State Rules · Delhi
Property Rules in Delhi
What you pay, what rent control actually covers, why a title search here has to be run twice, and where an unauthorised colony now stands.
The short version
In Delhi a buyer pays 6% if the buyer is a man and 4% if the buyer is a woman. That figure already includes the municipal transfer duty — the Revenue Department’s own wording is “stamp duty and transfer duty @ 4%… and @ 6%”. Adding another 1% on top of it, as many guides tell you to, over-states your cost.
The registration fee is separate: 1% of the value, plus a ₹100 pasting charge. So the all-in figure is 7% for a man and 5% for a woman — which is exactly what the CAG found when it audited real Delhi conveyances.
Two things then decide whether the deal is sound: which circle-rate category (A to H) the property sits in, and whether your title search covered both of Delhi’s registration systems.
On this page
1. What you actually pay
| Instrument | Stamp duty and transfer duty | Registration fee |
|---|---|---|
| Sale deed | 4% if the buyer is a woman 6% if the buyer is a man | 1% of the total value + ₹100 pasting charge |
| Gift deed | 4% if the donee is a woman 6% if the donee is a man (property to be valued by an approved valuer) | 1% + ₹100 |
| Conveyance deed — converting leasehold to freehold | 4% women, 6% men, paid through the Collector of Stamps / SDM | 1% + ₹100 |
| Will | No stamp duty | ₹600 |
Registration fees above ₹500 are accepted only by demand draft or pay order. The department’s stated response time for registration is normally within 15 days.
Source. Department of Revenue, Government of NCT of Delhi, “Property Registration” (revenue.delhi.gov.in), verified 8 September 2026.Worked example — a ₹80 lakh flat
| Male buyer | Female buyer | |
|---|---|---|
| Stamp duty and transfer duty | 6% = ₹4,80,000 | 4% = ₹3,20,000 |
| Registration fee | 1% = ₹80,000 | 1% = ₹80,000 |
| Pasting charge | ₹100 | ₹100 |
| Total | ₹5,60,100 | ₹4,00,100 |
The difference is ₹1,60,000 — the largest gender differential of any state on this site. In Uttar Pradesh the same concession is capped at ₹10,000. In Karnataka it does not exist at all.
Our arithmetic, on the departmental rates cited above. Run your own numbers on the stamp duty calculator.
What most people get wrong
Transfer duty in Delhi is a municipal levy, not part of stamp duty. It is imposed under section 147 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, in the form of a surcharge on the duty imposed by the Indian Stamp Act, at a rate the Corporation determines “not exceeding five per cent”. It applies to sale, exchange, gift, mortgage with possession and lease in perpetuity.
The Revenue Department’s published figure of 4% and 6% is expressed as “stamp duty and transfer duty” — the two together. When the CAG audited two real Delhi conveyances registered in November 2019, the rate column read 5 for one instrument and 7 for the other, computing to exactly 5.00% and 7.00% of consideration. Those are the all-in figures: 4% + 1% registration, and 6% + 1% registration.
So: if a calculator tells you to add 1% transfer duty on top of 6%, it is double-counting. And note that Delhi has three municipal regimes — MCD, NDMC and the Delhi Cantonment Board — each levying transfer duty under a different statute.
Sources. Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957, s.147, hosted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (mha.gov.in); Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Report No. 3 of 2022, Government of NCT of Delhi, Annexure 1.3 (cag.gov.in). Verified 8 September 2026.2. Circle rates, and the mistake that costs buyers later
FactDelhi’s circle rate system was introduced in July 2007. It prescribes minimum rates by locality, graded in eight categories from A (highest) to H (lowest), for the purpose of paying stamp duty and registration fee. A separate notification from September 2006 governs how a property is classified by use — residential, commercial or mixed — which changes the rate that applies.
FactThe CAG, reporting in October 2022, recorded that “the circle rates were last revised in September 2014.” We could not confirm any revision after that date, because every Delhi Revenue Department circle-rate page we tried was unavailable.
