Maharashtra property department’s December revenue at 9-month high

PUNE: Maharashtra's property registration revenue jumped to nine-month high in December at Rs 3,870 crore, primarily driven by high-value transactions, data released by the state property registration department has revealed.
According to the data, more than 2 lakh properties were registered across the state in December, netting Rs 3,870 crore in revenue, which was the highest since April this year. The high revenue collection has also helped the department achieve 91% of its revenue target set by the state government, said officials from the department.

State IGR Shravan Hardikar told TOI that the revenue collection for seven out of nine months has been over Rs 3,000 crore/month (see box). "High-value property transactions have been mainly instrumental in this steady collection," Hardikar said.
The officials said rising stamp duty charges in metros also helped in netting more revenue. "The annual revenue target for the department this year is Rs 32,000 crore and till December 30, the department has collected Rs 29,221 crore," an official said.
Developers are expecting the trend to continue in the coming year too. Credai national vice-president Shantilal Kataria said, "A definite boom can be expected in the first two quarters of the new year as compared to 2022," he told TOI.
Kataria said the financials were looking up and homebuyers were willing to take the plunge without any hesitancy as against the Covid years. On the possible stamp duty rates reduction, he said the government should at least start a phase-wise reduction with the affordable housing sector.
Samantak Das, chief economist and executive director, JLL Research, told TOI that the current market sentiments continued to remain strong in the state. "Low-interest rates and affordable pricing helped the real estate sector. The home loan interest rate increase in the country, which is around 180 to 200 bps, has touched the pre-pandemic levels, but the developers have not fully passed on their construction cost to the homebuyers. So, the surge in sales will continue to be maintained for the coming six months. If retail inflation continues to be below 6%, housing sales will be on the rise, albeit with a moderation in the growth rate," he said.
Server tech glitches
to be addressed
Work at most property registration offices had slowed down due to a technical snag affecting the main server of the registration department during the past few days, leaving scores of property buyers in the city hassled.
Property registration department officials said the technical issues were being addressed and discussions were on to shift the data to a different cloud.
The public data entry system involving uploading citizen data to obtain time slots for registration too had taken a hit due to the technical issue. IGR Shravan Hardikar said the department has taken cognizance of the issue and the service providers have been issued strict directions to maintain the connectivity and services.