Last month, Kolkata and its suburbs recorded the second-highest registration of residential sale documents since the introduction of stamp duty cut a year ago. Only in August 2021 were more documents registered than July 2022.
With the extended incentive period due to get over this September, realtors and developers expect the high sales to continue and result in even more registrations at the state directorate of registrations and stamps revenue.
The 6,709 documents that were registered in July 2022 was 124% more than the 2,998 documents registered in July 2021 when the incentive scheme was first introduced but came into effect only towards the month-end due to a glitch in the system at the directorate office. The following month, August 2021, saw the highest registration of 7,316 sale documents. Altogether, 50,898 properties have been registered since stamp duty cut was introduced in July 2021.
Shishir Baijal, chairman and managing director of real estate consultancy firm Knight Frank India, said the high annual growth is due to the urgency to avail the benefit of the reduced stamp duty before the closure of the rebate window.
“Despite the recent rise in home loan rates, strong home buying trend has continued in Kolkata in July 2022 strengthening the premise that latent demand for homes is strong and with the right stimulation will propel the residential market. Further, the fact that limited amount of time remains before stamp duty rebate expires, automatically raising the outflow towards home buying and the possibility of another rise in home loan rates, has instilled a sense of urgency, pushing fence sitters to complete their purchases. Going forward, we expect the momentum to remain intact at least till stamp duty rebate lasts,” said Baijal.
This is the third extension of the 2% stamp duty cut rebate. Real estate developers said many home buyers are contemplating their property purchases and registrations to avail the benefit of a low stamp duty levy before any further rise in home loan rates.
In the transactions that happened in July 2022, of the various configurations, homes in the range of 501-1,000 sq ft continued to account for nearly half or 49% of the total registrations. The bigger unit sizes of more than 1,001 sq ft comprised 25% share in the total pie. Smaller units of up to 500 sq ft comprised a 26% share of the total.
North zone and south zone continued to be the best performing regions in terms of home sales in July 2022.