The exposure nobody explains at the counter
Two variables set your duty: the locality category and the use classification. Get either wrong and you have under-paid duty — and under-payment is your exposure on a later demand, not the sub-registrar’s.
This is not theoretical. In the cases the CAG audited, properties that actually fell in categories E, F and G had been registered as F, G and H — one band too low, every time. The audit’s whole point was that the shortfall becomes recoverable.
Before you register: confirm in writing which category the locality falls in and which use classification is being applied, and keep that confirmation with the deed. It is a two-minute question that closes a liability which can surface years later.
Source. CAG Report No. 3 of 2022, Government of NCT of Delhi, para 1.2 and Annexures 1.3–1.4 (cag.gov.in), verified 8 September 2026.3. Title searching: the January 2024 split
FactDelhi registration has moved systems. DORIS — the Delhi Online Registration Information System — now carries a plain notice: “All SR offices have been migrated to the NGDRS Portal and are no longer active in DORIS.” The cutover is January 2024, and the portal offers two distinct searches: “Citizen e-Search DORIS Period (Before Jan 2024)” and “Citizen e-Search NGDRS Period (After Jan 2024)”.
InterpretationA title search that only runs on one of them is not a title search. Anything registered before January 2024 lives in the old system; anything after, in the new. Both have to be checked, through separate interfaces.
Delhi does not issue an encumbrance certificate
FactUnlike Karnataka or Tamil Nadu, Delhi has no product called an Encumbrance Certificate. A buyer assembles the equivalent comfort from four separate official facilities:
| What you need | Where |
|---|---|
| Deed search — by name, by property address, by year, plus DDA conveyance and perpetual lease deed search | Delhi e-Search |
| Certified copy of a registered deed — delivered within 30 days as a stated service level | DORIS-BBook |
| Is the property disputed, prohibited or encumbered by the State? | Prohibited property register |
| Draft your own deed — about 35 deed types, free | Delhi Deed Writer |
| Register a property | NGDRS Delhi |
The register almost nobody checks
The prohibited property register is the single most useful free check in Delhi and it is buried. It covers disputed properties, evacuee properties, land acquisition details, Gram Sabha properties, enemy properties, land under section 74(4), cases under section 81, properties booked by urban local bodies, and prohibited-transaction properties — published sub-registrar-office-wise.
The counts show why it matters. On the day we checked: Geeta Colony 4,836 entries, Hauz Khas 3,991, Shahdara 2,536, Vivek Vihar 1,976, Preet Vihar 1,172. These are not obscure edge cases — they are thousands of properties per sub-registrar office that carry something a buyer would want to know about before paying a token.
Sources. DORIS, Department of Revenue, GNCTD (doris.delhigovt.nic.in); DORIS Prohibited Property register (dispute.delhigovt.nic.in); NGDRS Delhi (ngdrs.delhi.gov.in). Verified 8 September 2026.4. Renting: why rent control does not cover your flat
FactThe rent law in force in Delhi is the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958. There is a persistent belief that a 1995 Act replaced it. It did not. The Delhi Rent Act, 1995 received Presidential assent in August 1995 and was never brought into force. Parliament’s own words, in the Statement of Objects and Reasons to the repeal bill of 2013: “Although the said Bill received the assent of the President in August, 1995, it could not be brought into force. Hence, the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958, as amended from time to time, is still in force.”
FactAnd here is the provision that decides almost every Delhi tenancy. Section 3(c) of the 1958 Act says it does not apply “to any premises, whether residential or not, whose monthly rent exceeds three thousand and five hundred rupees”. That ₹3,500 threshold was inserted with effect from 1 December 1988 and has never been raised.
InterpretationIn practice, virtually every market-rate tenancy in Delhi today falls outside rent control altogether. It is governed by the contract, by the Transfer of Property Act 1882 and by the Registration Act 1908 — not by the Rent Control Act. The Act also excludes premises built after the 1988 amendment for ten years from completion, government premises, and tenancies created by government grant.
