Property registrations in Mumbai jump to 10-year high for July: Report – Mint

“It is encouraging to see a strong pick up in property registrations in the recent months, despite the impact of second wave. Property registrations have continued to grow on a monthly basis since May 2021 and have crossed the 9,000 units mark in July 2021. The registrations for July 2021, so far, have recorded highest ever numbers for the month of July in the last decade,” said Shishir Baijal, Chairman & Managing Director of Knight Frank India.

Even though the Covid-19-mandated lockdown this time in Mumbai was similar to last year, the pick-up in property market after gradual easing of restrictions in June was sharper compared to last year. Developers used marketing methods and learnings from the first wave to keep the homebuyers engaged during the second lockdown. As soon as the lockdown restrictions were eased, real estate players facilitated customer site visits and closed transactions.

The July numbers do have some pent-up demand from the preceding quarter, the report added.

“As the economy revives and the lockdown restrictions ease further, with the increase in pace of vaccinations, we expect this momentum to sustain provided we avoid third wave. The fact that new registrations for the month of July has also shown an encourage increase over last few months also bears testimony to the fact that demand for new homes remains intact,” Baijal stated.

In December 2020, Maharashtra government, had granted a four-month-long leeway to homebuyers for registering a property after the payment of stamp duty in order to prevent crowding of registration offices. This ensured that homebuyers who had purchased residences and paid stamp duty on or before March 31, 2021, have maximum window of 4 months till July 31, 2021 from the respective date of payment of stamp duty for registering their apartment.

“Before this leeway was permitted, for over 95 per cent of registrations in the recent years, the difference between date of payment of stamp duty and date of registration was less than 10 days and for less than 2 per cent of the registrations, the difference was over 30 days,” Knight Frank noted in its report.

A closer look at the property registrations data showed that 53 per cent of registrations in July 2021 were from new residential sales concluded in the month, recording a sharp improvement compared to 42 per cent in June 2021, 29 per cent during May 2021 and 7 per cent during April 2021.

At 4,824 units, the number of new apartments sold during July 2021 were 45 per cent higher compared to 3,300 units sold in June 2021, 207 per cent higher compared to 1,554 units sold in May 2021 and 573 per cent higher compared to 710 units sold during April 2021.

“While registrations in July 2021 are at a decadal high (for the month of July), it is important to note that 53 per cent of registrations, or 4,824 units, were new sales, which is around 84 per cent of July 2019 average, implying that we are yet to cross sales of pre-Covid levels,” the report pointed out.

Less women homebuyers in July

On March 8, 2021, to celebrate International Women’s Day, the Maharashtra government announced a 1 per cent rebate in stamp duty for women homebuyers, with effect from April 1, 2021. This resulted in women homebuyers accounting for 6.6 per cent of new home sales in April.

In May, the share of women homebuyers dropped to 1.7 per cent. In June, the share of women homebuyers did increase to 4.7 per cent, but fell to 3 per cent in July.

The concessions offered to women homebuyers must be enhanced further as the number of apartments registered in the name of women has not risen to a meaningful proportion, Knight Frank reported stated.

“Further, to promote the cause of home ownership amongst women, the state government had offered stamp duty concessions of 1 per cent to women homebuyers. However, we are yet to see a meaningful pick-up in apartments registered in the name of women. We feel that the incentives under this initiative need to be enhanced further,” Baijal said.