MahaRERA to step up regulatory oversight of housing projects in the State
Mumbai Metropolitan Region accounts for half of the residential market in terms of value, while Mumbai also has the highest number of stalled and lapsed projects
Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) plans to make regulatory oversight of residential projects more stringent and intends to ensure that home-buyers get their houses within the stipulated time while having access to information about the status of the project during construction.
Former BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta, who took over as the chairman of MahaRERA in 2021, has been cracking down on erring developers to protect the interests of home-buyers. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region accounts for half of the residential market in the country in terms of value, while the State also has the highest number of stalled and lapsed projects in the country.
Mehta has made it mandatory for all developers across the State to update the status details of their projects on the regulator’s website every three months, while they also file annual financial statements with the regulator.
Strict regulatory oversight
Mehta, while speaking at a real estate conference organised by CII, said that the regulator is introducing more changes to ensure compliance and transparency. “We have chosen the route of strict regulatory oversight,” he said.
He made it clear that registration numbers for projects would be provided only after due diligence. Projects are now assessed based on financial, technical and legal parameters. Consequently, the pace of launches has slowed with regulatory approval taking more time.
Quarterly returns filed by developers would be subjected to thorough scrutiny, he said, adding that it was not compliance for just form’s sake. “We will scrutinise and analyse the returns.” The regulator is especially identifying projects where registrations are still valid but “things are going wrong.”
There are projects worth about ₹90,000 crore in the State, whose registrations are still valid but there is no information about the status of the projects.
The regulator has an entire team in place for undertaking this exercise. He said that financial scrutiny of ‘red flagged’ projects have also started. Over 300 such projects have been identified in the State so far on the basis of their financials such as expenditure and project completion status.
Earlier this month, the State housing regulator issued show-cause notices to about 16,000 developers for not complying with regulations such as displaying registration numbers, updating project status and so on.
Source - thehindubusinessline.com
