NEW DELHI: Here’s some good news for those who have always wanted to own property in Lutyens’ Delhi. People running businesses or staying in rented or leased properties for decades, can now buy them in 11 of the 27 posh markets falling under the New Delhi Municipal Council’s (NDMC) ambit.
The NDMC proposal that is likely to be implemented this month says, “All commercial and mixed land use properties allotted by the Department of Rehabilitation, Land and Development Office or the Directorate of Estates and transferred to NDMC by Government of India for which ownership rights have been conferred and lease deed executed and registered are eligible for conversion from lease-hold to free-hold.”
New Delhi: The New Delhi Municipal Council’s proposal of conversion of leasehold properties to freehold properties might facilitate flourishing of a real estate market in these areas of Lutyens’ Delhi.
But this is not going to be easy as the property will cost you at the rate of `92,604 per square metre and the circle rate for the A category properties has been fixed at `23 lakh. “Whenever the next Council meeting is convened, the proposal will be presented for approval. The delay was due to the land rates that were to be decided by the ministry,” said Abhya Jain, Director, Estate II, NDMC.
The proposal also states that of the 27.4 sqare km area under the civic body, markets such as Khan Market, Bengali Market and Sarojini Nagar Market, among others, will be part of the first phase of conversion.
“This scheme will only benefit the land owners in the area because they will have the power to end the lease any time. This will harm tenants like us,” said Umar Prakash Gupta, who, along with his brother, has been running Hazari Lal and Sons shop at Bengali Market for the past three decades. The place was leased out to them by the owners 30 years ago, but owners are not accepting rent from them because they want the property to be vacated.
Officials said the move came after the Union Urban Development Ministry, which governs the agency, decided the land rates of commercial properties across the capital on May 2.
As per the new guidelines, an owner will now have to pay 33 per cent conversion fee of the land rate of the property while submitting the application; the price of the property will vary from commercial to residential. The applicant will also have to pay six per cent stamp duty of the circle rate of the area. Of this, three per cent will be NDMC’s share and rest will go to the Delhi government.
The NDMC had initially proposed this plan to the NDA government on February 15, but the delay by the land owning agency, Land and Development Office, in deciding the rates held up the proposal. The L&DO is the second such body, which owns land in the national capital apart from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).
Sanjeev Mehra, President, Khan Market Traders Association, said, “This step should have been implemented earlier by the government. Now, people can buy and sell property without having to go through finishing of lease agreement.”
Meanwhile, the NDMC officials are sceptical that their revenue may decrease if this rule is implemented, and lead to rampant sale and purchase of properties in the area.
In 2013, when the civic body had put down the repeated demands from the Khan Market traders for having circle rates similar to the DDA in NDMC, the traders moved the Delhi High Court.
Following this, the court ruled in favour of traders in 2014, and the proposal was finalised during the tenure of NDMC chairman Jalaj Srivastava and was sent to the ministry. But the government changed at that time and the proposal was not taken forward.