News: Mumbai: Property registrations at all-time high in December-31-12-2020
ET had reported on December 18 that the performance in December had already broken all the monthly records in just the first half of the month and was expected to close with the highest numbers ever. November month’s performance itself was an 8-year high record number.
Property registrations in Mumbai, the country’s biggest real estate market, have broken all records as the unprecedented rush among the homebuyers continued in the backdrop of all-time low home loan rates, attractive price discounts and reduction in stamp duty charges.
Registration of residential sales in the country’s financial capital rose 192% from a year ago in December so far to 18,794 deals.
This performance is 217% higher than the pre-Covid month of February and up 102% from November, showed the data from the office of the Inspector General of Registration Maharashtra.
ET had reported on December 18 that the performance in December had already broken all the monthly records in just the first half of the month and was expected to close with the highest numbers ever. November month’s performance itself was an 8-year high record number.
“We are witnessing record growth in registration of deals and given the rush all of our 26 sub-registrar offices are working beyond working hours and even on holidays to facilitate smooth operations and allow homebuyers to get the benefit of government’s reduced stamp duty,” Shridhar Dube-Patil, deputy inspector general of registration, Mumbai division, told ET.
According to him, any homebuyer who pays the complete stamp duty on the executed documents by the end of December 31 office hours will be able to register the document within the next four months without any additional charges to get the benefit of the government’s decision.
The property registration across Maharashtra has touched 2.42 lakh deals in December so far with stamp duty revenue collection of Rs 2,099 crore. In December 2019, the state had witnessed 1.09 lakh deal registrations with revenue of Rs 1,786 crore.
Given the latest average of around 1,000 registration per day in Mumbai and one more day to go, the number for the entire December is expected to top 20,000 easily.
Interestingly, the stamp duty revenue collection has also risen nearly 20% from a year ago to Rs 646 crore despite the reduction in stamp duty rates. Stamp duty revenue has witnessed a 124% jump from November when the collection stood at Rs 288 crore.
In August, the government of Maharashtra had announced reduction in stamp duty on property registrations to 2% for transactions between September 1 and December 31 from 5% earlier.
The stamp duty will be 3% for agreements to be registered between January 1 and March end.
Following this announcement, real estate transactions in Mumbai, Pune and other urban pockets of the state have been witnessing a sharp jump. The registrar had to keep all 26 Mumbai offices open on all Saturdays to accommodate the higher number of deals.
The government has also started to operate registration offices in two shifts as against one shift operation that had started during Covid19 period.
In Mumbai, all registration offices now commence operations at 7 AM and close at 9 PM as against the timing of 10AM to 5:30PMsince the outbreak of Covid19.
Apart from helping converting pent up demand in the mid-income and affordable segment, the stamp duty reduction has been driving several large-ticket transactions in the city and the trend is expected to pick up further.
