Maharashtra
The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority has decided to give developers a second chance to complete delayed projects after the usual extension of a year, provided over 50% customers of the property concerned agree to it.
Vasant Prabhu, the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) secretary, said an order was issued last week to give genuine developers a second chance to complete a stalled project if the consumers were willing to wait. He said, “The extension is subject to consent of more than half the flat buyers and a time-frame would be set.”
Prabhu said, “We were getting complaints of delay in project execution. With this order, consumers can take a call on if they want to continue with the project. If more than 50% consumers agree, we can give an extension to the developer.”
Nearly 90% of the complaints registered with the MahaRERA are regarding delay in execution of projects. State president of Credai Shantilal Kataria said the order would not only benefit the consumers, but also the developers.
“It is neither easy for a consumer nor a developer to cancel a project. Given more time, genuine developers will complete projects within the time-frame decided by both the parties,” said Kataria.
The real estate sector faced a rough patch in the past two-three years. It is slowly on the recovery path. Property consultants closely monitoring the market stated that the real estate sector was set to grow this year.
“The issue of stalled projects and liquidity crisis continued to confound the housing sector last year though it continued its transition into a relatively more transparent and end-user driven market,” said Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock Property Consultants. He added that builders were extremely cautious about launching new projects to align supply with the existing buyer demand.
Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP) – the consumer forum taking up the issues of MahaRERA from the inception-welcomed the move of giving a say to the consumers but stressed that the authority should have specified that the “association of allottees” should be appointed after 50% booking of flats in a project was done.