Mumbai, July 7, 2017: The real Estate industry will benefit from time-bound construction permits prescribed by the government, and if such deadlines are not adhered to, then MRERA can pull up such officials, said Mr Gautam Chatterjee, Chairman, Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MRERA), at the 9th Edition of CII Realty and Infrastructure Conclave, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
“Once these (realty sector related) services are listed under the Maharashtra Right Services Act, they have to be delivered in a time-bound manner. We can pull up such officials who fail to adhere to these norms, under section 32 of the MRERA Act,” Mr Chatterjee said.
MRERA has the authority of a civil court to summon anybody, name and shame them like any competent authority does, Mr Chatterjee added, while discussing the ‘force majeure’ clause under MRERA rule number 6, which allows circumstantial exceptions to certain rules for builders.
Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA) that was aimed at bringing transparency and accountability in the real estate sector, has come into force on May 1, 2017. Till now, about 312 builders have opted for registration under RERA even as the month-end deadline is fast approching. “We are expecting over 15,000 builders to register by month-end,” said Mr Chatterjee.
Responding to a query, Mr Chatterjee has ruled out any extension in the deadline for registration of builders beyond July 31. Stating that the penalty for non-compliance with RERA regulations is ‘heavy’, Mr Chatterjee exhorted builders to get themselves registered soon. In fact, reputation for the registered projects will get enhanced for the customers feel safe to invest in such projects, on the impression that the project will be completed in time, MRERA chief added.
Allaying fears of the real estate sector on inadvertent errors that may creep into the registration process, Mr Chatterjee, said that the regulator was planning to provide a window for making corrections for certain obvious errors in the builders’ data.
Mr Abhishek Lodha, Managing Director, Lodha Group said that the industry was at an inflection pint and the size of the industry will leapfrog to $350 billion in 10 years from $120 billion at present. Stating that all the delays are not due to lack of financing, he said that builders have to improve their operational efficiency to be able to tap the emerging opportunities.
Drawing parallels from the phasing out of old cars and new cars proliferating in the passenger vehicles segment since 1991, Mr Niranjan Hiranandani, Co-founder and Managing Director of Hiranandani Group said that only specialists will survive in different segments.
Discussing the enormous opportunity offered by the Prime Minister’s ‘Housing for All’ initiative to builders, Mr Hiranandani said, “Even if the industry is growing at 35 per cent per annum till 2022, we can hardly fulfil 50 per cent of this dream.”
Mr Neel Raheja, Co-chairman, CII National Committee on Real Estate and Housing, and Group President of K Raheja Group, highlighted the need to focus on urban housing in the wake of the prospect of 350 million people moving from rural areas to urban centres in the next 10 years, mainly to Tier-I and II towns.
Stating that it was the right time to buy real estate in India, Mr Ramesh Nair, Chairman, CII Realty and Infrastructure Conclave and CEO & Country Head, JLL India said, even the builders are changing their strategies adapting to changing dynamics.
“Nobody wants to stick to land banking, overall ticket size has come down, deleveraging is the name of the game, launches have come down and focus has shifted to completion of existing projects, and profitability has found its level at 15 per cent, coming down from 40-50 per cent earlier,” Mr Nair said while listing out the strategic changes.
Rishi Bagla, Chairman, CII Maharashtra State Council and Director OMR Bagla Automotive Systems India Ltd, said that the new regulations are expected to establish transparent, credible and attractive real estate sector in India.
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and JLL India earlier had jointly unveiled two incisive research reports at the Conclave. ‘2017: The Inflection Point of Indian Real Estate’ released at the conclave, provides a comprehensive analysis of the major real estate policies in 2017 and examines the impact of technology and other market forces shaping the Indian real estate industry this year and going forward. The other report is ‘Co-working Report’ prepared by CII, JLL and WeWork.