Flats in Noida to get costlier

Homebuyers in Noida are staring at a 2% hike in registration charges, a double whammy for many of them as thousands of flats are anyway being delivered late.

The Uttar Pradesh stamps and registration department says it will hike registration charges from the current 5% to 7% to bring the rate in Noida on a par with the rest of the state.

If this proposal is implemented, it won’t go down well with homebuyers who were forced to wait out a legal battle on the demarcation of an eco-sensitive zone around the Okhla Bird Sanctuary (OBS), in whose vicinity they bought flats but couldn’t register them Besides, thousands of flats that couldn’t be completed because of the stay during the legal battle that took over two years to resolve are being delivered now.

The 2% hike on residential properties like Ace Platinum Sector Zeta 1, Noida could affect all these registrations. Last year, the department had declared that the stamp duty for registry would be at prevailing rates after the Centre notified the eco-sensitive zone around the OBS. After a sustained campaign by TOI on its ad verse effect on homebuyers, the department had agreed to charge older registry rates in instances where completed flats could not be delivered because of the legal battle.

Additional district magistrate Rajesh Yadav said on Tuesday the proposal to hike stamp duty has been made by the UP stamp and registration department to the state government and the state industry department. “There has been a rebate in stamp duty with the aim of encouraging industrialization.

 In other UP districts, the stamp duty is 7% and only Rs 10,000 rebate is given if the property is transferred to a woman owner,” Yadav said, adding the decision to hike the duty was taken at the government level. “Once the proposal is approved, 7% stamp duty will be charged for Noida property as well,” he said.

Amit Kumar, an environmentalist, had on July 8, 2013, filed a petition in NGT, demanding that construction work around OBS be stopped. The NGT then halted construction. The eco-sensitive zone of the OBS was notified by the Centre on August 19, paving way for construction to resume. To date, completion certificates have been issued to 26 developer projects having 16,710 flats. Only 810 flats have been registered.