In a major relief to prospective flat purchasers and the beleaguered property developers, the state government on Friday stayed its earlier decision to levy a flat rate of 1% registration fee on transaction of any property, irrespective of their market value.

The government took the decision in a cabinet meeting held late on Friday.

What this means is that the earlier rule of whereby the buyer had to pay 1% on the property value, upto a maximum of Rs30,000.

Under the new rules it had framed, it had done away with the Rs30,000 cap and had ruled that a purchaser of any property would have to pay 1% on the value.

Washington  - US mortgage giant Fannie Mae reported a 25.2- billion-dollar quarterly loss on Thursday and asked the government for cash to keep it afloat.

Fannie Mae asked for a 15.2-billion-dollar capital infusion from the US Treasury and said it could need more if the housing and credit markets continue to worsen.

It was the sixth-straight quarterly loss for the lender that was taken over by the government last year. Losses for the year came to 58.7 billion dollars.

Parsvnath Developers Ltd, the New Delhi-based developer, has postponed its luxury mall-cum-office complex in Connaught Place, the commercial hub of Delhi.

The two cranes stationed at DLF's construction site at Lower Parel, with the name DLF Laing O'Rourke written on them in big bold letters, have hardly moved in the last one month.

According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. the slump in the economy will drive new home construction to a nine-year low in 2009. This prediction comes in stark contrast to what the Crown Corporation was saying in November.

In defense, Bill Clark, senior economist with CMHC, said that it was not possible last quarter to predict the economic decline we are now witnessing its impact on the economy.

Three months back CMHC conjectured that there would be 177,975 new homes built this year. On Thursday the figure was attuned to 160,250 a_" a level not seen since

Karvy Stock Broking Limited has maintained ‘Buy’ rating on DLF stock to achieve a target of Rs 165 within 1-2 days.

According to Karvy, day traders can purchase the stock between Rs 155-157 with a stop loss of Rs 150. If the stock market remains on positive track, the next target for the stock will be above Rs 168.

Shares of the company, on Wednesday (Feb 18), closed at Rs 158.70 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The total volume of shares traded at the BSE was 8796462. Current EPS & P/E ratio stood at 12.67 and 12.77 respectively. The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 899 and a low of Rs 124.15 on BSE.