News: Pune Property Registrations Up 34% In December, Maharashtra Sees 29% Rise- 08.01.2017
Pune property registrations up 34% in December, Maharashtra sees 29% rise
Pune
Property registrations across Maharashtra increased by over 29% in December compared to November when demonetisation had put the brakes on real estate deals.
The number of registrations in November was 1,14,632. In December, it shot up to 1,48,305. The state registration department had witnessed a slump in registrations post-demonetisation in November in all the eight revenue divisions of the state.
In Pune city, 15,241 properties were registered in November. The number increased by 33.8% to 20,393 registrations in December.
During the festive season in October, 1,71,396 documents were registered while for September and August the numbers stood at 1,39,879 and 1,77,821 registrations, according to data from the department.
Post-demonetisation, it is only last month that buyers gained confidence to register their properties, officials believe. Revenue collection figure for November was Rs 1,300 crore while December mopped up Rs 1,675 crore.
"While there has been an overall slump in the market, post-demonetisation there was a further dip in registrations only to slightly improve last month. Nevertheless, overall registrations for the period of April-December has seen an almost 8.8% dip as compared to the same period last year," a senior revenue official stated. Between April-December 2016, 15.38 lakh documents were registered at the department as against 16.73 lakh documents in 2015.
According to officials, while December would earlier see maximum registrations ahead of the announcement of ready reckoner rates, the trend has changed over the last year with the rates being announced on April 1. Considering the new cycle, officials expect the registrations will record a rise in March.
All eight divisions of the state registration department — Amravati, Aurangabad, Latur, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashik, Pune and Thane — saw more registrations in December as compared with November.
"People were in a state of shock and many, who had planned to register properties in November, postponed the registration. The market has recovered slightly and e-transactions are slowly being introduced in all sectors," said a lawyer at a registration office, who saw very few clients in November.
"The per day average post-demonetization was 693 documents in November which improved to 927 in December," said an official from a city registration office. The same was witnessed in the rural areas of Pune, which registered an average of 309 documents daily in November as against 402, per day, in December.
At the same time, November registrations for suburban Mumbai stood at 9,986 as against 13,677 registrations in December, while in Thane city registrations were at 9,002 in November against 11,375 in December.
Credai Pune vice-president Rohit Gera said that things are starting to look up and in the next two to three months will see an increase in registrations. "Post-demonetization, there was a knee-jerk reaction by customers, who decided to postpone their registrations by a month. This will return to near normal in the coming months. People believed in rumours that the prices were to dip. However, when they saw no change, they registered their properties with the department," said Gera. He added that it would only get better for the consumer with RERA coming in.
Ashutosh Limaye, country head (research) of property consultants JLL, said though people may have seen properties during Dassera and Diwali they might have adopted a wait and watch policy when demonetization was announced. However, when they realized that there was no fluctuation in terms of rates, they might have gained confidence to register their properties. "They have realized that there was no further decrease possible, as was suggested through various reports, so they gained confidence to register their properties," he said.
Nisha Nambiar, Economic Times, Pune
