Hyderabad land title issues stall property sales

The issue has moved beyond isolated complaints. According to recent reports, sales and transfers of multiple properties have stalled after being placed on the 22-A list, with some owners learning only at the registration office that their land was barred. That is particularly sensitive in Hyderabad, where real estate is tied closely to construction activity, bank lending and broader investment sentiment. If title is uncertain, buyers step back, lenders tighten and builders pause.

The concern is amplified by cases involving land purchased decades ago. A journalists’ cooperative housing society in Gopanpally, for example, has found land bought nearly 30 years ago caught in the 22-A net, raising questions over how legally acquired property can later be treated as restricted. The core economic risk is that once the state’s records and the owner’s documentation diverge, property rights become contestable in practice even if they were valid in law.

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has acknowledged the problem and said the government will review and resolve cases where entire survey numbers were included because only part of the land was disputed. That admission is important: it suggests the administration sees 22-A not as a one-off clerical issue but as a systemic record-keeping and governance failure that can directly affect the real estate cycle.

The timing is awkward for a government trying to sell Hyderabad as an investment destination. Telangana is pushing industrial expansion, IT investment, metro growth and large infrastructure projects, all of which depend on land being tradable and bankable. If developers and investors begin to doubt whether title is clear, the first question is no longer price or location but whether the parcel can be registered without a dispute surfacing later.

That uncertainty also complicates Hyderabad’s broader land enforcement drive through HYDRA, the city agency set up in 2024 to protect lakes, drains, parks and public land from encroachment and remove illegal structures that worsen flooding. The state has a legitimate case for cracking down on encroachments, especially in a fast-growing city where decades of illegal construction have burdened infrastructure and raised flood risk. But the political and economic test is balance: aggressive action against encroachers without creating collateral damage for lawful owners.

For investors, the distinction is crucial. A cleaner land regime should lower transaction risk, improve project timelines and support valuations. A flawed one can do the opposite, even if registration revenue rises in the short term. Real estate investors, banks and builders typically discount jurisdictions where title can be challenged after purchase, because the cost shows up later in stalled approvals, litigation and impaired liquidity.

The policy task now is straightforward, if not easy. Telangana needs to clean up the 22-A list, create a faster appeals process for wrongly tagged properties and improve digital mapping so that only the disputed portion of a survey number is blocked, not the entire parcel. It also needs a clearer, rule-based framework for HYDRA so that enforcement against encroachment does not turn into a broader chill on legitimate ownership.

If the government can restore confidence in titles, Hyderabad’s real estate market should retain its appeal as a growth corridor. If it cannot, the city’s development story will still continue — but at a higher legal and financing cost that investors will not ignore.