For a better control, GDA wants property allotment on leasehold basis

To have a better control over properties in its jurisdiction area, the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) has proposed to the state that all properties be allotted on a leasehold basis. The officials said the proposal has been mooted to curb rising instances of unauthorised construction and also to have a better control over properties.

The GDA, currently, has about 1.4 lakh properties under its jurisdiction and has to recover ₹800 crore from about 7,500 property defaulters. The state government has recently floated a one-time settlement scheme where defaulters have been given concessions to pay the defaulted amount.

“In order to have a better control over properties, we have suggested to the state government to allow us for leasehold properties in our jurisdiction in the future. This will be for all types of property – residential, commercial etc. There have been a lot of unauthorised and illegal constructions done on freehold properties. So, if a property is allotted on lease by the GDA, we will have a better control and cancel the lease in case of violations,” Kanchan Verma, vice-chairperson, GDA, said.

“In freehold properties, it becomes very difficult to have control. So we have requested the state officials to allow us the provision which is prevailing in Noida and Greater Noida. A committee has been formed at the state level to study the possibilities,” she said.

The ownership of leasehold properties vests with the authority and it is leased to an allottee for a specific time and on certain conditions. In case of freehold properties, the ownership rights get transferred to the allottee and she also gets rights to sell her property without obtaining any consent from the authority.

At present, the authority has stopped freehold rights for institutional and health centres. These will, henceforth, be allowed only on lease for a period of 90 years, CB Tripathi, additional secretary, GDA, said.

According to property department officials, the erstwhile Ghaziabad Improvement Trust (now GDA), before 1986, used to allow only leasehold properties for 30 years to allottees.

After 1986, the state government came up with a policy to make properties freehold.

Any allottee who wished to make her property freehold could pay 10% of the lease rent and 2% of freehold charges (both percentages of plot valuation) to get her property converted to freehold.

“In 1995, leasehold of properties was scrapped and only freehold was allowed. But it was decided that such properties offered on concessional rates (like plots for schools, hospitals etc) would be strictly on lease. There have been three or four cases wherein concessional properties were allotted on freehold basis prior to 1995. An inquiry is going on at the state level in such cases,” an official from the GDA’s property department said.

“Before 1995, there was also a provision that anyone who wished to sell his leasehold property would have to obtain a no-objection certificate from the GDA and deposit 40% amount of the profit with the authority. Now, it has been decided that institutional and health centres will mandatorily be on leasehold basis for 90 years. A proposal through the GDA board will be sent to the state officials,” the official said.