The real estate sector of Dhanbad, which has been on an upswing for the last three decades, has suffered more than 80% decline since the beginning of the pandemic in March last year.

Out of around 700 ongoing projects of flats, duplex and market complexes, booking of only around 140 projects have taken place since last year while buyers are yet to show interest for 560 other projects.

Over 250 property dealers and builders, who are facing extreme tough times, have blamed high registry charges of around 8% and state government new rules requiring registration of builders as dealers of construction materials adding to their difficulties.

Talking to The Telegraph Online, Ritesh Sharma, Director of Alokik Group one of the prominent builders of Dhanbad, said “We had a brief period of respite from October, 2020 to February 2021 as we made some brisk sale after the relaxation in lockdown and 85% of projects were sold, but the situation is not good as only around 10-15% projects were sold.”

“Two consecutive lockdowns affecting the financial condition of all investors of service class or business class is the primary reason for lack of interest for the downturn but no less is the high registry charges.”

“The government could have earned higher revenue by lowering the registry charges and thereby propelling more investors to buy projects rather than increasing the rates and consequently deterring the buyers from investments,” said Sharma.

Amresh Singh, a prominent builder and president of Dhanbad unit of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) said, “Yes indeed the situation is very bad as even before we could recover from the losses suffered during the first phase of lockdown the second phase has knocked us down.”

“We request the state government to provide incentives and subsidies to our sector which is one of the biggest employers after public sector that provides jobs to large number of migrant workers who had to return back to their place during lockdown, but instead the government is burdening us with lot of documentation of work and taxes,” said Singh.

“What is the logic of enforcing the provision for mandatory registration of builders as dealers of construction materials when we are purchasers of these products rather than sellers,” said Singh and added all these provisions are only leading to officialdom and red tapism and forcing them to make rounds of government offices.

He also demanded the restoration of the provision of registry of property at Re 1 for women buyers and added, “Many people who have purchased the houses and flats two to three years ago have still not carried out registration in hope that the government will again restore the old provision of Re 1 registry for women.”

Vinay Singh, Director of Ramson Developers said, “Instead of 70-80 customer enquiry calls a day in the pre lockdown period, we are getting only 15-20 calls a day during lockdown which shows the sombre mood of investors due to financial insecurity during the Covid period.”