Pune: Less than a week from the deadline, a majority of the developers from Pune district have failed to register their ongoing projects under the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA). As of Tuesday, only 307 projects from the district had been registered under the RERA owing to delay in signatures from stakeholders.
Speaking to Sakal Times, a developer from the city and CREDAI, Pune Metro, President Shrikant Paranjape said of the 3,000 under-construction projects in the district, only 300 have been registered. “It is sad to see that very fewer projects, around 10 per cent, have been registered under the RERA so far. We have been pushing all CREDAI members to register themselves for the last month and a half.
Yet, the number remains very low,” Paranjape said.
Commenting on the issue, Belmac Director Vidip Jatia said, “RERA is a major policy change for the entire real estate sector. Most the developers in the country weren’t ready for the enforcement of RERA due to the number of projects developed by them in different micro markets, having different challenges in each. The Act compels developers to amend their systems and processes to be much more compliant, transparent and accountable. The major hurdle has been to understand the Act, as it has to be looked at from both legal, accounting and marketing perspectives. With various clarifications coming in regularly from the Maha RERA office, developers have been understanding the rules and Act in depth. This has been one of the major reasons for the low registration. Another reason for the delay was a doubt in their mind that if errors were made during registration, will the developers be able to amend the same? All these systemic changes have been the reasons for slow registration.”
Adding to this, Paranjape said, “Many developers are facing problems with the draft of the project agreement. Land owners or landlords have been tagged as co-developers under the RERA. A majority of the projects are pending for registration, as they have been unable to obtain signatures from the landlords, who are sceptical about the RERA and the project. Developers are worried about the same.”
He said the excess workload on consultants, architects and engineers has also led to delays. “Consulting architects and the likes have to provide certificates to developers for the RERA registration. However, in light of the excess workload, many architects and engineers have been unable to provide the certificates. This is another cause for the delays in the registration process,” he said.
Paranjape said with just a few days remaining for the deadline, the number of registrations under the RERA are likely to double on a daily basis. “Registrations may also continue in August. The main restriction for projects not registered under the RERA is on advertising of the project. If the developer is fine with not advertising, they can register the project after the deadline,” he said.
