Only seven per cent of the housing registrations were from the new registration sales.The registrations of residential properties in the financial capital of the country - Mumbai, declined 42 per cent to 10,136 units, compared to the previous month, due to the second wave of COVID-19 and the expiry of the stamp duty period.
According to leading property consultant Knight Frank India, Mumbai registered a growth of 10,000 residential property registrations in April 2021, however, only seven per cent of the registrations were from the new registration sales.
The remaining were transacted between December 2020 - March 2021, for which the applicable stamp duties were paid during the low rate window period.According to Knight Frank, between the seven-month period of September 2020-March 2021, the housing registrations registered a sharp uptick due to the concessional stamp duty window.
The momentum of sales was expected to moderate after March 31 when the state government adopted the rollback of the previous stamp duty regime.The property consultant also added that the fall in sales momentum is also due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown rules.
In December 2020, the state governmenthad provideda windowof four months to homebuyers fro registering property after the payment of the stamp duty, in order to counter the overcrowding in registration offices amid the pandemic.This step assisted the homebuyers who had brought residences and paid the stamp duty on or before March 31 have a maximum window of four months till July 31, from the particular date of payment of stamp duty.Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director of Knight Frank India stated thatthe residential real estate sector had shown a healthy bounce back in the last few months, backed by the lowerstamp duty, contributing hugelyto the state's exchequers.