Curation Team
CHANDIGARH: Buoyed by the stupendous response to the auction of residential properties, the UT estate office will now be putting up properties for auction every quarter.
Nishant Kumar Yadav, deputy commissioner-cum estate officer, said, “We are preparing a calendar for property auction. As per this calendar, auctions will be kept. The vacant properties with the estate office will be regularly auctioned so that interested buyers can participate. It will also help increase the availability of the properties in the city to meet the requisite demand.”
In the latest auction of the freehold residential property sites, all of the residential ones were sold. A residential property in Sector 33, having an area of 1014 sq yards, was sold for Rs 33.4 crore against a reserve price of Rs 14.9 crore. The smallest-sized residential property in the auction, measuring 126 sq yards with a reserve price of Rs 1.7 crore, was sold for Rs 4 crore.
The auction generated a total revenue of Rs 168.85 crore against a reserve price of Rs 75.29 crore, reflecting the growing confidence of citizens and investors in Chandigarh’s property market.
Out of the 20 sites offered, all 13 residential sites were successfully auctioned, but only two of the seven commercial leasehold sites could attract buyers.
The response to the leasehold sites continues to be poor. It is not just the estate office, but also other authorities like the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) and the municipal corporation that struggle to get any buyer’s response to the leasehold properties.
A UT official said, “So, for the Rs 20 crore commercial leasehold property, an allottee would have to pay around Rs 50 lakh of lease amount every year. This will increase after every 33 years.
Also, unlike freehold property, in the leasehold property, the allottee doesn’t have ownership rights, restricting property transfers and raising of loans. The allottees can’t convert their commercial leasehold property into a freehold. All this makes the leasehold property not very popular with property buyers in the city.”
The MHA last year advised the administration against selling its commercial properties on freehold basis.
