Why 10 March Is Important for Indian Real Estate

It was on this day two years ago that the Rajya Sabha passed the Real Estate Bill. This was no ordinary bill. It was a bill that sought to protect the interests of homebuyers while at the same time enhancing the credibility of the real estate sector by promoting transparency, accountability, and efficiency in execution of projects.

March 10, undoubtedly, is of great importance in the history of Indian real estate as after a long wait of nine years, the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act moved through the legislative contours to finally become an Act. Since then, the landscape of realty sector in the country has changed significantly.

While there were several teething issues initially, it is interesting to see how all stakeholders – developers, brokers, and homebuyers -have adapted to its changing processes.

The homebuyers’ group ‘Fight for RERA‘ is also urging the government to declare March 10 as ‘Homebuyer’s Day’ to highlight homebuyers’ empowerment. We can’t agree more.

RERA Timeline

Current status

Karnataka

• At present, out of the 1978 project applications for registration under KRERA, a total of 1331 projects have been granted registration across the state, while about 328 projects are under-process.
• About 45 projects have been rejected.
• The KRERA Authority has also released the list of projects under investigation. There are about 554 projects that are under investigation.

Maharashtra

• At present, the state of Maharashtra has about 15,000 projects registered with it.
• The MahaRERA (Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority) has received as many as 2,000 complaints from homebuyers and developers across the state.

Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

In the case of Andhra Pradesh, an interim regulator has been appointed and the RERA portal launched. Telengana is yet to launch its portal.

Tamil Nadu

• In Tamil Nadu, about 387 projects have been approved by the authority.
• The authority has received about 300 complaints so far, mostly related to delay in handing over projects.

Last month, the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Grant Thornton released a joint report on ‘RERA: How are you gearing up for compliance’ that brought forth several interesting facts. The map below represents the data about project registrations and complaints across the country.