stamp duty collection
Mumbai, the country’s largest and most expensive property market, has set a new record in terms of stamp duty collection in January. Even though there has been a decline in the total number of property registrations on an annual basis during this period, the purchase of big and expensive houses has strengthened the government’s revenue.
According to data from Maharashtra Inspector General of Registration (IGR) and Controller of Stamps, a total of 11,219 property registrations took place in Mumbai in January. The state government received stamp duty of more than Rs 1,012 crore from these deals, which is the highest level so far in the month of January. Although the number of registrations was down about 8% compared to last year, it was still the second most active January month ever.
Recorded an increase of 2% on annual basis
Experts believe that the decline in registration is due to seasonal reasons. According to Shishir Baijal, CMD of Knight Frank India, there is usually a slight lull in real estate activities in January. Apart from this, some operational problems at the end of the month also affect the registration. Despite this, the strength in stamp duty collection shows that home buyers remain confident in the market.
An increase of 2% has been recorded in the income from stamp duty on annual basis. The main reason for this is that the share of expensive and premium houses has increased during this period. The share of houses costing more than Rs 5 crore has increased to 7%, while the share of houses costing less than Rs 1 crore has decreased.
Connectivity and strong infrastructure priority
Parth K, CMD of Paradigm Realty. According to Mehta, buyers are now not just looking at affordable prices, but are giving priority to better quality, good connectivity and strong infrastructure. Mid and premium segment projects are being preferred more in metro related areas and business districts.
About 80% of the total registrations in January were of residential properties. In terms of size, houses up to 1,000 square feet were purchased the most. Talking about location, the highest number of registrations took place in the western and central suburbs, whose total share was 87%.