Property registrations pick up in Hyderabad
Hyderabad: On the whole, the demonetisation drive hasn’t shown any impact on the real estate sector in Hyderabad. Property registrations took a big hit in the first week after the announcement of demonetisation as bankers were busy with old currency exchange, deposits and withdrawals. This led to a delay in generating bank challans.
Registrations bounced back a week after the government made arrangements for challan generation and encouraged online transactions. Telangana state sub-registrars’ association president Rachakonda Srinivasa Rao said the number of property registrations had fallen to 10 per cent compared to the daily average, from November 9 to 19.
“As banks began issuing challans from November 21, the number of registrations has been increasing. Now registrations have reached 50 per cent compared to normal days,” he said.
“The public has a fear of income-tax notices in cases of online deposits and transactions. Once they realise the advantage of online transactions, all registration offices will have a number of transactions. Most probably, it will pick up in December,” he said.
Mr N. Prabhakar, a realtor from Gachibowli, said that there was no impact on the real estate sector. “Except for registrations, transactions and agreements are going on as usual. Layout developers may face some impediments but as regards construction of apartments, no impact was observed,” he said.
Mr S. Ram Reddy, president of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (Credai) (Hyderabad Chapter), said 95 per cent of customers were from the middle class.
“They purchase property with bank loans. There is no need of money transaction for these sales,” he said. He said that the real estate sector might be hit in 2017 due to the Goods and Services Tax and Real Estate Regulatory Act.
“GST will come into existence from April 2017 and RERA from May 2017. This will show a big impact as the cost increase is expected to be 18 per cent in GST against the present charge of 5.5 per cent and RERA will reduce the number of constructions leading to a hike in price,” he said.
CREDAI general secretary P. Ramakrishna Rao said real estate associations would meet Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar seeking a cut in registration fee by two per cent.
