Document type / Article 36
What it costs to mortgage land
Stamp duty on a mortgage depends on one thing: whether the lender takes possession of the land. With possession it is 4.9 per cent. Without possession it is 0.35 per cent. On a fifty lakh loan that is the difference between Rs. 2,45,000 and Rs. 17,500.
Almost every ordinary loan against property falls in the second case, where duty is 0.35 per cent up to ten crore, 0.70 per cent above it, and capped at 11.2 lakh rupees whatever the size of the facility. The registration fee on a mortgage is not published anywhere in the official table, and that blank is printed here rather than filled.
With possession 4.9 per centWithout possession 0.35 per centCapped at 11.2 lakhLast verified: 4 August 2026
01Possession is the whole question
A mortgage of land in Gujarat is charged under Article 36, and the article splits in two. If the lender takes possession of the property, the duty is 4.9 per cent, the same as an outright sale, because the transaction looks like one. If the lender does not take possession, which covers almost every ordinary bank loan against property, the duty drops to 0.35 per cent of the amount secured up to ten crore rupees and 0.70 per cent above that, capped at 11.2 lakh rupees.
Everything turns on whether the lender takes possession of the land. The two cases are charged at rates that differ by a factor of fourteen.
| Charge | Article | Applies to | Rate | Charged on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stamp duty | 36(a) | Mortgage deed with possession | 4.9% | consideration |
| Stamp duty | 36(b) | Mortgage deed without possession | 0.35% / 0.70% | 0.35% up to 10 crore, 0.70% above, capped at 11.2 lakh |
02The same loan, secured two ways
A fifty lakh loan against land costs Rs. 2,45,000 in stamp duty if the lender takes possession and Rs. 17,500 if it does not. That is the whole point of the article.
| How the loan is secured | Article | Rate | Stamp duty Rs. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lender takes possession of the land | 36(a) | 4.9% | 2,45,000 |
| Lender does not take possession | 36(b) | 0.35% | 17,500 |
The cap matters at the top end. Because the duty on a mortgage without possession is capped at 11.2 lakh rupees, a very large facility pays no more than a facility of about thirty two crore. There is no equivalent cap on a mortgage with possession or on a sale.
03The registration fee is not in the table
The published registration fee table, which lists eighteen articles from conveyance to a will, does not carry a mortgage article at all. That is a gap in the source and it is printed here as one.
No official fee published for the registration of a mortgage deed. The department's registration fee help file lists Articles 20, 17, 45(f), 49(b), 52, 57, 26, 28, 43, 30, 5(ga), 45, 16 and a will, and no mortgage article appears among them. No figure has been estimated or carried across from another article.
The practical consequence is that a borrower can work out the duty on this page and cannot work out the fee. Ask at the Sub-Registrar office having jurisdiction, and if the answer comes with a document, send it to [email protected].
The words on this page, in plain English
- Consideration
- The price actually written into the deed.
- Market value
- Not the price on the street. In this context it is the value the government calculates from the jantri, and it is what the tax is charged on.
- Sub-Registrar
- The local government office where the deed is presented, the duty is checked and the document is entered in the public record.
- Tenure
- Whether the land is old tenure, which can be sold freely, or new tenure, which carries a restriction and cannot be sold or converted until the government lifts it, usually on payment.
- Encumbrance Certificate
- A statement from the registration office listing the registered charges on a property, so a buyer can see whether it is mortgaged or otherwise burdened.