The number of property registrations in the state has slowed down to 1.24 lakh from December 1-18 as against more than 1.5 lakh in the first 18 days of previous months this financial year. Officials attributed the trend to wait-and-watch policy being adopted by homebuyers, who are waiting for announcements of sops next year.
Property registration department officials said the full-month registrations this December might not surpass the pre-pandemic level achieved for the same month in 2019, at 2.39 lakh.
“The property registrations have been slow this December so far. Citizens are probably in a wait-and-watch mode, expecting the current state government to announce housing sops next year,” a senior official from the registration department said.
Barring August and October this financial year, all other months saw more than 2 lakh registrations, data available with the department showed. “Though there is slow down in registrations in December so far, revenue collection has remained steady. From April to mid-December, the state has earned a revenue of Rs 27,335.55 crore from property registrations, which is 85.42% of the target of Rs 32,000 crore for the entire fiscal,” another official from the department said.
Credai national vice-president Shantilal Kataria said people were opting to travel than registering property amid a drastic drop in Covid cases. “The buoyancy remains in the real estate market. Citizens are waiting and register in the new year, which is a normal trend,” he said.
Agreeing, IT professional Kedar Shinde said he was going out of station on a family vacation and would register the property next year. “It is always better to invest in the new year rather than towards the fag-end of the year,” he said.
Real estate experts confirmed that the market was buoyant. Anarock chairman Anuj Puri said the dip in registrations has little to do with the fall in demand as the marked continued to remain strong. “There is still strong demand for the properties in the mid and premium price segments, despite high interest rates and overall inflation. While mid-range and premium housing saw little impact, people in the affordable housing segment have felt it more,” he said.
