The Union housing and urban affairs ministry has directed the Delhi government’s revenue department not to register any Land and Development Office (L&DO) property without a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the department, a move that will impact high-value transactions in Lutyens’ Delhi.
Most of the properties in Lutyens’ Delhi fall under the L&DO and are leasehold properties.The buyer is required to pay conversion charges and property tax, and in many cases, these charges were not being paid, leading to intervention by the ministry.
According to the letter written by the L&DO, a department under the housing and urban affairs ministry, there are around 57,389 residential, 1,597 commercial, 1,430 institutional and 110 industrial units under the jurisdiction of the department in Delhi.
“No L & DO property-leasehold/freehold shall be registered by sub-registrars without obtaining the NOC from L&DO as these may be under prohibitory list, be re-entered property or being the ones under litigation,” Rajeev Kumar Das, deputy land and development officer, said in his letter to the Delhi government’s revenue department.
Property consultants said the end of the 20% discount on circle rates and the municipal corporation’s plan to raise property transfer fees from July 1 have already hurt the Delhi property market. The latest order will delay high-value transactions, leading to a further loss of revenue for the state government, they said.
In the letter, L&DO said that a mechanism may be devised through the Delhi Online Registration Information System (DORIS) in sub-registrar offices of Delhi so that information reaches L&DO automatically after an agreement to sell is registered, for mutation in the L&DO records to bring the lessee or owner on record.
“We have received several complaints related to transactions happening in the jurisdiction of our department. This includes non-payment of dues and that is why we have to issue an direction to get NOC from L&DO,” Das said. He added that the direction applies to all the properties, whether they are leasehold or freehold and even if they are owned by a private person.
Since the lockdown was lifted in May 2020, there have been a lot of high-value transactions in Lutyens’ and South Delhi, where entrepreneurs and ultra-high-net-worth individuals are looking for bigger homes in Delhi’s ritzy colonies. The lower circle rate, which was initially effective till December 2021 but was then extended to June 30, 2022, also helped the real estate sector.
