Property registrations in Delhi-NCR dip by 68%

NEW DELHI: Property registrations in Delhi-NCR dipped by 68% in the months of May and June from the year-ago period as the Covid-19-induced lockdown brought activities to a halt.

In April, a few properties were registered in Noida and Ghaziabad but none in Delhi, Gurgaon and Faridabad. More property sales were recorded in May, when some lockdown measures were eased, but the total number of registrations in Delhi-NCR stood at 85% below the level in the year-ago month. In Ghaziabad, registrations were down by 93%. However, June saw a slight pickup in numbers. Noida, which holds the most unsold inventory in NCR, was the worst affected with 86% drop in number of property registrations in May and June. “Our average monthly revenue collection has gone down to Rs 50 crore from Rs 150 crore. The first quarter of the year used to be most fruitful in terms of revenue, but this year there is hardly any activity,” said SK Tripathi, assistant inspector general, stamps and registrations department, Noida.

Data shows that 42,228 properties were registered in May and June in five NCR towns against 140,778 last year. Even the Delhi market witnessed a sharp fall in registrations. The number of properties registered fell from 29,467 in May 2019 to 6,391 in May 2020, and from 24,709 in June 2019 to 14,165 in June 2020. “We are seeing some recovery and expect the revenue from property registration to reach the last year levels in another 2-3 months. In May and June, our revenue was Rs 216 crore against Rs 538 crore last year,” said a revenue official in Delhi. Some officials cited low sales in high-rise buildings is one of the reasons, as most of the registrations were for plots or independent houses. “Due to lockdown, property registration has gone down in the month of May. But with relaxation in lockdown, people have started registering and we expect sales to come back on track.

We are witnessing a slow and steady revival in the property registrations now,” said Pankaj Kumar Jain, director of Delhi-based KW Group. International property consultant JLL, in a report said that due to the pandemic, homebuyers have deferred purchase decisions, resulting in a 30% decline in sales in Q1 of 2020. In the short-term, developers will focus on restarting construction activities and offloading unsold inventory. “Developers are focusing on different ways to sell property and owning a home has become all the more important.

We expected residential to get back to last year levels in another six months, while commercial real estate might take a year,” said DK Aggarwal, president of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “Retail will take more time as it has been worst affected by pandemic.” Gurgaon, another important market of NCR, witnessed a sharp decline in revenue. Revenue from property registration dipped from Rs 246 crore in May 2019 to Rs 43.41 crore in May 2020