Amit Pant
It has been 3 years of RERA and things have been changing in the real estate sector for good at a faster rate. The foremost thing that has happened is the buyer confidence has increased and they are now only going for the developers of repute, who have lived in delivering quality projects on time. Now, buyers also know that they have a platform to complain about the errant developers and hence they are less skeptical about investing. And when the rotation of funds takes place with regular sales the sector will move towards fulfilling the dreams of millions of Indians.
Apart from weeding out the non-serious players, it is also bringing in the trust factor back in the sector. Most of the states have implemented it and are working tirelessly to improve their role. In UP, the work is going on at the war front and many complaints of buyers are being addressed. There is also talk of setting up a separate for Delhi NCR looking at the size of the state and humongous work being done in Delhi NCR alone.
Vikas Bhasin, MD, SAYA Homes said, “In these last three years, RERA has come out as the force that has to be reckoned with. In fact, in the last one year, RERA has disposed of around 60 per cent of the complaints. Uttar Pradesh leads the way with 18,509 cases disposed of; Haryana is second with around 9,919 cases disposed of; Maharashtra is third with around 7,883 cases disposed of.”
Harvinder Singh Sikka, Managing Director Sikka Group said, “A very strong statuette, RERA has the power to enforce orders. There are cases in consumer courts that have taken 5-6 years, and RERA resolves it within 100 days. It has emerged as a platform that provides knowledgeable people resolving your problems. RERA has brought in a positive change and is a work in progress. It brings in a lot of positivity in the projects and international investors have taken good experience because of RERA. Real estate is now run by professionals and managed by professionals.”
Dhiraj Bora, Head Marketing and Communication, Paramount Group said, “Millions of customers know that if they have a problem they know where they have to go. The advantage is that RERA does not only listen to the buyers but also the problems being faced by the developers and convey these problems to the right channels or authorities. The advent of RERA is a game-changer, and consumers take it as recourse if something goes bad. In the longer term, the much-needed bridging of the trust deficit has been achieved by RERA and there is a long way to go. Many developers were suffering from a reputation crisis because of the handiwork of a few and now the overall image of the sector has improved significantly post RERA.”
However, work needs to be done in bringing authorities under the ambit of RERA. It is of utmost importance as delays also happen because of the long time taken by the authorities in sanctioning and granting permissions. Similarly, banks and financial institutions should also come under RERA as many initiatives are announced by the government but timely disbursal has not taken place, for example, the government launched a stress fund of Rs 25000 crore but till now not even Rs 250 crore has been disbursed. So, it is still at a nascent stage but the impact it is having on real estate is tremendous.
