Commercial realty flouting rules

Chennai is a conservative market driven by end-users. Precisely for this reason, the city's residential real estate largely steers clear of illegal constructions. However, it doesn't hold true for the commercial real estate segment in the city. Experts point to the fact that when the state government recently ran a regularisation drive for illegal constructions done before July 2007, as many as 28,000 buildings went through the procedure to get a legal status.

"Residential projects, especially that of the established real estate developers, generally fall in line with the regulations. It is the commercial constructions that are flouting the rules," says Arumugam Shankar, local director (strategic consulting) at real estate consultant firm Jones Lang LaSalle India.

Shankar points out that most violations relate to additional construction activities by individual owners, who develop their property for their own business activities. "If you look at T Nagar, traditionally a busy shopping place in the city, a large number of commercial buildings violate some or the other norms."

His views are echoed by T Chitty Babu, chairman and CEO of Akshaya Pvt Ltd and chairman of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India committee overseeing the code of conduct and consumer grievance redressal forum. Citing violations regarding floor space index in T Nagar, Babu says it is not the developers who are to be blamed but the individual owners who develop the building on their own.

Other than T Nagar, the mushrooming constructions at the Old Mahabalipuram Road and similar fast-growing areas also allegedly violate norms. Illegal constructions include adding extra floors in violation of what is allowed in the approved plan, not leaving proper setback - the minimum distance to be maintained between any portion of any building and a right-of-way boundary - and in case of commercial building, not leaving adequate parking space.

While the residential sector is better off compared to the commercial segment, there have been instances of minor violations by small-time developers.

The state has conducted 'regularisation' drives twice in the past decade, under which builders could convert their illegal construction into legal property by remitting a fixed fee. However, only certain kinds of violations could be regularised through this route. According to experts, these cover buildings violating the FSI, setback and road width norms. Once regularised, the government puts in place proper infrastructure, including water supply, drainage system and other amenities, for the regularised area.

"The regulatory bodies should periodically update the master plan and other documents and be vigilant on the developments happening in the city," says Shankar.

However, according to Babu, there is no need to tweak regulations or bring in new ones. What is missing is proper implementation of these laws, he feels.