India’s Realtors body, NAREDCO, has urged state governments to reduce stamp duty on registration of affordable homes priced up to ₹45 lakh per unit to boost demand and supply of low-cost apartments.
Pointing to declining sales of apartments have steadily declined, the body’s president, G Hari Babu, said at their annual convention that rising costs of land and construction are taking a toll on the country’s real estate sector.
With the stamp duty on registration of affordable homes being between 5 per cent and 10 per cent at present, the only way out to encourage sales is to bring down the stamp duty, he said.
“States should bring down the stamp duty on registration of affordable homes to 1 per cent for women and 3 per cent for men,” Babu said, and suggested states to instead focus on slum redevelopment to boost the supply of affordable housing.
Also Read: Bank credit to realty sector soared in 4 yrs, says data
NAREDCO, in collaboration with real estate consultant Knight Frank India, released a report, titled, 'Affordable Housing: Tackling Urban Housing Deficit Through Supply-Side Reforms', which pointed out critical supply challenges in India's affordable housing sector.
The ratio of launches of affordable homes to sales of housing units costing up to ₹50 lakh across the top eight cities of Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad, has plummeted to 0.36 in 2025 (until June), from 1.05 in 2019 and 1.30 in 2020, the report said.
Babu said the report has underlined the scale of India’s affordable housing challenge – a deficit of 9.4 million units that could rise to 30 million units by 2030.
Follow us
