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The rush to avail the benefit of the stamp duty cut announced by Maharashtra continues to lead to sharp rise in property transactions and house sales.
Two months after the state government cut the stamp duty on property transactions in a bid to revive economy, figures show that it has given a much-needed boost to property sales.
According to Maharashtra Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat, the period between September 1 and November 25 witnessed a total of 7,22,348 transactions being registered across the state, with nearly 65 per cent of these being sale transactions. Corresponding data for the same period last year shows that the number of transactions registered was 5,19, 373. In other words, the volume of registered transactions this time around was 2,03,065 more or 39 per cent more than the registrations during the period last year.
In a bid to revive the real estate economy, the Maharashtra government had cut the stamp duty payable on all sale transactions executed and registered between September 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 by 3 per cent and by 2 per cent for transactions registered between January 1, 2021 and March 31, 2021.
In Mumbai, also seen as the country’s costliest real estate, the relief has brought down the stamp duty payable on a sale transaction from five per cent to two per cent for now while in some other parts of the state it has dropped from six per cent to three per cent. “It was not an easy decision to take. But cutting stamp duty was the only option to revive the real estate market,” said Thorat. Between September 1 and November 25 this year, statistics show that the state netted a total of Rs 5,113 crore through stamp and registration levies. A higher stamp duty rate meant that corresponding collection last year was Rs 6,543 crore.
After a complete shutdown in the first couple of months of the lockdown, construction activity has been gradually resuming operation in the state since June onwards. But it was only after mid-July that the residential buying segment started witnessing some movement. “Cutting of stamp duty worked two-fold. It benefitted buyers. In many cases the builders themselves paid the remaining 2 per cent amount benefitting buyers further. It also led to more transactions being registered,” Thorat added.