RERA has failed to exude confidence among homebuyers: Report

Over 80 percent of consumers are of the view that there has not been much change in the property buying experience despite enactment of the new regulatory mechanism, according to a pan-India survey by Track2Realty.

RERA provisions have been diluted by some states and there have also been instances wherein there is a mismatch in the timelines laid down in the developer’s agreement of sale and those shared with RERA, the survey revealed.

The survey was aimed at assessing the awareness level of home buyers with regard to RERA and understanding the extent to which the new legislation has brought about a change on the ground.

The Track2Realty Best Practices Report 2019 surveyed buyers in 20 cities – Delhi, Gurugaon, Noida, Ghaziabad, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Bhopal, Raipur, Lucknow, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi and Coimbatore between November 1 and November 20, 2018.

Projects worth Rs 4.64 crore comprising 5.75 lakh units are already significantly behind schedule. These have been stuck since 2013 or before, the report notes.

It cites examples of projects in Uttar Pradesh where developers have given arbitrary fresh completion deadlines under RERA to escape penalties. In Karnataka, projects that are 60 percent complete have been exempted from RERA purview, it notes.

Similarly, in Mumbai, a Chembur project has extended the delivery date from December 2017 to 2022.

Home buyers allege that the contract the builder has signed with them has a different completion date from the one submitted to RERA. In another instance, the deadline for a redevelopment project in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai has been pushed back from 2017 to 2022.