Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Provide relief to home buyers' that was published in Newsband

Provide relief to home buyers

The homebuyers need to be given enough confidence by coming up with right laws related to real estate. As per a survey conducted, about 10 lakh buyers invest every year in a house, a total of 76,044 companies are involved in the real estate sector and a total of 17,526 projects were launched between 2011 and 2015 with an investment value of Rs.13.70 lakh crore.

Considering all these facts, a disciplinary legislation that regulates the haphazard functioning and the presence of unscrupulous operators in the real-estate business needs to be introduced. The Bill will also bring in a sense of comfort and feeling of security to homebuyers. Compulsory registration of any project of the size of 500 square metres in size or involves eight apartments, a separate escrow account to park collections, greater clarity in the definition of carpet area, a tighter penalty norm for structural defects in construction, a mandatory consent clause for changes in construction plans and other such provisions will go a long way in boosting consumer confidence.

There should be penalty provisions, including imprisonment, for contractual failures on the part of a builder. In fact, there should be a complete clean up of the real estate sector. There should be improvement in the trust quotient.

The Real Estate industry is unregulated, builder and real estate agent don't keep their promises in most cases. Delay in possession, land dispute and unsatisfactory delivery of inventory are some of the common problem in the industry. Introduce laws that will force the builders to provide all the information of a project so that the home buyers can confidently invest in the property.

As the Real state sector is growing day by day and it is also a great part of GDP,

passing of a real state bill is good course of action.

The basic need of the buyer is a reasonable price to the buyer and that definitely includes the unreasonable costs in built which are known to all but could not be divulged. These costs are due to moving the papers to get approvals and certificates which are actual expenses but also interest costs due to inordinate delays in approval. The time gap between completion and getting written approvals is considerable. It is high time the government did something drastic to provide relief to all the home buyers.