Property valuation in Salt Lake

Salt Lake looks like freehold and is not. Its plots were given out by the state on 999 year leases from the 1970s, and the terms of each lease still decide how easily a house can be sold and to whom.

The lease and the clause

Every Salt Lake plot is leasehold. What differs is the lease deed. Older deeds without a restrictive transfer clause allowed the leaseholder to transfer freely. Later deeds required the state's permission, and a transfer outside the family now carries a fee to the government. Transfers between blood relations are treated differently.

For a valuation, this is the first thing to read. A house whose next transfer needs a sizeable payment to the state is worth correspondingly less to an outside buyer than one that does not.

Bidhannagar, not Kolkata

Salt Lake is administered by the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, not the Kolkata corporation. Mutation and property tax records are there. Sector V, the IT hub, sits alongside the residential blocks and pushes up values nearby.

What we value here

Mostly family houses built by the original allottees in the 1970s and 1980s, now owned by their children. Many are being divided, sold or rebuilt as flats by developers. Each of those needs a figure that accounts for the lease.

Kolkata is a presidency town, so a will dealing with Salt Lake property usually needs probate from the High Court. Our inherited property page covers what that means for the valuation.