States Need to Cut Stamp Duty to Boost Demand-Supply of Homes Priced Up to Rs 45 lakh: NAREDCO

Realtors body NAREDCO has urged state governments to reduce stamp duty on registration of affordable homes priced up to Rs 45 lakh per unit to boost demand and supply of low-cost apartments.

Addressing NAREDCO's annual convention here, the association's president G Hari Babu pointed out that sales and launches of apartments, each costing up to Rs 45 lakh, have declined because of rising costs of land and construction.

"States should bring down the stamp duty on registration of affordable homes to 1 per cent for women and 3 per cent for men," he told PTI.

The president said that the stamp duty at present is between 5 per cent and 10 per cent across states.

Hari Babu also suggested that states should focus on slum redevelopment to boost the supply of affordable housing.

NAREDCO Chairman Niranjan Hiranandani too expressed concern over the decline in launches and sales in the affordable housing category.

NAREDCO and real estate consultant Knight Frank India released a report, 'Affordable Housing: Tackling Urban Housing Deficit Through Supply-Side Reforms', which pointed out critical supply challenges in India's affordable housing sector.

The report mentioned that the ratio of launches of affordable homes to sales of housing units costing up to Rs 50 lakh across the top eight cities has plummeted to 0.36 in 2025 (until June), from 1.05 in 2019 and 1.30 in 2020.

These eight cities are Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad.

Hari 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.