Flat buyers miffed as UP govt hikes registry fee from today

Thousands of apartment buyers are miffed as the Uttar Pradesh stamps and registrations department on Friday started to charge more fee for execution of registry

Thousands of apartment buyers are miffed as the Uttar Pradesh stamps and registrations department on Friday started to charge more fee for execution of registry (tripartite lease-deed) for their respective property.

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The Uttar Pradesh government, on February 5, hiked property registration fee from ₹20,000 (maximum) to 1% of the property cost. The new rate of 1% of property cost will affect around 3 lakh apartment buyers as they will have to cough up more to get their properties registered.

Earlier, the property registry fee was 2% of the property cost, if the cost was less than ₹10 lakh and a fixed ₹20000 for properties costing more than ₹10 lakh. The new rates are effective from February 14, 2020.

“With the increase, effective Friday, buyers are not in a hurry to get the registries done. Earlier, owners of property — flats or plots — worth ₹10 lakh or less had to pay 2% of the total cost. Those buying a flat or plot for ₹10 lakh or less, will have to pay less. But those buying property worth more than ₹10 lakh will have to pay more,” SK Tripathi, assistant inspector general, stamps and registrations department, Noida.

For a flat costing ₹5 crore, a buyer will have to pay ₹5 lakh fee and also pay 5% of total cost (₹25 lakh) as stamp fee.

“Earlier, a buyer buying ₹5 crore flat had to pay only ₹20,000 as registry fee besides the stamp fee, which remains unchanged,” Tripathi sai.

The UP government has increased the registry fee with an aim to increase its revenue collection. However, the move has angered property buyers. For fiscal 2019-20, the UP stamps and registrations department has a revenue target of ₹2,597 crore to be realised through registration of properties.

“We have collected ₹1,600 crore so far and we hope to meet the target,” Tripathi said.

But buyers are not buying it. “The UP government’s decision will further affect the real estate market as it is already witnessing its worst phase. We have written to the government for a rollback of the hiked fee. The move will put an additional burden on the middle class, who are waiting for flat registry,” SK Nagrath, president, Jaypee Aman flat buyers association, said.

Jaypee’s over 20,000 buyers, Amrapali’s over 30,000 and buyers in other housing projects waiting for flat registry will be affected by the hike.

“Instead of giving relief to buyers, the UP government is taking steps that go against the customer,” Hem Prakash, Amarapali Centurion flat buyer, said.