Rera, GST hit developers; realty launches could dip this festive season

Launches to come down 25-30% in second half of 2018 in Mumbai

New real estate launches could come down by 10-30 per cent on a yearly basis in key residential markets such as Mumbai, Gurugram and Bengaluru in the coming festive season.

The reason is compliance with the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act of 2016. Rera, as it is referred to, makes it mandatory for developers to register their projects with the Rera Authority, put 70 per cent of project proceeds in an escrow account and prohibits all pre-launches, a popular way of raising initial funds for developers.

There has been a 17 per cent decline in the number of new launches since