CREDAI and President Pankaj Bajaj Eldeco Praise RERA, Despite its Issues

May 1, 2017, witnessed the commencement of RERA (Real Estate Regulation and Development Act) in India, which has helped the common man to make relevant bookings with builders and is also going to provide with more empowerment to the consumers. RERA has been widely acknowledged all over the country by real estate experts. Mr Pankaj Bajaj Eldeco, President of CREDAI is in support of the RERA and says:

"CREDAI was always in favour of RERA because the act will be instrumental in separating the authentic players from those who will not be able to deliver on promises. While the RERA does have teething issues, it is in motion and over a period of time, things would settle down for the benefit of the real estate industry as well as for the buyers."

Some major salient features have been introduced by the RERA. Basically, RERA is a central act but land is a state subject and the Constitution allows when it's a state subject. The state has the authority to decide about it, so the rules for it are supposed to be under the state governments and however RERA is a central act, the states can input some operational rules in it. Also, every state has to appoint a regulator on it, which would regulate over the disputes amongst buyers and builders on the state.

Up till now, when a buyer went to buy a home, it was sold by the developer on the basis of the super-built-up area which included common area, stairs, and balcony but when the house was delivered, the carpet area left was much smaller. RERA has made it mandatory that the builders now can sell house based on the carpet area alone. Earlier, builders usually did not obtain the necessary clearance from the government bodies etc. and yet would start selling the project first. RERA makes it mandatory that the builders cannot start selling their projects till they get all the necessary clearances from all the required bodies. The only disadvantage here could be, that after the implementation of the RERA, the time taken by the government bodies could take too long, thus causing an administrative delay in delivery. Also, if any builder has launched a project and if he is gaining profit out of it, then the RERA bestows that for every project the builder has to open another separate account for it specifically. They cannot diversify that profit and use it to build another project, assuring consumers that their homes are going to be built and delivered.

Consumers have braced RERA with open arms and do hope that it makes investments in real estate hassle-free.

Pankaj Bajaj is the Managing Director OF Eldeco Group. He has received several awards acknowledging his and Eldeco's contribution in the field of construction and housing. He is an Mba from Iim, Ahmedabad.