Noida: Property sales record steady rise since May

Noida: Property sales in Gautam Budh Nagar have started gaining momentum as the district stamps and registration department generated a revenue of ₹130 crore last month. However, the department is far behind its revenue target for the current financial year, officials said.

While the department had not registered any property in April due to the Covid-induced nationwide lockdown, it has witnessed a steady rise in its revenue since then.

“The department’s revenue was zero in April. In May, June and July, we collected ₹12 crore, ₹60 crore and ₹110 crore, respectively as stamp duty. The trend indicates that the property registration is improving. In August and September, we collected ₹116 crore and ₹130 crore, respectively, which shows an upward trend,” said SK Tripathi, assistant inspector general (registration), Gautam Budh Nagar.

Tripathi said that the department has collected ₹80 crore from October 1-16. “We hope to generate a revenue of ₹150 crore in October,” he said.

However, the officials said that people mostly come for sale and purchase of small properties these days. “We have not got any application for registration from significant developers,” Tripathi said.

The UP government has given ₹3,148-crore revenue target to the GB Nagar registration department for the financial year 2020-21. The target appears difficult to meet as the department has so far collected only ₹508 crore till Mid-October, the officials said.

Tripathi said that there are six sub-registrars’ offices in GB Nagar. “The number of property registrations has increased in the past two months. All the six registration offices usually perform around 8,000 registries per month,” he said.

The officials said that 73 e-stamp vendors have been given licence to sell stamps in the district. “We have found that so far only 58 stamp vendors are actively involved in the work. We have asked the other vendors to sell the stamps or their licence may be cancelled,” Tripathi said.

PPS Nagar, a city-based lawyer who facilitates property registration, said that the lockdown had affected the property sales in the district. “There were some instances in March-April when sale and purchase deals were fixed, but registry could not be done due to the lockdown. Now, these people are coming for registration of their properties,” Nagar said.

For the past four years, the department has not been able to meet the target due to slump in the real estate industry. In 2019-20, the department had collected ₹1,856.48 crore against the annual target of ₹2,597 crore, while in 2018-19, it had collected ₹1,879 crore against a target of ₹2,552 crore. Similarly, in 2017-18, the department had collected ₹1,685 crore as stamp duty, falling short of its target of ₹2,232 crore, while in 2016-17, the revenue collected was ₹1,761 crore against a target of ₹2,222 crore, as per the official data.