Would meet Rera deadline, say developers and investors

"80% of projects would be uploaded by July 31 and rest by Septt, " Runwal Developers' director said

Big real estate developers and property fund managers are hopeful of meeting the July 31 deadline to register all their projects under the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, or Rera.

On Wednesday, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court told a group of developers to comply with the deadline for Rera after a Nagpur-based developer sought an extension. “It is a new regulation and developers are finding it difficult to adhere to it. These are the last few days and a lot of ground has to be covered. But I feel developers of descent size and scale will be able to meet the deadline,” said Sharad Mittal, head, real estate fund at Motilal Oswal Real Estate. He said it is a regulation and everyone has to follow it. 

“I think 80 per cent of the projects would be uploaded by July 31 and rest by September,” said Sandeep Runwal, director at Runwal Developers, one of the largest real estate developers in Mumbai. 

He said, at his company, 70 per cent of projects had been uploaded on the Rera website and the remaining would be done before the deadline. If developers do not register their projects, they cannot sell them and penalty can go up to 10 per cent of projects costs. 

The Rera also stipulates 70 per cent of the cash proceeds to be put into an escrow account and bans pre-launches, a popular method to garner initial funds for construction. Gautam Chatterjee, chairman of the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority, said that developers “do not have a choice”. 

He has already said show-cause notices would be sent to those who don’t register their properties before the deadline ends. Developers’ associations such as Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (Credai) had sent advisories to its members to register. 

“Some developers are trying all sorts of gimmicks to avoid it. But they have to do it to avoid problems later,” said Vijay Wadhwa, chairman of Wadhwa group.Chatterjee said he expects a rush of applications in the last few days to the deadline.