NALGONDA: The revised land rates, which came into effect across the state on Friday, have been placed in three categories based primarily on road proximity.
While land values have been hiked by 100 per cent, 50 per cent and 25 per cent depending on the area, registration charges remain unchanged.
The registration department has already updated its software to reflect these changes, enabling automatic calculation of the revised registration fees.
The minimum value of land in the state has now been increased from Rs 1.75 lakh to Rs 2.75 lakh per acre. The maximum cost of Rs 35 crore per acre, which is in Begumpet area, remains unchanged.
The hike is expected to generate an additional revenue of Rs 1,500 crore per year for the state treasury.
The realtors, meanwhile, said that the increased land costs would not have any negative impact on their business.
According to officials, the rate revision was finalised after thoroughly considering the prevailing land prices, current government registration values and open market rates in those respective regions.
As part of this process, the government had collected comprehensive proposals from sub-registrars of all districts during the last week of May. Based on those reports, higher authorities conducted field-level verifications and finalised the rates.
Zero to 100% hike
According to the latest decision taken by the government, strict guidelines have been issued to increase the value of agricultural and non-agricultural lands from zero up to a maximum of 100 per cent.
Changes have been made to the software to allow for an additional hike of 50 per cent, 25 per cent and 100 per cent depending on regional development and road connectivity.
However, a sub-registrar from the erstwhile district clarified that no increase was implemented in certain areas where the registration value was already very high, and prices were increased according to these three percentage categories only in areas with market demand where a hike was essential.
On the other hand, when it comes to apartments and multi-storied buildings, prices have been increased by 20 per cent per square foot. The government has firmly decided that under no circumstances should the rates for any other land be increased by more than 100 per cent.
According to a district registrar, the revised registration rates will apply to all beneficiaries who had booked slots online for the registration process after May 5. Due to this automatic software update, the computer itself will directly calculate the new registration fees and stamp duties based on the land extent and its boundaries.
Officials believe that this will ensure a transparent process without leaving any room for confusion in the sub-registrar offices.
Buyers in a state of anxiety
Meanwhile, real estate traders and ordinary buyers are suddenly in a state of anxiety as the burden of registration fees will increase significantly due to this sudden hike.
However, Yapala Venkat Reddy, a real estate businessman from Nalgonda, said: “There won’t be any affect on business in places like Choutuppal mandal of Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district as it is mostly located on the Hyderabad-Vijayawada National Highway and the Regional Ring Road too passes through this area.”
“People from surrounding industries are the ones who are purchasing most of these lands,” he added.
In the past, the registration value in Malkapuram of Choutuppal mandal used to be between Rs 50 lakh to 70 lakh. But now that these rates have increased by 50 per cent, the registration value too has increased from Rs 75 lakhs to Rs 1.05 crore per acre. With this, the value of these lands in the open market has increased to Rs 2-Rs 4 crore.
Venkat Reddy opined that the real estate business is also high in Mall and Chinthapally areas located on the Nalgonda district border where the RRR is coming up. For this reason, he believes that the business will not decline despite the increase in land rates.