Property price on the rise

KOCHI: The demand for land in Ernakulam district is soaring despite campaigns carried out by a section that the revenue from land transaction has come down.The introduction of the fair value from April  2010 has not affected the real estate prices. The total number of documents registered during 2009-10 was 94,022 generating a revenue of Rs 350.35 crore for the district, A G Venugopal, District Registrar (General) Ernakulam South, said.The number of documents registered was 1,02,356 for the period 2010-11. The revenue generated through registration amounted to `445.62 crore.There was a sharp increase of 8,334 number of documents registered this year compared to the previous year. The revenue increased by over Rs 95.27 crore.The stamp duty for land registration in panchayat area is seven per cent, 8 per cent for municipality and 9 per cent for Corporation, he said.The two per cent registration fee will be binding to all transactions. There is no compulsion for registration of agreement entered into between two parties, he said. Therefore the agreement reached between the two parties are legally valid.Once the government decides to make registration of the agreement compulsory, an unregistered agreement will hold no value, he said.Meanwhile, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI)  has expressed concern over the government’s announcement to delay the registration which would boost the real estate sector.It said the registration rate in the state was the highest in the country and the time has crossed for bringing it down to 5 per cent for all regions.The government should also change its policy on levying additional charges from real estate promoters on undivided share of land.Under the present system, the buyer ends up paying 30 per cent tax for buying an apartment, it said.