For millions of Indians, owning a home is the culmination of a lifetime of savings, sacrifice and hope. Yet, in a country where real estate has emerged as one of the most visibly thriving sectors, the dream of a secure roof over one’s head is too often reduced to a nightmare of deception and despair. The recent sharp observations of the Supreme Court on the functioning of Real Estate Regulatory Authorities (RERAs) provide a fitting peg to examine how a mechanism meant to protect homebuyers has, in many places, failed them.
Travel anywhere in India today, and the skyline tells a familiar story: high-rise apartment towers, gated villas and sprawling townships mushrooming not only in metropolitan cities but also in mofussil towns and even villages. State housing boards, once active builders of affordable housing, have largely retreated into the role of land developers, parceling out plots to private builders and housing societies. Newspapers and television channels are saturated with glossy advertisements promising world-class amenities and “dream homes” that appear irresistible to middle-class investors.
The grim reality for homebuyers
But the reality behind these promises is frequently grim. Homebuyers often find themselves the most exploited stakeholders in the real estate boom. There are countless ways in which they are cheated: poor construction quality masked by attractive brochures, discrepancies between promised and delivered built-up areas and post-possession assurances that vanish as quickly as they were made. In extreme cases, unscrupulous builders have sold the same flat to multiple buyers and absconded, leaving victims entangled in endless litigation.
Equally alarming are instances where apartments are handed over without mandatory approvals from local self-government agencies. In Kerala, the Supreme Court had to order the demolition of five apartment complexes in Kochi that violated coastal regulations, wiping out the life savings of hundreds of families.
RERA under scrutiny
It was against such a backdrop that RERAs were established across states to regulate the sector, ensure transparency and provide speedy grievance redressal. However, the Supreme Court’s remarks on Thursday in a case concerning Himachal Pradesh suggest that these authorities may be falling far short of their mandate.
The Bench, led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, observed that RERAs were doing “nothing except facilitating defaulting builders” and went so far as to say that the Court would not mind if the institution was abolished. The judges noted that the very people for whom RERA was created feel “depressed, disgusted and disappointed” by its ineffectiveness.
This indictment is not merely a comment on one state’s authority; it raises troubling questions about the regulatory architecture governing India’s real estate sector. Reports of RERAs becoming post-retirement havens for bureaucrats, lacking technical expertise and empathy for homebuyers, only deepen public distrust. When institutions meant to deliver justice appear to side with violators, the erosion of faith is inevitable.
