area you entered. The working is printed line by line so you can check it or redo it on paper.

Where each figure comes from

None of these are things to guess at. Each one is a question with an answer somebody already has, and asking for it in writing is the point of the exercise.

• Base price — the headline figure on the quote, before anything is added to it. If the quote is stated per square foot, multiply it out first and note which area basis it used.
• Carpet area — ask for it explicitly, in writing, and ask which standard it follows. A price per square foot means nothing until you know which square feet it is counting.
• Stamp duty and registration — set by the state, and in several states they differ by the gender of the buyer and by whether the property is urban or rural. Check the current rate for your state and your situation rather than carrying over a figure from a previous purchase.
• Brokerage — ask whether the percentage is charged on the base price or on the total, and whether it is charged to one side or both. The two conventions give different numbers on the same deal.
• GST — the treatment depends on the status of the property and the nature of the transaction. Ask the seller to state in writing what is being charged and on what basis, and confirm it before you enter it here.
• Other one-time charges — parking, preferential location, club membership, maintenance deposits, electricity and water connection. These are usually itemised somewhere in the cost sheet rather than in the headline, and they are the ones most often left out of a comparison.
• Interiors and fit-out — your own estimate. It belongs in the total because it is money spent to make the flat usable, and because two flats can be quoted alike and need very different amounts of it.

What the result settles, and what it does not

The cost per carpet square foot on what you actually pay is the only figure that compares two properties on the same basis, because it counts the same things in both. A quoted price per square foot does not: it can rest on a different area standard, exclude different charges, and assume a different amount of work to make the place liveable.

What it does not settle is whether either price is reasonable. That is a question about the location, the builder, the stage of construction, the title, and what comparable properties have actually transacted at — none of which is arithmetic, and none of which this page knows. Two flats can come out at the same cost per square foot and be very different purchases.

It also assumes the figures you enter are the figures that will appear on the documents. Where a rate has been quoted verbally, treat the result as provisional until it is confirmed in writing.

What it does not do

It supplies no stamp duty rate, no brokerage convention, no GST treatment and no view on what a fair price per square foot is. Those depend on the state, the buyer and the year, and they belong to you. Nothing is sent anywhere or stored.