Govt plans common platform for RERA of all states, UTs; move to help buyers

The Centre has planned to set up a common online platform for the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) of all states and UTs, a move which will provide an opportunity to home-buyers, builders and authorities to exchange views.

Announcing the government's plan here, Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said that with this platform, the real estate law will become "more strong".

Under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, all states are mandated to constitute their respective real estate regulator RERA which provides proper protection to home buyers.

"We are working to introduce a common platform where RERA of all states and Union Territories (UTs) can exchange their views. With this, RERA will be more strong," he said.

According to the ministry, as per the norms of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), home-buyers will not be able to avail Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) under the mission if real estate project is not registered under RERA.

Under PMAY (U), home-buyers can avail an interest subsidy of upto 2.67 lakh.

Later, Mishra told reporters that on the online platform, any state RERA can study an order of other states in a particular matter. Also, home-buyers and builders can give their views on this issue.

Giving details about real estate projects on the fourth anniversary of PMAY (U), AMRUT and Smart Cities Mission, the secretary said that till now, over 42,000 projects have been registered under RERA while more than 32,000 real estate agents have been registered.

On his part, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that wherever the central real estate law has been implemented, it has made a "very big difference".

RERA is a real estate regulator and it gives an opportunity to home-buyers to register their complaint against builders, Puri also said.

Mishra said that 30 states and UTs have notified RERA, but West Bengal has notified its own real estate regulator -- Housing and Industrial Regulation Act, 2017 (HIRA).

In July last year, the ministry had sought the opinion of the Law Ministry over West Bengal notifying its own real estate law instead of implementing the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act enacted by Parliament.