Maharashtra becomes the first state to implement home buying process online

Good news for Mumbaikars who do not like visiting government offices especially for property purchase and registration in Mumbai. A recent announcement confirms that the respective department has ensured that the same is digitised thereby improving the ease of business.

The decision to make a move was taken to ensure faster purchase and registration of properties. The portal (https://registeringproperty.mahabhumi.gov.in/) will also include records and data which will be available on a real-time basis. Officials from the respective departments will look at providing everything on a single platform where one can look for information regarding the rights, land records, tax, bills and dues and a lot more.

With this move, Maharashtra has become the first state in India to implement this process and Delhi will soon follow. Settlement Commissioner S Chokalingam mentioned that one will also be able to access data available from the Centre’s Registrar of Companies and Central Registry of Securitisation Asset Reconstruction and Security Interest of India (CERSAI). 

Real-estate experts and consultants state that conducting searches for several legal and financial purposes in the current scenario comes with difficulty and this online process will save time and effort in visiting offices or agencies regarding the registration, as verification would be made simpler. 

Data released about the opportunity of World Bank’s ease for business in India needs to improve, especially with cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Mumbai's developmental restructuring has helped India's rank improve and this is expected to change further.  Data further states that one has to perform nine steps over 58 days and spend 8 per cent of the property's market value for the purchase and registration of a property in Mumbai. However, Chokalingam states that with the new system in place, the total number of procedures reduce to six.

Earlier this year, the team had also framed a simpler process for changing the name in its property tax records, which earlier took a month to reflect on the records, but post the implementation takes no more than three days.