still paculation

Proving doomsday prophets wrong, the city realty market is showing no signs of slowdown. With every passing day, the demand for high-end housing is witnessing new highs. The new luxury apartment schemes are commanding record prices with a recent land deal fetching Rs 16,500 per sq ft price.

Despite a slump on Wardha Road following The Hitavada expose revealing massive irregularities in grant of No Objection Certificates, the property market is full of queries and developers and builders are now offering plots and flats with proper permissions from various authorities including Non Agriculture and Town Planning sanctioned plans popularly known as NA/TP. Out of 2.40 lakh property deal registrations in five leading cities of Maharashtra including Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Thane and Nagpur during first quarter of 2008, the Orange City had witnessed 27,514. The authorities had banned registrations of plots and apartments situated in unauthorised layouts as well as registrations of plots part of irregular NA/TP permissions. According to figures available with Inspector General of Registration and Stamp Duty, Nagpur cityi had recorded 24,529 registrations during first quarter of 2006. It saw a 5.74 per cent rise the following year with 25,937 registrations. During first quarter of 2008 as many as 27,514 properties deals were registered recording 6.08 per cent growth. Till June 20, 2008, Nagpur city has recorded 30,156 registeries and mopped up stamp duty worth Rs 105 crore. Nagpur (Rural) too witnessed 21,019 registration from January 1, 2008, till June 20, and stamp duty worth Rs 28.73 crore was collected. During 2006-07 (April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007) as many as 61,126 deals were registered and stamp duty worth Rs 163.69 crore was mopped up. In 2007-08 the city recorded 62,105 deals were recorded and stamp duty worth Rs 211.23 crore was collected. During second quarter of 2006 (April 1 to June 30, 2006) the city recorded 14029 deals while in the year 2007 the city recorded 16,106 deals. In the current year, the city recorded 5415 registrations in April, 5,041 registration in May and 2,833 registrations by June 20, 2008. The officials of Deputy Inspector General of Registration and Stamp Duty insists that it is a normal phenomenon. During second quarter of every year, very few property deals are registered and property market will bounce back in third quarter as usual, they pointed out. Moreover, if Nagpur city and rural areas are taken together as many as 51,175 deals have been registered, despite economic slow down, they opined. Nationally the realty market has taken a beating following mind-boggling land prices, inflationary pressure, escalation in construction cost, upward movement of interest rate, steep hike in ready recknor prices and apprehension about appreciation of investment. But somehow the Orange city which has been described as the most attractive destination amongst Tier II and III cities, has escaped the sluggish growth phenomenon. State-wide, 2,08,205 registrations were recorded during July-September 2007 while in October-December 2007 it was 2,17,743. The comparison of data for the first quarter in the last three years also reveals that registrations have gone up by 13.54 per cent in 2008 compared to 2007. Despite mind-boggling cost of property prices, the market witnessed a jump by 9.5 per cent as compared to January-March 2007 figures. According to sources in Inspector General of registration and stamp duty, the Maharashtra Government had collected a whopping Rs 2,267.42 crore from January to March in 2008 as compared to Rs 1,619.99 crore during the same period last year. This plainly means a cool increase of 40 per cent. During first quarter of 2006, the government had collected Rs 1,374 crore stamp duty from property registration. Rationalisation of property prices in the Ready Reckoner, a more realistic approach and intense scrutiny of the deals, had ensured a better duty collection, reveals a senior officer of the department. A leading developer also confirmed that due to mind-boggling rise in the property rates, the purchaser and seller had no option but to go in for registration and pay proper stamp duty to avoid legal complications in future. The trend of unregistered agreement to sale is a passe, revealed a property broker who pointed out most client insists proper registration of property documents to avail bank loan. City-wise comparison also confirms that property registrations are on an upswing. In Mumbai, the registrations increased by 8 per cent between January and March 2008 compared to corresponding period in 2007, while Thane, Pune, Nagpur and Nashik witnessed increase of 12.46, 17.60, 6.08 and 22.50 per cent, respectively. Amidst this buoyancy in property market, the insiders insist that high-end apartments have very few takers. However, this had not dampened the enthusiasm of developers who are coming with luxury apartment schemes with every passing day. The flat schemes coming on city outskirts for middle-class are sold like hot cake while those catering to niche segments require little prodding. The West High Court road deal which commanded a record Rs 16,500 per sq ft seems to have revived the sluggish realty market. Prime localities like Ramdaspeth area too had witnessed many record land deals with developers purchasing land at Rs 6,500/- to Rs 7,000/- per sq ft. A luxury flat scheme coming up in Ramdaspeth area was sold for Rs 1.80 crore per apartment. The scheme was fully booked before its formal launch. Similarly, Nagpur Vinkar Sut Girni land on Umrer Road was auctioned for Rs. 81.63 crore or close to Rs. 4 crore per acre by a leading infrastructure firm. A cursory look at the public notices published in city papers also reveals the hectic activity in Nagpur district, confirmed Adv. Nishad Virkhare, an expert in property transactions.