Chennai guideline values: how Tamil Nadu sets them and how they decide your stamp duty

Rules and rates as of 17 October 2026.

What a guideline value is

When you register a flat in Chennai, the sub-registrar does not simply take your word for the price. Tamil Nadu keeps an official schedule of property values, street by street and survey number by survey number. Officially it is called the market value guideline (MVG). Everyone in Chennai calls it the guideline value.

It matters for one reason: stamp duty. If the price in your sale deed is below the guideline value for that property, the registration office treats the deed as possibly undervalued. You end up paying duty on the higher figure, or answering questions about why you did not.

Who sets it, and how

The legal basis is the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, as amended for Tamil Nadu. Section 47-AA, a Tamil Nadu insertion, asks the state government to set up a Valuation Committee chaired by the Inspector General of Registration. That committee makes the policy and method for the guidelines. District-level sub-committees work under it.

The procedure sits in the Tamil Nadu Stamp (Constitution of Valuation Committee for Estimation, Publication and Revision of Market Value Guidelines of Properties) Rules, 2010. In broad terms, sub-committees propose values, drafts are published for objections, and the main committee approves the final schedule. Rule 6(2) lets the government carry the existing values forward when no revision is made.

The Madras High Court has made clear that this procedure is not optional. In March 2024 a Division Bench (Writ Appeal No. 512 of 2024, decided 6 March 2024) upheld the quashing of a 30 March 2023 circular. That circular had simply restored the higher pre-2017 values. The court called it a "colourable exercise of power" and said the rules do "not differentiate between new and restored fixation". In other words, any increase has to go through the committee process, including publication and objections. Until then, the court directed, the values in force from 9 June 2017 would apply.

A short history of Chennai values

• 1 April 2012: a full revision of guideline values took effect.
• 9 June 2017: the government cut all values by a uniform 33%. The High Court later described this as a concession, not a revision.
• 30 March 2023: a circular tried to withdraw the cut and restore the 2012 values. It was quashed, a ruling confirmed in March 2024.
• 1 July 2024: news reports say revised values approved by the Valuation Committee took effect, with rises of around 10% on many Chennai streets. We could not open the official notification, so treat this as reported, not confirmed.
• July 2026: reports say the Registration Department has begun a fresh state-wide review of anomalies. No new values had been notified that we could confirm.

The lesson for a buyer is simple. Do not rely on a broker's figure or an old printout. Check the current value for the exact street or survey number on the TNREGINET portal (tnreginet.gov.in), which has a guideline value search, on the day you fix the price.

What it means for your stamp duty

Stamp duty and the registration fee are charged on the deed. For a resale flat, two points decide your bill.

The rate. A sale deed is a "conveyance" under Article 23 of Schedule I to the Stamp Act. The Madras High Court has recorded in a July 2024 judgment that Article 23 duty is 5% of the market value. On top of that, buyers in Chennai typically pay a 2% transfer duty, giving the familiar 7% total; we could not open an official rate schedule to confirm that 2%, so ask the sub-registrar office or your lawyer. The registration fee on a sale deed is 2%, down from 4%, under G.O. Ms. No. 34 of 30 March 2023, effective 1 April 2023.

The base. Duty is charged on the market value. Under section 47-A of the Act, if the registering officer believes the value in the deed is lower than the true market value, he can refer the deed to the Collector (Stamps) to fix the value. The deed waits until the gap in duty is paid. The guideline value is the trigger for that referral. The High Court has said it is relevant "only for invocation of section 47-A"; the Collector must then decide the actual market value after an enquiry. You can appeal that decision, but an appeal needs a deposit of part of the disputed duty. Interest on unpaid duty runs at 1% a month.

In practice, most buyers avoid the dispute by paying duty on whichever is higher: the price in the deed or the guideline value.

A worked example

Suppose you agree to buy a resale flat in Chennai for ₹80 lakh. The guideline value, worked out from the land rate for your undivided share and the building value, comes to ₹90 lakh.

Duty is charged on the higher figure, ₹90 lakh.

• Stamp and transfer duty at 7%: ₹90,00,000 × 0.07 = ₹6,30,000
• Registration fee at 2%: ₹90,00,000 × 0.02 = ₹1,80,000
• Total at registration: ₹8,10,000

Had the guideline value been at or below ₹80 lakh, the total would have been ₹80,00,000 × 0.09 = ₹7,20,000. The higher guideline value costs you ₹90,000 more, even though you paid the seller not a rupee extra. That ₹8.1 lakh is also cash your home loan will usually not cover, since banks lend against the property, not the registration costs.

Agreed price	Guideline value	Duty is charged on	7% duty	2% fee	Total
₹80 lakh	₹72 lakh	₹80 lakh	₹5,60,000	₹1,60,000	₹7,20,000
₹80 lakh	₹80 lakh	₹80 lakh	₹5,60,000	₹1,60,000	₹7,20,000
₹80 lakh	₹90 lakh	₹90 lakh	₹6,30,000	₹1,80,000	₹8,10,000
₹80 lakh	₹99 lakh	₹99 lakh	₹6,93,000	₹1,98,000	₹8,91,000

All figures are illustrative and assume the 7% duty and 2% fee described above. The 7% figure should be confirmed with the registration office before you budget.

New flats from a builder are different

Until late 2023, a new flat was usually bought through two documents: a sale deed for the undivided share of land, and a construction agreement for the building. Since 1 December 2023, the first sale of a flat goes through a single composite sale deed valued at a composite value covering both. Law firm summaries of that change describe slab rates of 6%, 7% or 9% in total (duty plus fee) depending on whether the value is below ₹50 lakh, up to ₹3 crore, or above. We could not open the December 2023 notification itself, so confirm the slab with your builder's lawyer.

Two later notifications we did read add detail. A December 2025 notification (G.O. Ms. No. 166) lets buyers whose construction agreement was registered on or before 30 November 2023 deduct the duty and fee already paid on it, when the composite deed is registered on or after 1 December 2023. And from 6 August 2026 (G.O. Ms. No. 103), first sales of flats by builders and plots by promoters were added to the documents that can be presented electronically.

Before you register

• Look up the guideline value yourself for the exact survey number or street.
• Ask the seller or your lawyer how the flat's value will be worked out: land share, building, floor, age.
• If the guideline value looks wrong for the property, the place to raise it is the published draft during a revision, or an appeal after a section 47-A order. A lawyer can tell you which applies.