RERA authorities clear over 1 lakh cases in 5 yrs

Hyderabad: After more than five years since its implementation, the Real Estate Regulation and Development Act (RERA) has made remarkable progress in addressing consumer complaints across different States and UTs.

Data available with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs indicates that so far, 1,00,949 cases filed under the various State iterations of RERA have been disposed of by these authorities as of 8 October 2022. Of these, 72 per cent cases (72,979 complaints) were resolved in the last three years, which include the Covid-19 pandemic.

Taking the lead, Uttar Pradesh's UP RERA saw as many as 40,559 cases disposed of by so far - against a mere 11,596 cases in October 2019. Haryana comes a distant second with 20,539 cases disposed of, against just 2,480 cases in the corresponding period of 2019. Still going strong but no longer in the pole position, MahaRERA has so far disposed of 12,507 cases.

Anuj Puri, Chairman – Anarock Group, says, "Still nowhere close to saturation effect but showing 'real' progress, the RERA has been visibly fulfilling one of its key functions – resolving homebuyer grievances. As per official data from MoHUA, the respective RERA authorities of various state and UTs have addressed more than a lakh consumer complaints."

"While this is impressive, it is also true that there remains a big question mark with regards to 100% resolution," says Puri. "At the end of the day, RERA still lacks sufficient execution powers – a fact which the Supreme Court has also expressed apprehensions over. Meanwhile, the pandemic did not break the pace of project and real estate agent registrations over the last three years."

Amounting for an impressive 109 per cent growth in last three years, about 94,513 projects have so far been registered under RERA to date, from 45,307 on 8th of October 2019. The States with maximum project registrations are Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

Together, these states account for a significant 83 per cent share with 78,258 registered projects. Maharashtra still tops the list with approx. 38,229 project registrations. While it leads in terms of disposal of cases, UP has seen the lowest growth of 22 per cent in project registrations in the past three years. In October 2019, it had 2,710 registered projects while number stands at 3,304 projects now.