Reduction Of Stamp Duty in Maharashtra Leads to Property registration Of 10,000 Crore Housing Units Valuing Rs. 11,000 Crores

Over 10,000 housing units were registered in Mumbai in February this year, almost the same number as January 2021 on the back of the stamp duty cut by the Maharashtra government.

On August 26, the Maharashtra government decided to temporarily reduce stamp duty on housing units from 5 percent to 2 percent until December 31, 2020 to boost the stagnant real estate market, which had been hit hard by COVID-19. Stamp duty from January 1, 2021 until March 31, 2021 is 3 percent.

In September, as many as 5,597 properties were registered, in October 7,929 properties, November saw 9,301 properties being registered, December 19,584, January 10,412 and February 10,170 properties, government data by IGR Maharashtra show.

Volumes were, however, down by 2 percent month-on-month (MoM) but up 72 percent year-on-year, data shared by Propstack has revealed.

As for stamp duty collection, it was up by 15 percent MoM but down by 19 percent year-on-year (YoY). During the festive season in October, it was Rs 233 crore, in November it was Rs 288 crore, in December it was Rs 681 crore, January it was Rs 305 crore and in February it was Rs 352 crore, data shared by Propstack show.

In February, properties worth Rs 11,745 crore were sold indicating that this value is up 34 percent YoY and 15 percent MoM. The total value of properties in September stood at Rs 9,025 crore, Rs 11,640 crore in October, Rs 14,395 crore in November, Rs 34,025 crore in December, Rs 10,170 crore in January and Rs 11,745 crore in February, it said.

“March 2021 could be a bumper month for Mumbai real estate given that stamp duty would increase from 3 percent to 5 percent after March. We expect registration behavior to be similar to December 2020 where we witnessed 3X growth in registration volumes and value as buyers took advantage of lower stamp duty along with lower home loan rates and discounts,” Sandeep Reddy of Propstack told Moneycontrol.

In December 2020, properties worth Rs 34,000 crore were sold in Mumbai alone, many of them in the luxury segment. Bankers, stock brokers and even industrialists came forward to close big-ticket real estate deals in the city.

(Source: Moneycontrol)