Stamp-duty cut drives apartment registrations' 79% YoY growth till Nov 2021, in Greater Kolkata: Knight Frank India

More than half of all apartments registrations in 2021 were done since announcement of duty cut in July 2021; November 2021 saw 62% YoY degrowth

File photo
File photo

Residential property registrations in Greater Kolkata in the 11-month period of 2021 touched 40,972, of which more than half (51%) were done between July and November 2021, coinciding with the introduction of the 2% stamp duty cut in July.

The stamp-duty rebate in the second half of the year has provided momentum to residential sales.

The duty cut seems to have led to the sharp rise in registrations of residential properties in the first 11 months of this calendar year. An analysis by Knight Frank showed registrations between January and November grew 79% year-on-year (YoY).

“Kolkata’s real estate market continues to benefit from the stamp duty cut window extension (from October 2021 to January 2022)... the sharp YoY rise since July 2021 is encouraging for both developers and buyers,” said said Shishir Baijal, chairman and managing director, Knight Frank

The earlier deadline for the rollback of the stamp-duty cut was October 2021. Perhaps buyers rushed to register a property before the window closed and that explains the sudden drop in registrations the next month--in November 2021, registrations of residential properties shrunk by 62% YoY, a first decline in five months. 

It is also possible that buyers were not fully aware of the deadline being extended to January 31, 2022, since the announcement came during the Diwali break, the property consultancy’s report said. In November, the smallest apartments fell out of favour most severely. Apartments up to 500 square feet (sq ft) saw a 81% YoY degrowth that month, the highest across all size brackets. Units of 501-1,000 sq ft  and of 1,001 sq ft and above saw 41% and 25% YoY degrowth respectively. The quantum of decline was the lowest in the bigger sized unit bracket of 93 sq m and above, it said.

This is indicative of the trend of users favouring bigger apartments ever since the pandemic, with work and study requirements being factored into home buying

"We are hopeful that the next three months will see more deals being sealed in Kolkata’s residential segment as prices remain stable and the interest rates continue to be low. This is an opportune time for buyers to execute transactions before there is any upward revision in prices by developers as stamp duty cut window has been extended till January 31, 2022,” said Baija

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