Real estate regulatory bill is discriminatory say developers

Property prices likely to go up

Chennai:

The real estate developers on Wednesday said the new real estate regulatory bill, which has been cleared by the Union Cabinet, is discriminatory and buyer centric and this would increase the cost of homes.

The president of Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India, Tamil Nadu, and managing director of Devi Narayan Group N Nanda Kumar said that the bill has targeted developers while failing to look into the issue holistically.

He said that the CREDAI already has mechanisms in place as it follows the ethical practices. He said the bill should bring in all the stake holders, including the regulatory authorities as well as financial instutions, to be successful.

T Chitty Babu, chairman and chief executive officer of Akshaya Pvt Ltd said that the bill could only succeed  if the intent of the bill is synchronized encompassing all four major stakeholders – the developer, the financial institution which is lending money to both developer as well buyers, the government authorities administering statutory approvals and providing public infrastructure facilities and the end customer.

Kumar said that with the bill the cartelisation by manufacturing sector like cement industry would be diluted but then this will also add one more licence mechanism. “The biggest challenge would be how to insulate it from corruption,” said Kumar.

He said the sector doesn’t have an industry status and for any project to get approval it takes three to four years, now with the bill, the real estate developers would now be at the mercy of bureaucrats.

But Babu also felt that the Ganesh Vasudevan, chief executive officer of IndiaProperty.com, said that the bill being buyer centric won’t be accepted in totality by the real estate developers.

However, he felt the bill will help buyers have more clarity on the exact area they are paying for and will also have a say if they are mislead by the project advertising. The attempt is to streamline the sector, with different bank accounts for each project hopefully the projects will face lesser execution delays and developers will stick to the advertised specifications and plans.