Realty News Roundup: Building Heights In Lutyens' Bungalow Zone Might Double; Half The Property Tax Payers in Bangalore Availed Tax Rebates

Eight lakh of the 16.3 lakh property tax payers in Bangalore, paid their taxes by May 30, the last day to benefit from tax rebates for early tax payers. The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) collected Rs 1,085 crore between April and May, Rs 250 crore more than the money collected in the previous year. The BBMP had set a target of Rs 1,200 crore for the first two months, and a yearly target of Rs 2,900 crore. From June onward, people who own property in Bangalore will have to pay 2% penalty per month.

Here are the other real estate related news stories of June 1, 2015:

Residents of South City II in Gurgaon have been protesting against the builder Unitech for the past three days, demanding basic amenities. They protestors claim that they pay high maintenance charges for this project in Gurgaon, and that the builder had hiked maintenance charges though sanitation is poor, water supply erratic, and medical services absent. The protestors also allege that the builder uses the colony's community center for commercial purposes.

The Delhi High Court says that a proposed high-end luxury residential project on a five-acre land in Okhla Industrial Area Phase I is under its lens because the possession rights are contested. The project is owned by Southend, which entered a collaboration with Wonder Space Properties (A Godrej subsidiary) in June 2013. Following this, VLS Finance which invested in the project sought contempt of court. The bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said that the "matter requires deeper consideration". This project is estimated to be worth more than Rs 1,000 crore, and is likely to sell over 200 high-end luxury apartments in Delhi.

The Delhi Urban Arts Commission (DUAC) suggested that the height of buildings in the Lutyens' bungalow zone can be increased up to 12 meters, nearly twice the present height of bungalows. The proposed height would be enough to construct a three-storey building. The new height limit was proposed after taking into account the character of the area and the dense tree cover. The Commission recommended that the permitted ground coverage should be 12.5% of the total plot area and the maximum FAR should be 20%.