Ministry accepts panel report on RERA Bill

The Housing Ministry has accepted a parliamentary panel’s recommendation on the real estate Bill that bars developers from diverting more than 50 per cent of money collected from a buyer to other projects.

According to reports in the media, the ministry has also agreed to the recommendation to empower state governments to make the provisions stricter and increase 50 per cent threshold but not lower it .By the original Bill, even states are allowed to lower the limit.
In a move to ensure smooth sailing of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill in Parliament, the Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry has accepted all 38 recommendations made by the 21-member Rajya Sabha Select committee which submitted its report last week.

Among the other accepted recommendations is a provision that all housing projects on more than 500 sq. metre would have to register with the proposed real estate regulator. The original Bill had fixed that threshold at 1,000 sq. metre.

The Bill pending since 2009 covers both residential and commercial real estate and proposes setting up of a real estate regulator to which developers would have to disclose all information such as layout plan, time schedule, status of statutory approvals, etc.