Nothing in Indian statute sets a broker's commission — the calculator above prices a survey convention, not a legal rate, and the only figure that is law is the 18% GST. What RERA does regulate is the broker, not the fee: an agent must register with the state Authority before facilitating a sale in a registered project (RERA Act, 2016, Section 9), and that registration sits entirely outside the price negotiation.
RERA Section 9 and 10: what is actually regulated, and what isn't
Section 9(1) of the RERA Act bars any real estate agent from facilitating the sale or purchase of a unit in a RERA-registered project without first obtaining registration from that state's Authority (UP-RERA's official text of the Act). That registration is state-wide — one registration covers the whole state or union territory, not a project-by-project sign-up — carries a registration number the agent must quote on every facilitated sale, and can be revoked or suspended for breach or misrepresentation. Section 10 sets the agent's conduct duties once registered. Neither section, nor anywhere else in the central Act, prescribes or caps a brokerage percentage — commission is a matter the Act does not address at all. A broker asking for 2% is not citing a RERA-set rate, because there isn't one; they are quoting the market convention the calculator above surveys.
The state rules that flesh out agent registration
The mechanics of that registration are filled in by each state's own RERA Rules rather than the central Act. Maharashtra's rules — gazetted under the same Section 84 rule-making power as every other state's — are explicitly titled to cover "Registration of real estate agents" alongside project registration and disclosure requirements (Maharashtra RERA Registration Rules, 2017). Checking that an agent actually holds a live state registration number — not just a business card claiming RERA compliance — is the one verifiable check available before you agree to pay anyone a commission at all.
Brokerage sits outside the promoter's 10% advance cap
Section 13(1) of the Act bars a promoter from accepting more than 10% of the unit's cost as an advance or application fee before a registered agreement for sale is signed (same Act text, Section 13(1)). That cap is on what the promoter — the builder or seller — can collect from you before an agreement exists; it says nothing about a broker's fee, because a broker's commission is a separate contract with the agent, not a payment to the promoter. If a broker asks for their cut at the token or booking stage, that request is not governed by the 10% cap at all — worth knowing before assuming an early brokerage demand is somehow capped by the same rule that limits the builder.
Small projects can be entirely outside RERA — the agent's own registration then matters more
A project is exempt from RERA registration altogether where the land being developed does not exceed 500 square metres, or the number of apartments does not exceed eight, inclusive of all phases (Section 3(2)(a), same Act text). None of Section 4's escrow rule, Section 13's advance cap or Section 18's delay-interest entitlement attaches to a sale in one of those exempt projects — which means the agent's own Section 9 registration, and whatever conduct standard Section 10 sets for them personally, is the only RERA-linked protection still in play on a small, unregistered project. It is worth asking specifically whether the project itself is registered, not just whether the agent is.
A broker's lender referral doesn't change how the rate itself is set
It's common for a broker to steer a buyer toward a particular bank for the home loan, sometimes for a referral fee of their own. That referral doesn't change the one thing RBI actually regulates: since 1 October 2019, every new floating-rate retail loan, including a housing loan, must be linked to an external benchmark such as the repo rate, with the lender setting only its own spread on top (RBI press release, 4 September 2019). A broker's preferred lender can offer a better spread, but not a different rate-setting mechanism — worth remembering when a broker frames one bank's offer as categorically better than a rate you could get quoted yourself.
One more figure worth knowing before an under-construction deal closes
Where the property a broker is facilitating is still under construction, the promoter's own delay-interest exposure is not a matter of negotiation either. Telangana's, Karnataka's and Maharashtra's state RERA Rules each fix the same formula — interest payable by the promoter to the allottee, or the allottee to the promoter, at the State Bank of India's highest Marginal Cost of Lending Rate plus two per cent (Telangana Rules, 2017; Karnataka Rules, 2017). That figure is not something a broker can talk up or down, and it is worth knowing before agreeing to a brokerage fee on a project that is still being built — the same delay risk that determines the promoter's interest liability also determines how long the deal you paid brokerage on takes to actually close.
Methodology
Agent-registration mechanics are read from the central RERA Act's own text and from three states' own gazetted Rules; the EBLR mechanism from RBI's own press release. Brokerage percentages themselves remain a market survey, as the existing page states, because no statute or state rule fixes one.
Sources
- UP-RERA — The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (full text, Sections 3, 4, 9, 10, 13) — accessed 2026-09-21
- Government of Maharashtra — RERA Registration Rules, 2017 — accessed 2026-09-21
- Government of Telangana — Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules, 2017 — accessed 2026-09-21
- Government of Karnataka — Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules, 2017 — accessed 2026-09-21
- RBI — Press Release, floating-rate loans linked to external benchmark — accessed 2026-09-21