Housing sales in Mumbai witnessed an upward trend once again. In just the first 17 days of July, 4,619 house sale deeds have been registered, according to the Department of Registration & Stamps, Government of Maharashtra, earning the state exchequer Rs 247.30 crore as stamp duty fees. Despite the fear of the prevailing Covid-19 situation, housing sales have gained momentum according to experts in the real estate sector.
Similarly, across the state over 78,359 housing sale deed registrations have been recorded. This has led to revenue generation of Rs 879.79 crore as stamp duty fees.
Currently the Maharashtra government charges a 5 percent stamp duty on property purchases. While women homebuyers get a one percent concession in stamp duty charges as announced by the Maharashtra government reportedly.
While the recent report released by Knight Frank India revealed that the first half of the fiscal year (H1) 2021 saw a rise of 67 per cent year over year (YoY) in sales volume. During the early part of this year, sales volumes were greatly influenced by two markets – Mumbai and Pune, that together constituted over 45 percent of the total sales amongst key markets --Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad among others. These two markets were given their orbital velocity by the Maharashtra government’s decision to lower stamp duty rates for a limited period. While residential sales started to show resurgence, the momentum got impacted by the second wave of the pandemic that started towards the end of March 2021, the report stated.
Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director, Knight Frank India said, "The gradual resumption of economic activity and increasing availability of the vaccine had sparked market traction in the second half of 2020 and this momentum carried over into Q1 2021. The second wave of COVID-19 infections has impeded this momentum but should be seen as more of a speedbump as YoY growth in market volumes remains strong in half-yearly and quarterly terms in the January to June 2021 period. The limited period stamp duty cut which spiked home sales in Mumbai and Pune adequately demonstrates the need for policy level intervention to revive the residential market. Going by the tremendous success of the stamp duty cut in Maharashtra, other states may also consider similar demand."
