While acquiring a house, it is also necessary to take into consideration the registration and stamp duty charges. Such charges will increase the budget set for the purchase of your house considerably, and it will vary from one state to another. Under the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, stamp duty and registration fees are required primarily to verify the property's sale and to keep a record of the purchase.

  Revitalization of Property Registration & Stamp Duty

The revival of property registrations has given hope to the real estate sector dumping due to the lockdown and rising cement & steel prices. In less than ten days of full-scale registration and stamp (R&S) department operations began, the Telangana government has received Rs 78 crore, registering more than 28,000 property registration transactions since May 8th. The state government has set Rs 10,000 crore target for 2020-21 financial year to the R&S department and has so far accomplished Rs 91 crore. 

The joint inspector general of R&S department Vemula Srinivasulu said the number of registrations has been picked up, and they are currently tracking half the amount of transactions that were made before the lockdown caused by Covid-19 came into effect. R&S department officials say the actual scenario will only be known after a month as at present old transactions, which happened earlier and only registration was pending, were being made. Generally, more than 6,000 documents had been registered every day before Covid-19, currently, we are doing 3,000 to 3,500 documents. 

The R&S department used to earn Rs 25 crore in revenue per day earlier. Today, it is hovering about Rs 10 to 13 crore a day. Such transactions might be agreements made before the lockdown came into force, and would like to register to prevent any legal complications. If we watch out for another month, the department would know the real estate sector situation, because the majority of registrations will be new transactions. We hope that the property registrations will pick up. 

The department collected Rs 600 crore revenue per month in the pre-COVID-19 period, and in the last financial year, it had earned around Rs 7,200 crore revenue. It has conducted minimum operations, but full-scale operations resumed after 8 May due to unexpected COVID 19 lockdown. Meanwhile, realtors have been proposing a revival of building activity from the Center and state government. The department says that the real estate market will initially experience a downturn due to the effect of the lockdown, but there is no issue with projects that are approaching completion. The government is taking necessary measures to help real estate consumers and developers alike. 

Real Estate is a great investment opportunity and is considered as one of the best long-term investments even better than stocks, shares, mutual funds, bank deposits, or even gold. Investing in real estate is an ongoing passive income, and is a good strategy over time to create wealth.

By: Shailaja K