75 to 80 percent of ongoing real estate projects do not upload status reports: MahaRERA

Picture of the panel discussion organised by Naredco on February 17. (Photo credits: NAREDCO)

The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) has said that around 75 to 80 percent of ongoing registered projects in Maharashtra do not regularly upload quarterly progress reports on the project status and finances. Owing to this, the complete data pertaining to a particular project was unavailable in the public domain on the MahaRERA website.

The above was shared by Sanjay Deshmukh, Nodal Officer for MahaRERA's lapsed project vertical, during a panel discussion on February 17 organised by the National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO), the apex body of real estate developers.

Deshmukh said that in the last two months MahaRERA had issued notices to developers regarding 19,000-plus real estate projects that do not comply with this requirement.

According to MahaRERA data, over 21,500 projects are underway currently and close to 40,000 have been registered in the last six years.

Deshmukh said, "As per the RERA Act, a developer is supposed to submit quarterly and annual reports. However, for about 75-80 percent of the ongoing projects, quarterly reports were not uploaded. We have issued notices and developers have begun the compliance process."

Related stories

Mehul R Thakkar

Special Correspondent|Moneycontrol

• 
  New players have entered Mumbai real estate market and we welcome their presence: Abhishek Lodha
• 
  Mumbai real estate market records 9% rise in property registrations this month
• 
  MahaRERA tells developers to declare parking space details to homebuyers

He added, "We have also anticipated that developers may find it difficult to upload reports for the last four to five years. Hence, we have directed them to upload only the latest report. This essentially means that for the years starting from 2017 to 2022, developers were required to upload 16 or 20 reports, but now we are asking to upload only one report. We are not levying any penalty, provided developers comply. We can also give more time for compliance, if required by the developer."

Also read: MC Explains | The difference between RERA-registered, 'approved' and compliant projects

Need clean data to frame policies

Speaking to Moneycontrol on the sidelines of the panel discussion, Deshmukh added, "If we are to regulate or frame policies we need clean data. For instance, we have around 2,808 projects that are showing zero bookings. Now, whether it is true or not depends on the quality of the data the developer has uploaded.

"In the case of annual reports that are required to be submitted by developers, out of about 62,000 annual reports that were to be submitted in the past six years, only 13,000 were uploaded. However, after issuing notices an additional 5,000 reports were uploaded. This shows it is not a difficult task and the compliance will gradually increase."

Should MahaRERA make local bodies accountable?

During the panel discussion, Sanjay Dutt, Managing Director, Tata Realty, raised the issue of delays by of local bodies or authorities in issuing occupation certificates, commencement certificates, etc.. which impacts the developer. He asked whether the MahaRERA was planning to hold the local bodies accountable?

Replying to this Ajoy Mehta, Chairman, MahaRERA said, " That is not our mandate. We are not going to monitor whether occupation certificates and commencement certificates come on time."

Also read: MahaRERA investigators to begin project site visits from Feb 20 over irregularities

Real-time project status
Mahesh Pathak, Member, MahaRERA said, "We are working towards strengthening our IT systems to make it more real-time. This will help us reflect the correct number of stressed or lapsed projects at any given point in time. "

Also read: MC Exclusive: 38% of delayed real estate projects in Maharashtra launched after MahaRERA’s creation: data

Compliance likely to pose challenges?

Dutt highlighted that the quantum of institutional funds flowing into the real estate industry has been growing at an exponential rate (leading to a growing volume of projects, and compliance). This scale of compliance was likely to be a challenge for both developers as well as the regulator.

“The industry is likely to attract investments of around Rs 3 lakh crore over the next three to four years. This money will be flowing from private equity investors and local lenders,” Dutt added.

Niranjan Hiranandani, Vice-Chairman, NAREDCO, appealed to the regulator to speed up the approval process. “The regulator needs to address several issues. For example, if there is a recession in the economy that leads to a delay in project completions, how do we handle that?” Dr. Hiranandani asked.

Also read: MC Exclusive | Over 50% projects tagged ‘ongoing’ since MahaRERA, still await completion