Home buyers - your battle gets a wee bit tougher - ready reckoner rates hiked up by an average of 15 %.

Ready Reckoner Rate increases and so does the anxiety of home buyers

The home buyer who has been fighting against all odds to secure a good property deal in the past will have to don his Viking vest all over again. There is some tough terrain ahead as the ready reckoner rate increase means a substantial increase in the stamp duty during the purchase of a property.

The new year has begun with the State Government confirming that the ready reckoner rates will go up by an average of 15% (more in certain pockets) thereby making the real estate in Maharashtra more expensive.

All the calculations on which stamp duty and registration fees for a property transaction are derived from the valuations given to properties as per their CTS, Village and Zone details. Due to the assigned valuation increase to every property the corresponding charges for all kinds of transactions including outright, lease, etc. will go up.

The move to increase rates is actually not a new one as there has been a constant increase in ready reckoner rates every year. However with realty market being on the slower side, this increase could further trigger a major slow down in the property market across Maharashtra.

Already there have been additional taxes implied on a home buyer that includes Service Tax, VAT (Value Added Tax) and now this increased Stamp Duty charge. The home buyer is definitely going to feel the pinch of this hike badly.

In the year 2014, almost 23 Lakh property documents were registered, and approximately Rs. 16 Crore was collected as stamp duty and registration fees.

The ready reckoner is a property rate card that is published every year.  There are various factors that are considered before assigning specific valuations to certain properties. These include the infrastructure in that location, demand, deals done in the previous year, etc.

There is one silver lining to the entire episode of the rate hike. The black money component will drastically decrease as the Agreement Value and the Market Value will almost be similar now.