Realty regulator on the cards

The government is considering the establishment of a real-estate regulator to address the complaints of consumers and builders.

Such a regulator might first be set up in the national capital, New Delhi, in six months, Jaipal Reddy, urban development minister, said at a conference in Mumbai on Thursday.

"We plan to set up a quasi-judicial regulator in big cities,'' Reddy said. It will be based on "a model legislation that may be emulated by other states''.

The government's move comes as property buyers have been complaining of fraud and other issues, amid a real-estate boom in the world's fastest-growing major economy after China.

India's real estate sector is forecast to grow almost eight-fold to $90 billion by 2015 from $12 billion in 2005, Moody's Investors Service had said.