L&DO adopts Delhi govt’s circle rates to determine conversion charge, rent

The L&DO, which administers around 60,000 properties and controls around 7% of Delhi’s land, had given plots on lease for construction of residential colonies after Independence.

After over three years of a pause, conversion of Land and Development Office (L&DO) properties in Delhi from leasehold to freehold could restart soon, with the L&DO deciding to use the circle rates last notified by the Delhi government to determine rates for conversion charges.

The L&DO, which administers around 60,000 properties and controls around 7% of Delhi’s land, had given plots on lease for construction of residential colonies after Independence in areas like Defence Colony, Chittaranjan Park and Lajpat Nagar, among others.

On Thursday, it issued an office order stating that circle rates — last notified by the Delhi government on September 22, 2014 and any subsequent revisions — will apply for L&DO’s processes from January 1, 2026.

The development will come as a relief to those property owners who have been waiting for conversion from leasehold to freehold, which has been closed since December 2022. According to the order, the circle rates would be used for “determination of rates for conversion charges, land use change charges, calculation of ground rent/license fee, etc”.

While the L&DO is yet to release details of how the conversion charges and other rates would be calculated, sources said it could be as a percentage of the circle rate of land for the respective areas. The detailed guidelines are still being worked out and will be published soon, it is learnt.

Usually, the conversion of the property to freehold is done before a sale or transfer. Until it paused the conversions in 2022, the L&DO was calculating the conversion charges based on land rates it had determined. The L&DO had last revised the land rates in 2017.

As per the 2017 policy, the conversion charge for residential plots increased as per the plot size, starting from 7.5% of the notified land rate per square metre of area over 50 m in case of plots of 50 m to 150 m.

After the conversion from leasehold to freehold was stopped, the matter came up before the Delhi High Court in 2024. The L&DO had then informed the court it was in the process of drafting a new standard operating procedure and revised rates.

At that time, the L&DO had 246 pending applications. The HC had pulled it up for the delay in processing the applications while hearing a plea moved by a property owner from Patel Nagar.

While the L&DO had said the process would take two years, the court had in August 2024 ordered it to complete the revision within four months – a deadline that the L&DO missed.