Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants
Why RERA is still not a nation-wide market force
Many state governments have been lax in implementing RERA. There are various forces at play – the primary one being an aversion to change.
RERA was conceived to change the entire status quo of how real estate is designed, developed and sold in India. It intends to put paid to fly-by-night players – both developers and brokers – who have held the real estate market to ransom all these years.
While the larger organized developers and consultancies have welcomed and embraced RERA for the transparency and regulation it brings to the market, the unorganized segment – players who are not happy with RERA because it seriously impacts their questionable business models – far outnumber the organized one.
In a democracy, the ‘majority vote’, whether spoken out loud or implied by lack of cooperation, wields weight. This majority vote is slowing down the process of RERA’s nation-wide deployment in the shape and to the extent which the Centre intends. Moreover, individual states also have always had the right come up with their own set of rules.