Circle rates go up: Pay more for land or home in Gurugram

GURUGRAM: Homebuyers planning to capitalise on the pandemic flatness in the market and
buy properties in upscale condominiums of the city will have to set aside a higher budget.
The government has approved an increase in circle rates for the current year, which will make
registration of properties more expensive in the areas where most new housing in the city is
available. After the revision, circle rates of sectors adjoining the Southern Peripheral
Road (SPR), Golf Course Road and Dwarka Expressway have increased by up to 25%. The
circle rates of commercial sectors, however, remained unchanged.
Circle rates are minimum government-defined prices at which the sale or transfer of a plot, builtup house, apartment, commercial property or land take place. The property cannot be registered
below this price. Stamp duty and registration charges for a property are also based on this

In sectors along the SPR, the prominent ones being 58 to 65 that are closest to Golf Course
Road and the Rapid Metro corridor, circle rate for land has gone up by Rs 6,000 per square
yard. The new circle rate in these areas is Rs 36,000 per sq yard. In DLF 2, the rates have been
revised from Rs 77,000 per sq yard to Rs 85,000.
The sectors along Golf Course road – 27, 28, 42 and 43 – have witnessed an increase in circle
rate by Rs 5,000 to Rs 55,000 per sq yard. In the new sectors along Dwarka Expressway, the
circle rate has been increased from Rs 30,000 to Rs 36,000 per sq yard.
Among colonies, circle rates have been increased in the 5-10% range in the Gurugram and
Wazirabad tehsils, 25% in Badshapur tehsil, and 10 -15% in Manesar. Circle rates for the HSVP
sectors have been hiked by 5-10% in Gurugram tehsil, 10-12% in Badshapur and 10-15% in
Wazirabad.
In cooperative group housing societies, Gurugram saw the maximum hike of 66% in circle rates,
followed by Manesar (38%) and 5-10% in Wazirabad. For other multi-storeyed group housing
and builder floors, circle rates have seen maximum increase in Manesar (30-40%), followed by
10-20% in the Gurugram tehsil – which translates to a Rs 500 per square feet increase for flats
– and 10-15% in Badshapur.
Developers said the increase in circle rates will adversely affect the realty sector, which
witnessed a difficult phase due to pandemic, and has of late been seeing green shoots.
Navdeep Sardana, managing director of Elite Landbase, said the real estate market has been
reviving and an increase in circle rate would impede that. “Higher purchase costs resulting from
higher circle rates may impair the already ailing residential real estate market, with secondary
market implications being more severe,” he said.
Saransh
Trehan, managing director of Trehan Group, said the decision to raise the circle rate would put
an additional burden on prospective homebuyers in the form of higher stamp duty for
registration of properties. “This should have been avoided, especially during the pandemic,” he
said.

Pradeep Aggarwal, chairman of Signature Global, added, “Higher acquisition costs caused by
higher circle rates will dampen sentiments. An objective market assessment of property prices is
the need of the hour, but the approach to determining circle rates needs to be reconsidered in
order to capture the market rates more accurately,” he said.
A recent survey by a property portal found housing sales in all Indian markets, particularly in the
NCR, had improved nearly to pre-Covid levels but there hadn’t an increase in the average listing
prices of residential apartments, indicating the flatness in prices was drawing more buyers
towards an investment as the economy emerged from the pandemic. But the price of residential
plots appreciated, especially in the Gurugram and Sohna markets and some areas along the
Dwarka Expressway, according to the survey.
Delhi-NCR cities added 31,710 new units in 2021 compared to 18,530 units in 2020 – a
significant rise of 71%, according to another survey.