{"id":5133,"date":"2023-05-19T11:24:44","date_gmt":"2023-05-19T11:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zeus.firm.in\/experts-speak-land-digitization\/"},"modified":"2023-05-19T11:24:44","modified_gmt":"2023-05-19T11:24:44","slug":"experts-speak-land-digitization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeus.firm.in\/experts-speak-land-digitization\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts Speak: Land digitization\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
Experts Speak by Mr. Sunil Tyagi, Managing Partner, ZEUS Law<\/p>\n
Published in www.moneycontrol.com on<\/p>\n
With the surge in demand for housing, real estate developers have been acquiring land to build a robust pipeline of new housing projects. Most of the land is concentrated in strategic locations and growth corridors. However, land aggregators and legal experts said clear land titles remain an issue, even after the government introduced regulatory measures and some states adopted geo-tagging of land.<\/p>\n
According to a recent report by\u00a0Jones Lang LaSalle<\/a>, more than\u00a0100 land transactions were locked in the 17-month period from January 2022 to May 2023 across 2,181 acres for proposed real estate development.<\/p>\n About 84 percent of the area transacted was for residential projects with a potential of 165 million square feet and estimated sales of Rs 1,22,000 crore.<\/p>\n More than half of the transactions (53) took place in the National Capital Region and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, with a focus on residential development. The NCR, Chennai, the MMR and Bengaluru accounted for a 72 percent share, JLL said in the report.<\/p>\n Land title mess<\/strong><\/p>\n Realtors said a lot needs to be done in terms of ensuring that the title of the land being acquired is clear.<\/p>\n \u201cThe buyer of the land should know who the owner is. In this direction, a lot needs to be done to ensure that the land title is clear. Also, while several states have started\u00a0geo-tagging land<\/a>, more states need to follow,\u201d said Manoj Gaur, chairman of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India \u2013 National (Credai National).<\/p>\n Deepak Goradia, chairman of Dosti Realty, is of the view that while there are not many issues with regard to land procured by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, in the case of redevelopment, one may have to deal with tenants and get their consent even though the title of the land is clear.<\/p>\n Land-owning authorities should be brought under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act so that they can be held accountable if they rescind on promises, said Boman Irani, president of Credai National, adding that in the case of redevelopment where titles are leasehold, there is still clarity that the leased property can be renewed for 30 years or 60 years.<\/p>\n Pankaj Goyal, promoter of Express Builders, an NCR-based real estate developer, said the entry price for buying land is prohibitively high. Besides, availability of funds to buy land has been a challenge after the liquidity crunch brought on by the crisis involving non-banking financial companies in 2018, after which they stopped lending for land.<\/p>\n Land digitization\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Real estate experts say land acquisition continues to be fraught with risks and the process has become more complicated, especially when farmland is being purchased. The thrust now is on negotiation with farmers and their rehabilitation under the new laws.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs far as ownership titles are concerned, that has always been a challenge,\u201d said Sunil Tyagi, managing partner at Zeus Law Associates.<\/span><\/p>\n Experts said the amendment to the Hindu Succession Act, has made the situation more challenging because women who were earlier denied the right to own land are now staking their claim, increasing the number of land title cases. Following the amendment, a\u00a0daughter and a son<\/a>\u00a0are equally entitled to inherit property and assets.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt had been noticed that the\u00a0patwaris often mutated the land record without considering the daughters and sisters as legal heirs. When a buyer zeroed in on inherited land, he would just about check the mutation records that presumed that only the sons inherited the property,\u201d said Tyagi.<\/span><\/p>\n Having said that, the main challenge today is that anybody can file a challenge if the land has a title defect. Land mutation records are not maintained properly in India even though some states have made the process online, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n \n Lenders\u2019 demands<\/strong><\/p>\n Of late, lenders have started asking for\u00a0clear land titles<\/a>\u00a0as a prerequisite to agreeing to a loan.<\/p>\n