Regional workshop on RERA in Delhi on Thursday

The Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry is holding a workshop in the national capital for home-buyers, agents, real estate developers and bankers from northern states on Thursday, officials said.

States expected to be represented at the November 15 workshop include Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Punjab, Haryana, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT) and Union Territory of Chandigarh.

The ministry had held similar workshops in Pune and Chennai in September and October, respectively.

Titled 'A New Era of Transparency and Accountability in Real Estate — 2 Years of Implementation and Way Ahead', the workshop will be held in Vigyan Bhawan.

“It has been two years since RERA was implemented. Home buyers are yet to fully benefit from it due to which a sense of frustration has set in. At the conference, both the Housing Ministry and RERA authorities will get a chance to hear home buyers’ side of the story on a common platform. It is also important that participants are informed much in advance so that they come prepared and share their experience. After the workshop, key takeaways should be looked into and shortcomings bridged so as to reinfuse confidence about RERA among buyers,” says Abhay Upadhyay, president, Forum For People's Collective Efforts.

The Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry is planning to hold a workshop in Ranchi next month for home buyers, agents and real estate developers from eastern and north-eastern states, ministry sources said.

The conference will be held on December 15, sources told Moneycontrol.

In the northeast, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim have not notified the legislation due to land-related issues.

West Bengal has notified its own version of the Real Estate Act — the Housing and Industrial Regulation Act, 2017 (HIRA). The ministry has asked the state government to repeal it as there cannot be two legislations on the same subject.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 was enacted two years ago. As many as 13 states and Union territories have appointed a permanent regulator, while 14 have interim regulators. Kerala is in the process of setting up a regulator. As many as 22 states and Union territories have functional web portals under the law.

As many as 32,923 real estate projects have been registered under this legislation across the country. Also, 25,247 real estate agents have been registered under it. Barring West Bengal, six northeastern states and Jammu & Kashmir, all states and Union territories have implemented its provisions.

Vandana.Ramnani@nw18.com