CHENNAI: With no major projects being registered during the first half of the financial year, property registration across the state fell by around 50,000, resulting in revenue stagnation, according to official sources.
Disclosing this to Express, an official of the Registration Department said that during the first six months of the last financial year, a total of 13.36 lakh documents were registered. But during the same period this year it has come down to 12.85 lakh documents. “This is 50,000 less. Yet, there is no substantial fall in revenue,” the official claimed.
During the first half of the last financial year, the revenue was around `4,002 crore while for the same period this year it is `4,001 crore.
This has been attributed to many projects which have not been registered in order to evade stamp duty.
But according to the official, it is too early to link the decrease in registration of properties to the downturn in Chennai’s realty sector.
In a report, South India’s Real Estate Hotspots, Jone Lang LaSalle points out that the residential property prices in Chennai have escalated so much that the southern metro is the fastest among the cities in India, witnessing an appreciation of almost three times of what they were in 2007.
Traditionally, buyers in Chennai were hesitant about moving to the suburbs, as the options available in the key pockets were high, the report states.
As the city is in an expansion mode with rapid development in Chennai’s social and physical infrastructure, the suburbs and extended suburbs such as Velachery, Perungudi and OMR belt are witnessing an upsurge in property prices with the corresponding demand.