What follows from that, practically
- There is no statutory security-deposit cap in Delhi. We found none in the 1958 Act, and for tenancies above ₹3,500 a month the Act does not apply at all. Do not accept a “two months by law” claim — that is the Model Tenancy Act norm, and Delhi has not adopted the Model Tenancy Act, 2021.
- The eleven-month agreement is a registration decision, not a legal requirement. A lease from year to year, or for a term exceeding one year, is compulsorily registrable under s.17(1)(d) of the Registration Act. A lease not exceeding one year is optional under s.18(c). Eleven months sits below the line. It is lawful avoidance of registration cost — and it carries the evidentiary weakness of an unregistered document.
5. RERA in Delhi — the unusual bit
FactDelhi is the one place in India where the RERA rules were made by the Central Government, not the state. Under section 2(g) of the Real Estate Act, the Ministry of Urban Development was given responsibility for making the rules for the National Capital Territory of Delhi. They were finalised after consulting the Delhi Government, NDMC, the municipal corporations and DDA, and notified in November 2016 as the NCT of Delhi Real Estate (Regulation and Development) (General) Rules, 2016.
FactThose rules were substantially the same as the rules for the five union territories without legislatures, with three Delhi-specific additions: publication of the promoter’s litigation details, third-party quality audit of projects, and flexibility in the agreement for sale.
FactThe appellate body is the Real Estate Appellate Tribunal of NCT of Delhi and UT of Chandigarh — a single tribunal with jurisdiction over both. The authority’s portal is rera.delhi.gov.in. On the official implementation record, Delhi’s Regulatory Authority and Appellate Tribunal are both permanent, its general rules are notified and its web portal set up — but an Adjudicating Officer had not been appointed.
Sources. PIB / Ministry of Urban Development, 23 November 2016 (pib.gov.in); PIB / MoHUA RERA Implementation Progress Report annexure, 28 March 2022 (pib.gov.in); MoHUA list of state RERA authorities (rera.mohua.gov.in). Verified 8 September 2026.6. Unauthorised colonies, GPA sales and PM-UDAY
First, the law on GPA sales
FactIn Suraj Lamp & Industries (P) Ltd. v. State of Haryana, decided 11 October 2011, the Supreme Court held in terms: “SA/GPA/WILL transaction does not convey any title nor create any interest in an immovable property.” Immovable property can be transferred only by a registered deed of conveyance. The judgment leaves a narrow residual use — part-performance under section 53A of the Transfer of Property Act, and a claim for specific performance — but a GPA is not a conveyance and never was.
Then, the one place Delhi still recognises those papers
FactUnder the NCT of Delhi (Recognition of Property Rights of Residents in Unauthorised Colonies) Regulations, 2019 and the PM-UDAY scheme launched 29 October 2019, ownership, transfer and mortgage rights are conferred on residents of 1,731 unauthorised colonies on the basis of GPA, agreement to sell, and payment and possession documents. Two instruments are issued: a Conveyance Deed for property on government land, and an Authorisation Slip for property on private land.
| Item | Position |
|---|---|
| Charges, government land | 0.5% of circle rate for a plot under 100 sq m; 1% for 100–250 sq m; 2.5% above 250 sq m — of the circle rate of the highest category of locality of the surrounding residential area |
| Charges, private land | Half of the above |
| Penalty / EDC | None |
| Payment | Three equal instalments within a year; late payment carries simple interest at 8% a year |
| Registration | Within three months of issuance, at the Sub-Registrar’s office; stamp duty and registration charges apply only on the amount of the deed or slip |
| Excluded | Colonies on forest land, protected monument areas, Zone-O (Yamuna flood plain), road right of way, high tension lines, ridge areas — plus 69 identified affluent colonies, which include Sainik Farms, Mahendru Enclave and Anant Ram Dairy |
Why uptake was low, in the Government’s own words
By 31 March 2026, roughly 40,000 conveyance deeds and authorisation slips had been issued under PM-UDAY — officially described as a “relatively low response”. The stated reason is the part buyers most need to understand: “even after issuance of Conveyance Deeds / Authorisation Slips, residents are unable to get building plans approved or regularise existing structures due to the absence of approved layout plans.” PM-UDAY confers ownership rights; it does not automatically make a resident eligible for building plan approval.
