After months of debate and discussions during which it was decided to exempt on-going real estate projects from registering their details under the Real Estate Regulation and Development Act 2016 (RERA), the Government of Karnataka has finally launched its official RERA website. Though this real estate bill was passed last year, confusion about the regulations led to a delay in implementation of the website and now with less than a few weeks before the expiry of the RERA deadline, the website is finally functional.
Purpose of setting up RERA
According to the RERA Act passed by the central government, all states and union territories have to set up a regulatory authority to register existing and new real estate projects and also frame rules for the constitution of this body. This regulation is meant to streamline registration and sales procedures in the real estate segment and reduce anomalies like the sale of one piece of land to multiple buyers.
The Central government has also notified that states that have not been able to set up their websites for registration of real estate properties can accept manual applications and register details of all on-going projects before the 31st of July.
Status of RERA in Karnataka
The Chairman of Karnataka Appellate Tribunal, Kapil Mohan who will head the real estate regulatory authority in the state, has confirmed that the government has notified its regulations under RERA and is working at completing the registration of all developers, projects, and brokers through the website.
As manual applications are acceptable for registration, applicants have to complete the RERA registration details for their on-going projects themselves and make the payment online on the portal.
As per the real estate regulatory bill norms, all builders and developers across the country have to register details of all their on-going projects on the website of RERA in their state. This is mandatory as unregistered projects cannot be advertised or sold after the deadline.
Fight for RERA Karnataka chapter
Though the Central government had given a year’s time to all states and union territories to implement their own regulations under RERA, the Karnataka chapter was launched only on 10th July 2017, making it difficult for customers to ascertain if the projects they were considering for purchase were RERA-compliant. Builders and real estate agents are therefore pushing the Karnataka government to extend the last date of registration to ensure that their projects do not get disqualified. According to Karnataka’s new real estate bill established as RERA, all builders with on-going projects have to mention the size of their apartments based on carpet area.
