Land deals drop as rules get stringent
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The land mafia in the region has been reined in to a considerable extent, writes SHYAMA RAJAGOPAL
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— Photo: Vipin Chandran
Dull days: The scale of land transactions has come down in recent months.
Document writers are having a well deserved holiday, perhaps. Compared to the work they had been doing over the last several years, the number of land transactions has come down drastically in recent times.
This has happened mainly because of the steps taken by the government to curb illegal transactions and the activity of the land mafia in most of the major land deals in Ernakulam. Over the last five months, the number of transactions has come down dra
stically, says A.G. Venugopal, District Registrar General. It has been remarkably low in the city and the nearby volatile areas that are the hub of major land deals and construction activity.
In the core area, perhaps there is some stagnation, he adds. The major chunk of land is now with the builders, who have construction plans. Registration will take place only when flats come up in such areas.
Overall, there has been a drop in the number of land deals registered in Maradu, Edapally, Kakkanad and Thrikkakara. These were some of the major places that witnessed speculation in real estate because of their proximity to the city. As the city is growing these places would become a part of the city area in the near future.
In the 2007-08 financial year, 1,69,169 documents were registered. The decline in registrations started some five months ago when the government started implementing rules strictly, says Mr. Venugopal. Between April and May in 2007, 30,311 documents were registered in the district compared to 26,350 documents registered during the same period this year.
A leading document writer in a city suburb says that the number of documents he usually handles a month has gone down by about 300. Last year, he had prepared more than 6,000 documents.
The land mafia had been less active because of the strict rules of registration that require photographs of both the buyer and seller, which make it difficult to conduct deals in the absence of the real buyer. The power of attorney can now be issued only in the name of close family members, like mother, father, spouse, sister or brother. As most of the illegal land deals involve people who are representatives of someone else, the practice has been more or less curbed.
Another formality for a buyer is a declaration form stating ownership of other land in the district. However, such a form does not really help curb the activities of the land mafia, says the document writer. The procedure has only meant extra paper work for the department, he adds.
The declaration form is to be filled in duplicate, of which one will be kept by the Registrar of the place and the other is sent to the Collectorate. However, the government, realising the burden it would be to the Collectorate, has asked the taluk office to maintain the records. It would be a cumbersome procedure to manually find people who have bought land at a number of places if they do not declare it in the form.
The construction business, however, continues to look at the positive side of things. Land deals are quite different from building houses, says Mathen Chakola, former chairman of the Kerala Builders’ Forum. The blocks that have been applied to land transactions have in no way dampened the enthusiasm of people in built-up property.
NRIs are back
Specially with an open NRI market, builders continue to feel that the property market is doing well. The enormous prices in the Gulf real estate market has sent the NRIs homeward to buy property. And most of the enquiries are genuine. With extremely high living standards in most of the West Asian countries, especially Dubai, NRIs are picking up property here so that they can send their families back, said Mr. Chakola. It has become difficult for people to maintain a family there as expenses have more than doubled.
Hence, the demand for housing in Kerala has only gone up, according to the builders. There are other cities outside the State where people might be looking for investment, but Bangalore and Hyderabad are more of IT destinations. Kochi on the other hand looks more lucrative in investment terms.
The builders are also upbeat about the government’s fair value notification. According to a member of the KBF, this would curb the role of black money in land dealings and help builders secure larger loans. “We will be happy if the fair values are implemented as soon as possible,” said the builder admitting that prices in the certain areas away from the city or Corporation area sound rather inflated.
The ordinary people however feel that the fair values are exorbitant. Two plots lying having the same survey number may not be having the same market price, says a document writer. The characteristics of a plot may be different from that lying adjacent to it too. But the fair value prices do not look into the finer parameters of a plot. This has created a lot of confusion among people.
But, contrary to the ordinary people’s woes, the number of complaints are very few. The RDOs in the district have received very few complaints — both in terms of a higher price for a property as well as low price.
People are generally not likely to complain about the higher value of their place, said P.K. Nalan, RDO, Muvattupuzha. It would only be a setback for people who are considering to buy property in the area. There has been a lot of hearsay about the high value quoted for remote areas, but a revision is possible only if people complain about it. People have time till July 5 to register their complaints, after which the government will consider revising the values if need be.
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