Chandigarh Housing board set up help desk for property auctionPropertyWala.com

The Chandigarh Housing Council (CHB) is setting up five help desks to help bidders bid on 79 housing units in different parts of the city through e-tender.

On 17 May, CHB began an auction process for the sale of 79 residential properties in various sectors of the city. The auction is done through an electronic bidding process, and bidders can submit their bids for properties before 31 May. The help desk can be found in sectors 38 west, 49 and 51 as well as two in sector 63.

In the last auction, the CHB was able to auction 36 freehold dwelling units. The highest bidders were required to deposit 25% of the bid amount within five working days. However, the six highest bidders could not deposit the 25% amount within the prescribed period. And accordingly, their earnest money deposit (EMD) amount of Rs 2 lakh each has been forfeited by the board.

Change in Reserve Price

Yashpal Garg, CEO of Chandigarh Housing Council, said, they listed the six properties at the next auction and that a total of 79 properties were up for auction. The board of directors adopted full secrecy at the last auction and that the same formula will be applied at the next auction. CHB has compiled a list of 270 properties, including 11 residential (rent), 109 residential (non-ownership), and 150 commercial (leasehold) for sale. CHB has started auctions for the sale of residential properties first. The rest of the properties are offered for sale at a later date.

Privacy to bidders identity

In order to get response the CHB has reduced the property reservation price by 10%. Since the reserve price for residential and commercial properties was too high. Therefore none of the bidders showed interest in the CHB real estate auction in 2019.

This time, CHB decided to replace the real estate e-auction process with the e-tender process. In the e-auction, the deposit money (EMD) for participation cannot paid be online. The applicant pays the same into the CHB account and provides proof. CHB officials will confirm the payment before allowing the auctioneer to take part in the e-auction process. Thus, the number of applicants for a particular property and their identity are not entirely confidential.

In e-tender, EMD can be paid for online and no approval is required, so the number of bidders and their identity is completely secret and confidential.