Ease of doing business: Poor performance of India in property registration

India’s rise in ranking on the World Bank’s ease of doing list has not made property registration any easier. According to World Bank data, India’s rank in property registration has gone down from 138 to 154. 

“Things are much better in metropolitan areas. Most things happen online and it has become faster and more transparent,” said Parveen Jain, CMD, Tulip Infratech, and vice-chairman of the National Real Estate Development Council. “However, in rural areas, it is still difficult to register properties. The system needs to be the same for everyone.”

A higher level of automation and better proactive services were required to make the process smoother, experts said. “People have to still rely on deed writers and liaison officers. The whole process should be automated. In tier-III and beyond, it can get quite difficult to get things done as transparency is less,” said Mudassir 

Zaidi, executive director-North, Knight Frank (India) Pvt Ltd.