Mumbai: The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA), established on May 1, 2017, has completed four years today. Developers believe the setting up of RERA has really helped the industry in improving its image which was suffering for the last several years. The leading real estate developer Niranjan Hiranandani also National President of NAREDCO, said, “RERA has created an ideal platform for all stakeholders in real estate; it provided the implementation part of enhanced transparency and accountability as regards residential real estate transactions. Over these four years, we have seen real estate as an industry gain from RERA; and all stakeholders, including project finance and home finance organizations, get the advantage of digital monitoring of projects. This has played a major role in enhancing the speed of home loan sanctions and disbursals, which has augured well for the industry."
Anand Gupta, chairperson, Housing and RERA committee of Builders Association of India (BAI) said, it took 70 years to get a regulator for the real estate industry. "Definitely MahaRERA has helped bring new changes in the sector. Confidence among financial institutions, developers, builders and other stakeholders is built. Going further, it is now intending to educate real estate agents which never happened before anywhere in the country. However, there are certain aspects that need to be improved. Like MahaRERA has the power to impose penalty on a developer for doing irregularities/unable to give timely possession of flat to homebuyer however, on a broader scale until the approving authorities such as central agencies, local bodies, municipal corporations among others are not made accountable under RERA these common problems/complaints cannot be fixed. Secondly, attaching entire project of a developer for failure to pay property tax for instance, only affects the project work. Homebuyers have to suffer. Therefore, RERA should have powers that no governing authorities can issue stop-work notice and mandatory permission of should be required for taking such actions."
Currently, over 29,000 real estate projects are registered with MahaRERA. Of which 76% projects are incomplete. Also, 29,189 real estate agents are registered with MahaRERA as per the data available on its website dated April 30. Gupta asserted that there are several such projects which are registered with MahaRERA but no update has been filed by builders from past several years. Such abandoned and incomplete projects should be handed over to new developers.
Similarly, MahaRERA in four years of its existence received over 14,000 complaints. Of which in 9,219 complaints (66%) orders have been passed and 4,812 cases (34%) are in stage of hearing.
Rohit Poddar, Managing Director, Poddar Housing and Development Ltd & Joint Secretary, NAREDCO Maharashtra said, "RERA has acted as a catalyst in remodeling the functionality of the real estate industry. The introduction of new reforms to protect homebuyers' investments in the event of developer fraud has strengthened the home buyer’s confidence in the sector even further. MahaRERA has effectively reduced builder and home buyer disputes over the last four years, and with digital advancement, RERA has simplified the due diligence process for homebuyers, making their home buying experience more seamless."
