Hyderabad: One swallow does not make a summer. But a single transaction of a prime land in the city has soared hope in the financially parched soul of the state government.
A recent land transaction in Hyderabad, which has boosted the confidence of the state government, was recorded when a private property, measuring 1,837 square yards in Jubilee Hills, was purchased for a record price of Rs 41.3 crore, reflecting the start of another realty boom.
The unidentified buyer, who purchased the plot for the record sum, is purportedly the owner of a pharma company, who paid Rs 2.27 crore stamp duty and Rs 20 lakh towards registration fees to the government on January 28. Realtors say that this is “an expensive deal” for a plot of this size in these times.
The government is now hoping that it will now surely be able to mop up nearly Rs 15,000 crore through sale of prime government land parcels on the city outskirts this year. The state government’s plans to sell off lands did not materialise for the past two years due to the economic slump in 2019 and the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
The government hopes that with a booming realty in the city, sale of state lands in the outskirts would easily fetch over Rs 10,000 crore this year, even if it falls short of its target for a variety of reasons.
Although realtors claim that it was not uncommon for plots to fetch between Rs 1.50 lakh to Rs 2 lakh per square yard in the posh Jubilee Hills area, what surprised everyone was the price shooting up to Rs 2.20 lakh in this latest transaction.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had constituted a cabinet sub-committee on resource mobilisation in 2019, headed by finance minister T. Harish Rao, and comprising IT minister KT Rama Rao and other ministers, to recommend measures for generating additional revenue for the government. The committee had recommended sale of government lands for this purpose.
Accordingly, the government proposed to sell land parcels to raise nearly Rs 10,000 crore in the state budgets for 2019-20 and 2020-21. However, it did not materialise, with no realty boom and lack of demand for two years.
But the realty is now seemingly at the start of another boom and transactions as well as price lines have picked up across the state, especially on the city outskirts and surrounding districts, where the government owns thousands of acres.
All registration offices are witnessing a heavy rush of property registrations for the past three months, after the launch of Dharani portal in November 2020.
About 1.10 lakh sale deeds were registered for open plots between December 21, 2020 and February 10, 2021, which fetched Rs 456 crore revenue to the government. Majority of these transactions pertain to lands on city outskirts in the Ranga Reddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts.
The government wants to cash in on the realty boom and proposes to raise at least Rs 10,000 crore through sale of lands in the upcoming budget to cover up for financial losses suffered last year due to the pandemic and lockdown.
