The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) has tied up with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) to identify developers advertising projects without registering the project with the real estate regulatory body.
The collaboration, a first by any real estate regulator in the country, is aimed at protecting homebuyers who may decide to buy or invest in properties that are yet to be or not allowed to be sold for any specific reason.
As per the agreement between the regulator and ASCI, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be utilised to detect advertisements published without MahaRERA registration number and QR code.
“Developers are not permitted to advertise unless the project is registered with MahaRERA. Whenever we have observed any advertisements without a registration number, we have initiated ex officio penal action against such erring developers. Now, having a QR code on the advertisements is also mandatory, to enable home buyers to access project’s detailed information at a single click,” said Ajoy Mehta, Chairman, MahaRERA.
According to him, the regulator cannot ignore the new age media, where newer avenues of advertising are being created. Thus, MahaRERA is taking help of ASCI and experts in the field to identify and prevent such misleading or incomplete advertisements across any medium.
For this, a core group will be formed to track, monitor, and evaluate such advertisements and eventually bring it to the notice of MahaRERA. This is also the first time any realty regulator in the country is making use of AI to monitor and identify errant promoters of real estate projects.
As per the RERA Act, any projects including plotted developments of over 500 square meters or 8 flats must be registered with the MahaRERA. Without the registration number and a QR code no developer can publicise or market or sell any property in the project.
ASCI is a voluntary self-regulatory organisation in the advertising sector committed to protection of consumer interests across media of newspapers, television channels, social media, websites etc.
“MahaRERA has succeeded in instilling confidence for a housing project to have a MahaRERA registration number, which is a sign of safe investment. MahaRERA is trying its best to ensure that this trust does not get breached… and the latest move will certainly help in curbing misleading and incorrect advertisements,” he said.
Since last year, MahaRERA has been initiating Suo motu action against advertisements published without a registration number and QR code.
The ambit is also being expanded on to the new age media apart from the traditional ones. The regulator is of the view that the area of action should be expanded further and include all advertisement sources and mediums and hence a decision was taken to collaborate with ASCI.
