Reg. Gift deed

Hi I bought an apartment in 2003. It was registered in both me and my father's name. I am in my mid career, and due to my job insecurities, I have decided to sell the flat(with consent of my father). Idea is to get rid of Housing loan completely and be debt free and deposit the rest of the proceeds as Savings or re-investment or both. My wife is working in her mid career and she is paying high tax(as she does not have a housing loan). My thoughts were: 1. Ask my dad to gift deed the flat to me so as to avoid capital gains 2. Since, I have immediate buyers for this flat. I propose to sell it. Can i benefit if through the way of gift deed or just go the normal way of buy/sell? 3. Use the sale amount to first clear the loan and rest of it, re-invest (in fd, savings, bonds, land,...etc) which ever is suitable and profitable. 4. Use 50% of proceeds left after clearing the initial Housing Loan to purchase property to the extent of IT exemption for our respective salaries. For this property purchase, again take housing loan (lesser risk than earlier) by diving the risk and seek IT exemption parallelly. Which best option would you go for if you were me?