Maharashtra hikes ready reckoner rates by 2%, marginal drop for Mumbai

The RR rates are market values of a property determined by the government for payment of stamp duty in the course of property transactions.

The Inspector-General of Registrations and Controller of Stamps, Omprakash Deshmukh, justified the statewide hike saying the last revision in the values had come way back in April 2017.

On account of the persistent slowdown in the construction industry, the government hadn’t revised the rates in 2018-19 and 2019-20. While the rates for 2020-21 were originally expected to be declared in April, the government had pushed the announcement back till Friday, asking the IGR to rationalise the rate hike as much as possible.

An upward revision in rates hits home buyers and also impacts the construction cost for developing properties. The input cost for construction activity is impacted as several charges collected by civic corporations are linked to the RR rates.

Last month the state Cabinet had slashed stamp duty payable on sale transactions by three per cent till December 2020 and two per cent thereafter to encourage buying of properties, which has reduced significantly during the lockdown period.

Contending that a general lockdown had been impacting the Mumbai’s real estate market since 2013, Deshmukh said the capturing of the actual drop in real market values and also revision of market values of properties impacted by development restrictions on properties located within coastal regulation zone-I (CRZ-I) and eco-sensitive belts had contributed to the overall drop in average market values.

Outside Mumbai, the average hike was around 2.81 per cent for properties in rural areas, 1.28 per cent in peri-urban areas, and 1.02 per cent in areas falling under other municipal corporations. In rural and semi-urban areas, the highest hike in average market values was witnessed in Ratnagiri, Sindhurdurg and Nandurbar (around 4 per cent), while in municipal corporations Panvel (5.3 per cent) and Pimpri Chinchwad (3.41 per cent) saw the highest hikes.