AnnouncedOn 7 April 2026 the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs announced that 1,511 of the 1,731 colonies — those not caught by the exclusions — would be regularised on an “as-is, where-is” basis without requiring approved layout plans. Land use in these colonies is to be treated as residential; convenience shops up to 20 sq m are regularised where there is access to a 6-metre right of way; local bodies issue Certificates of Regularisation and the Revenue Department issues the deeds. Applications opened on the MCD SWAGAM portal from 24 April 2026.
Read the reconstruction condition before you buy to rebuild. Land equivalent to 50% of the deficiency in right of way must be surrendered to reach the minimum access width — 6 metres for internal roads, 9 metres for approach roads. FAR is calculated on the original plot area but must be used within the reduced plot after surrender. Where existing FAR already exceeds what is permissible, penal charges at three times the additional FAR charges apply.
Sources. PIB / MoHUA, “Regularisation of Unauthorised Colonies in Delhi on ‘As-is Where-is’ Basis”, 7 April 2026 (pib.gov.in); PIB / Cabinet, 23 October 2019 (pib.gov.in); DDA, PM-UDAY scheme and FAQs (dda.gov.in); Suraj Lamp & Industries v. State of Haryana, Supreme Court, 11 October 2011. Verified 8 September 2026.7. What we could not confirm
Open questions on this page
- Whether circle rates have been revised at any point after September 2014, and the current status of the temporary pandemic-era reduction. Every Delhi Revenue Department circle-rate page we tried was unavailable. This is the single most important item on the page to re-check before you rely on a rate.
- The actual transfer-duty percentage currently determined by MCD, and the separate rates for NDMC and Delhi Cantonment areas. Only the 5% statutory ceiling in the DMC Act is confirmed.
- Any change in stamp duty, registration fee or transfer duty in the last three years. No official record of a change was reachable.
- Whether the Delhi Rent (Repeal) Bill, 2013 was ever enacted — that is, whether the never-commenced 1995 Act has been formally repealed or simply sits on the statute book. It changes nothing about what is in force: the 1958 Act governs either way.
- An authoritative statement of which body mutates which property type in Delhi. Mutation is split across the Revenue Department, MCD, NDMC, the Cantonment Board, DDA and the Land and Development Office depending on the property, and we found no single official document setting out the allocation. We also found no stated timeline for mutation.
- DDA leasehold-to-freehold conversion — eligibility, charges and procedure. The DDA freehold page would not load.
- Whether the gazette amendment giving effect to the April 2026 “as-is where-is” decision has been formally notified. The Ministry’s release describes it as an amendment; we could not verify the notification itself.
- The official Delhi land records portal for khasra and khatauni. Every candidate was unreachable.
Sources
- Department of Revenue, Government of NCT of Delhi — Property Registration, DORIS, NGDRS Delhi, e-Search, prohibited property register, DORIS-BBook, Deed Writer.
- Comptroller and Auditor General of India — Report No. 3 of 2022, Government of NCT of Delhi.
- Ministry of Home Affairs — Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957.
- Press Information Bureau — as-is where-is regularisation, 7 April 2026; Cabinet decision on unauthorised colonies, 23 October 2019; Delhi RERA rules, 23 November 2016; RERA implementation progress, 28 March 2022; Model Tenancy Act adoption, 25 July 2022.
- Delhi Development Authority — PM-UDAY scheme, PM-UDAY FAQs.
- PRS Legislative Research — Delhi Rent (Repeal) Bill, 2013.
How this page is sourced. Every figure on this page carries the document it came from and the date it was checked. Where a number could not be traced to an official document, the page says so in those words rather than repeating what other sites say. Nothing here is taken from a property portal, listing site or aggregator.
This is a personal site written by Mithun Srivastava. The views are his own. It uses no employer data of any kind and is not an official communication of any company. It is educational material, not legal, tax or financial advice — property decisions carry real financial and legal risk, rules change without notice, and you must verify anything here against the current official source and your own professional advisers before acting on it.