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Property registrations for July in Mumbai have recorded a 10-year high of 9,037. It is a whopping 239% jump compared to July last year when only 2,662 units were registered, according to real estate consultant Knight Frank.

The surge in property registration is attributed to relaxations given by the Maharashtra government.

Shishir Baijal, CMD of Knight Frank India, said that the property registrations have grown continuously since May and breached the 9,000 units mark in July which is the highest the city has seen in 10 years, according to a report in The Business Standard.

In contrast with Bengaluru market

The renewed interest in real estate in Mumbai is in sharp contrast to the lukewarm demand for properties in Bengaluru.

As per a report by Magicbricks PropIndex, the demand for residential real estate during April-June was dented by 25%. Another survey carried out in Bangalore by 99acres.com said that the average price of a property in Bangalore stayed stagnant throughout April to June as compared to the previous quarter.

Delhi-NCR fares better

In April-June period, property sales in Delhi-NCR had gone up by 50%. As per a report by PropTiger.com, 2,828 properties were registered in Delhi-NCR as compared to 1,886 in the same quarter a year ago. Sales of residential homes jumped 24% year-on-year in the first six months of 2021 and stood at 9,016 units.

Relaxations by Maharashtra

In December 2020, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government had granted four-month-long flexibility to homebuyers for registering their property after payment of stamp duty. This was done with the aim of preventing registration offices from being crowded and leading to a spike in infections.

This move gave homebuyers who purchased homes and paid stamp duty on or prior to March 31, a window of a maximum of four months from the respective date of purchase until July 31 to get their homes registered.

The Maharashtra government during International Women’s Day on March 8 announced a 1% discount on stamp duty for women homebuyers. This move, which came into effect from April 1, saw women buying 6.6% of the total number of new homes in that month alone.

Lockdown lessons

The Knight Frank report said with different marketing methods along with the lessons learned from the first wave in 2020, real estate developers succeeded in keeping homebuyers engaged with their offerings during the lockdown. As soon as the curbs were relaxed, the developers helped customers in visiting sites and subsequently closed the deals.