RERA Website: Purchasing property made easy

Buying a property or your dream house is one of the biggest decisions of your life. Not a mere decision, but one of the milestones of your life. When you leave no stone unturned in saving your hard-earned money and planning how would your home look like, why leave the decision of buying the right property for someone else?

A Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act has come into effect as the first-ever real estate regulatory authority. July 31, 2017, onwards, any existing residential project or a new project that is more than 500 sq. meters or has more than 8 apartments, needs to get registered with the real estate regulator of its state or union territory though the deadline has been extended to August 31, 2017, in some states like Goa, Karnataka, UP, etc. But to be eligible for registration, these developers need to provide all the details related to the project and put them up on the regulator’s website for public visibility. This is a major step taken towards solving a lot of issues regarding the unorganized information of the sector which used to make well-informed investment decisions difficult, distorting the transparency. This article will explain the RERA website offerings and how these can be beneficial for you before taking a sound decision of purchasing a property.

1. Availability of properties in the territory:

As you are done with the decision of shortlisting the areas or locations where you want to buy a property, RERA will help you find out the options available there. Say, you want to buy an apartment in Greater Noida, UP. You will have to log into your state’s RERA website and click on ‘Registered Projects’ under the ‘Registration’ tab. The next step is to choose ‘Advanced Search’ and enter all the details required such as your desired developer, the locality you have chosen, etc. If need be, you can search at the level of division, district, taluka, or even a village of the market in which you are looking for a property. Result: A list of registered projects in your selected locality will be displayed on your screens through just a few clicks.

2. Full details of the developers:

Finding a reliable developer, in this previously unconsolidated sector of real estate, is among the most important factors for a homebuyer. As you get the list of projects displayed in front of you, click the project’s name you are interested in and you can view all the details of the respective project and its developer. From the address of the developer to its track record in the market, you have access to it all.

3. Details of the particular project:

Since a detailed information is submitted by the developers for all their registered projects, you can choose your desired project of the particular developer you are interested in. Knowing the accurate details—such as approved plans, project layout, carpet area, etc. to name a few—will become an added perk for your purchase decision. A lot of such details were difficult to unfold earlier. Homebuyers can find the complete set of documents related to the registered projects, right from approvals to application for occupancy, along with the expected deadline of the project completion with just one click. It is now also possible to know the details about the sale of a project, which was a lot of effort earlier.

If you are planning to buy a house in an under-construction project, it is beneficial to know the number of units booked as well as the remaining ones. This would also keep a track on the demand and interest of buyers in a particular project. Also, a real estate agent will not be able to deceive you into a hurried decision, stating that only a few units are left.

4. Details of agents:

With RERA implementation the possibility of homebuyers being misled by real estate agents with untrue claims about the project will be drastically reduced. Earlier, the agents were not held responsible as they were not bound to get their projects registered. In fact, the services of a real estate agent were not even considered a formal process in most cases. Under RERA, they too have to register with the regulatory authority. Therefore, on the website, you can also find out the names of real estate agents who are accountable for particular projects.

This is how it works – when you will apply to buy a particular property or a unit in a project through a real estate agent, he needs to mention his registration number on the application form. You can verify the same on your RERA state website and penalties can be levied in case any agent makes false promises or statements.

5. Current scenario:

Currently, the Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have launched their respective state websites. However, in comparison to the Maharashtra’s RERA website, other websites are not fully equipped with information on developers, projects, and agents. A few of the states are yet to form their regulator and the website; as was stipulated in the Real Estate (regulation and development) Act, 2016.

With this initiative of consolidating this unorganized sector of Real Estate, things have become much easier for the homebuyers of our country. A detailed information access to what you are getting into will not only be beneficial for you to find a property, keep a track of the progress of your purchase but will also help to identify loopholes and false statements that were quite prevalent in this domain before this paradigm shift.