More than 5K houses sold in Mumbai in just 17 days this mth

With the jump in sales, the govt earns ` 148.68 crore in the form of revenue

Mumbai recorded sales of 5,489 housing units in just 17 days this month. The increase in sale of houses is attributed to the slash in stamp duty charges by the Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA) government in this pandemic time to encourage homebuyers.

As announced, homebuyers are supposed to pay three per cent stamp duty fees on any purchase of any house. Earlier, the stamp duty was offered at two per cent up to December 2020 and from January it increased to three per cent. Before announcing the concession, the stamp duty was five per cent.

The reduction in stamp duty has delivered good response to the realty industry besides generating substantial revenue to the state government through stamp duty fees. With sales of 5,000 plus houses in Mumbai alone, Rs 148.68 crore has gone into government kitty in the form of revenue. In the state, as many as 78,988 houses were sold through which the government earned Rs 597.72 crore, according to the data available with the department of registration and stamp, government of Maharashtra.

The state government early this month has given exemption in premium payments up to 50 per cent. As per the conditions, those developers availing this benefit of 50 per cent waiver in premium on construction projects for the next one year, will have to pay the entire stamp duty amount on behalf of the customers.

This decision was taken based on Deepak Parekh's committee report set up to suggest measures to boost the real estate sector postCOVID-19 lockdown.