Promoters of all existing ongoing housing projects and new ones registering with the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) will have to cite their membership details of Self Regulatory Organisations (SRO) like NAREDCO, CREDAI or MCHI when they register their projects from December 1 onwards, according to a circular issued by MahaRERA.
To ensure all promoters follow the RERA regulations and regularly update their information disclosed on its web portal, MahaRERA had, last month, co-opted developer bodies like NAREDCO, CREDAI and MCHI as Self Regulatory organisations (SROs) into its working to ensure that their members follow a code of conduct, bring greater professionalism among promoters and curb fraudulent practices. The SROs were registered with MahaRERA under Section 34 of RERA, which empowers it to regulate real estate projects and ensure compliance of their obligations by promoters.
The SROs will have the principal responsibility that its members comply with all provisions of RERA, rules and regulations and orders issued by MahaRERA from time to time. It will have to ensure that any information disclosed on MahaRERA web portal regarding their projects shall not be false or misleading.
MahaRERA amended a clause in Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority Regulations to make the membership of any SRO mandatory. “With effect from December 1, 2019, every promoter applying to MahaRERA for registration of their real estate projects shall have to mandatorily disclose their membership details with a MahaRERA registered SRO,” said MahaRERA secretary Vasant Prabhu in the new circular issued by him.
MahaRERA has the highest over 22,000 real estate projects registered with it, and ensuring that they update information about their projects every quarter regarding the progress of their projects is not an easy task. Many promoters believe that RERA registration is a one-time activity valid till the end of the project and ignore the information updates they need to give buyers to ensure full transparency.
MahaRERA believes that self-regulation through SROs help promoters internalise RERA principles and lead to more ethical and professional behaviour from developers, increase transparency from promoters, boost confidence of consumers investing in real estate, and enhance compliance with regulations.
“We have created a dual membership only for MahaRERA registered projects which would be separate from our normal membership, and we have reduced the fee for this membership to just Rs 5,000 to encourage more and more promoters to register with us,” said NAREDCO Maharashtra president Rajan Bandelkar.
Ashok Mohanani, Chairman, EKTA World and Vice President, NAREDCO, said, “This is yet another method to bring in structural change by the government which will lead to rightful and timely compliance. Only 5,000 developers have complied out of 22,000, which is abysmal.”
Rohit Poddar, Managing Director, Poddar Housing and Development Ltd, said, “Accredited developer associations play a pivotal role in not only being an enabler in inducing government in framing the progressive policies but also helping developers in addressing challenges they might be facing. Despite meaningful interventions by the policy makers, slow inventory off-take is still a concern at large. This announcement is a perfect formulation of ecosystem to bring all the stakeholders together and bring the change in the industry.”
