In a big relief for thousands of residents living in Cuttack Development Authority (CDA) and the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) areas, the Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) Department has planned to initiate the enfranchisement process to convert the leasehold lands into freehold.
Informing the decision, H&UD Minister, Pratap Jena said, “We will study and conduct a survey at CDA, BDA and lands under several government authorities in other places allotted to the people on lease and assess the situation.”
“Not only the land under town development authorities, but we will also consider enfranchisement of leasehold lands under various Housing Boards and the General Administration (GA) Department as well,” Jena said.
It is pertinent to mention here that the leasehold property owners, particularly in the CDA, have long been demanding to convert the land to freehold, so that they can enjoy their property in true sense and develop it as per their wish.
Being leasehold property, the owners of the lands under the CDA, BDA or any other authority cannot avail bank loans to construct house on it.
When one owns a leasehold house, the property remains with the owner for a fixed number of years only. With the passage of time the value of the property depreciates with corresponding decrease in remaining lease period.