In 2023, 1,702 real-estate projects registered with the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) have lapsed, owing to delays, according to data provided by the authority.
With this, more than 7,700 projects have lapsed since the inception of MahaRERA in May 2017.
This means real-estate developers cannot advertise, market or sell apartments in these 7,700 projects.
What is a lapsed project?
Every real-estate project, which is registered with MahaRERA, is given three to four years or more for completion. After this, a registration number is issued for the project.
The registration number is to be published by the developer in every advertisement or promotion activity. However, a project is termed as lapsed when the timeline given for completion is not met, and the developer has not applied for an extension despite the project being incomplete.
Once the registration of the project is declared lapsed, the developer cannot advertise, market, book, sell or offer to sell, or invite people to invest in these projects. Such projects cannot be registered by the Registrar of the revenue department, according to the provisions of the RERA Act, 2016.
Year-wise data
According to MahaRERA, in 2017, a total of 66 projects had lapsed, 342 in 2018, 783 in 2019, 624 in 2020, 1,341 in 2021, 2,845 in 2022, and 1,702 in 2023. This takes the total number of lapsed projects to 7,703.
What is MahaRERA doing?
The MahaRERA had, in June 2022, launched a special vertical for lapsed projects that are stuck owing to several reasons.
Over the past 16 months, the lapsed project vertical of MahaRERA has issued several notices to developers to come forward and ensure the stuck projects get on track.
“We have issued notices, divided projects into several buckets, issued non-compliance notices over non-uploading of quarterly progress reports (QPRs) and so on. Action is happening as we speak. We are also in the process of issuing notices to developers who do not upload QPRs on the MahaRERA’s website,” said a senior MahaRERA official.
The MahaRERA had, in February 2023, announced dividing projects into four groups, according to their current status. The first group includes projects that can be completed without compromising the rights of home buyers.
The second contains those where there is a need to reconcile developers and home buyers. In the third group are projects that require the MahaRERA’s intervention due to certain issues with local authorities or lending banks. And in the fourth category are projects in which the developer is missing and home buyers can complete the project by replacing the developer.
Grading of developers
MahaRERA had announced, on September 4, that it will start grading real-estate projects in the state from April 2024. This, MahaRERA maintained, will help homebuyers make informed decisions.
The grading matrix will be updated every six months of the financial year. The first quarter that will be considered for grading of projects will be October 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024.
The MahaRERA has set several parameters based on which grades will be given. One is based on the information uploaded by the developer on the MahaRERA website, followed by other parameters like technical details about the project, financial declaration about the project, bookings made, legal complications, complaints filed against the developer in a particular project and the overall project overview compliance etc.