“We had reserved a 550-square-foot one-bedroom flat in Malad in 2011. The developer and I reached an agreement for the project in 2014, and we were supposed to take possession in June 2015. However, because of the delay in possession, we requested a refund from MahaRera. The refund order for Rs78 lakh was issued in April 2019. However, the wait continues “He stated.

Seth, who has been transferring between the Mumbai Suburban Collectorate and the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) authorities to complete his work since 2019, stated, “The revenue officials had previously stated that they would be unable to carry out the order due to the Covid pandemic. Neither the revenue officials nor the MahaRERA authorities have moved. The tehsildar was told to complete the order by the end of 2019. However, nothing happened.”

A resident of Pune stated that the developer from whom he purchased the property had agreed to settle the amount to be paid to him after he obtained the recovery warrant. “However, the builder has yet to meet with us. The auction has been halted, according to the revenue authorities. In the absence of follow-ups from either MahaRERA or profits authorities, many recovery warrants end up in cold storage. The aggrieved homebuyers are made to go the rounds in search of a favorable order “said the customer.

According to data on the MahaRERA website, 773 recovery warrant orders from 13 of the state’s districts have been issued against 302 projects in the state until August 2022. The total recovery warrant amount for these projects is Rs729.7 crore, with the highest recoveries and listed projects coming from the collectorates of Pune, Mumbai, Thane, and Raigad.

According to an official in Pune, 10 recovery warrant orders have been issued. Five of these orders have entered the settlement stage. As a result, the process did not proceed to the auction stage, according to the official. Five orders had to be returned to the MahaRERA authorities because “the properties could not be traced for auction,” according to the official.

According to Ramesh Prabhu, chairperson of the Maharashtra Society Welfare Association, revenue officials must initiate the recovery process under the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966. According to him, the collectors must start the process and forward it to the tehsildars.

“This takes years, and homebuyers are once again forced to approach the HC to file a writ petition and have the order executed within a reasonable time frame. This is not possible for everyone who has used their life savings and borrowed money to buy a home “He stated.

Last week, the Bombay High Court issued contempt notices to Mumbai suburban district administration officials for failing to comply with earlier orders to execute recovery warrants against promoters of a Malad project (West).
Manjunath Kakkalameli, a practicing HC advocate, stated that Section 40 (1) of RERA was not as impactful as the rules and orders recommended under civil or criminal procedures. “Large orders are held, and the revenue department places less emphasis on RERA orders. Provisions for recovery are only on paper unless there is a good recovery mechanism in place “He informed TOI.

The post Customers are irritated by the slow execution of MahaRERA recovery orders. appeared first on .

The conference was presided over by Sanjiv Kumar Mittal, the state’s infrastructure and industrial development commissioner.

The developers representing Credai and Naredco were requested to submit a new payment plan to the two authorities during the meeting. For quite some time, the stakeholders have been debating the problem of delayed flat registration. The July 15 meeting was the third in seven months to break the impasse.

The deadlock is about the rate of interest imposed on developers by the two bodies for late payments. While the government has agreed to an 11% interest rate compounded every six months, the builders refused to pay the amount.

As a result, the authorities have stalled the registration of units, putting purchasers at a disadvantage. The case has made its way to the Supreme Court.

“While we await the Supreme Court’s decision on interest payment, we will develop a policy after seeking legal advice. In the interim, developers have been urged to come up with a payment plan,” Mittal added.

The developers will submit a new payment plan to the authorities in the coming days. “Our prior representations have not been accepted by them. However, we have received assurances from the commissioner that a resolution would be reached soon,” said RK Arora, President of UP Naredco.

According to officials, the builders would compute the land price and interest separately. The land premium will be determined based on the period of allocation, while the interest component will be calculated at the rate of 8% simple interest.

Until the Supreme Court rules on the interest rate, the developers have urged Mittal to enable the registration of units in accordance with the amount they pay. Buyers who have been stranded for years have demanded that the state government help immediately. “We’ve been hearing about a solution for the past year and a half. However, little has changed on the ground. Nobody has shown any commitment to fixing the issue,” Dinbandhu Nayak, a buyer of the property at Civitech Stadia in Sector 79, said.

The post Builders are requested to provide a payment plan for the authorities in Noida and Greater Noida. appeared first on .

It has removed a 2019 GR which, several developers have said, was unworkable. Now developers would not be expected in order to obtain a redevelopment NOC to deposit large amounts in escrow accounts. They just have to deposit 10% in a nationalized bank in the form of a bank guarantee or fixed deposit at the ready reckoner rate of the total construction site proposed.

On 8 March the State Housing Department dismissed a controversial Government Resolution (GR), passed in September 2019 that stopped the redevelopment of these structures and issued new rules on redeveloping ceased buildings that are governed by Mhada.

Several developers pointed out that the redevelopment of the Mhada buildings had halted since the old GR set some impractical conditions for builders to reconstruct them. One of these was that any constructor who wanted to rebuild an abandoned building would have had Rs 10-50 crore turnover in three years. Another condition was that 500 houses were built by the builder to be eligible for redevelopment in a cessed building.

“If the property owner develops the property or the housing society himself then no previous experience in the construction must be demonstrated. If the owner is a developer, then some standards of previous development experience will exist. This is also applicable if the owners or landlords sign a redevelopment agreement with the builder,” said an official.

Redevelopment of dilapidated cessed buildings were stalled by 2019 GR. The new rules are an inviting move. While redevelopment conditions are relaxed, a timebound plan for redevelopment needs to be in place. Mhada must ensure that residents’ complaints are resolved promptly and that developers are penalized for postponing delays post issuing of NOCs. In parallel, Mhada must strictly regulate and monitor construction quality.

Mumbadevi Congress MLA, Amin Patel, said it was a good decision to break the GR and to issue new guidelines. “The redevelopment standards must be relaxed and builders must be concessionary in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Patel.

Officials of Mhada have said that the city has about 14,000 cessed buildings, many of which need to be redeveloped urgently. A cessed building pays a cess or tax which constitutes a repair fund. They belong to private property owners and are regulated under the Bombay Rent Control Act. Most of the structures go from the pre-independence era in South and Central Mumbai.

The post State Housing Department Relaxes Rules for the Redevelopment of Cessed Buildings in Mumbai. appeared first on .

In order to accurately map land areas across the district, the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has launched a survey using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology.

The method of land demarcation will be modernised. The decision was made after officers of GMDA were informed of illegal land invasions, which they were not aware of.

Marking of the monuments on every 500 metres will be part of the process. With the GIS-enabled technology, all encroachments and land scams will be determined by the authorities and elected officials.

“This will help us keep an eye on the land of GMDA and eliminates intrusions. It will provide an insight into the ways to conduct an anti-intrusion campaign against invasive individuals. So far, we’ve done it manually, but now the information would be technology based,” said GMDA, CEO, V.S Kundu.

The official said the survey began a few weeks ago and is expected to be finished shortly. Officials from GMDA said land demarcation would help them understand district-wide revenue records.

In addition to the land survey, the process also tends to lead to an online district record of GMDA land. The official said the main objective will be timely action against the invaders and the end of any obstacles that could prevent invaders from freeing land that can only be done with precise land registrations.

The post GMDA initiates Geographical Information System to prevent land scams. appeared first on .

Soon, students in Gujarat and those coming from other states will be likely to take advantage of rental homes at a much cheaper price than the market price. The Gujarat Government is expected to announce its latest Affordable Rental Housing Complex (ARHC) scheme within a week or two.

Under the ARHC program, the organization is expected to using vacant houses of the Gujarat housing board and other arrangements through private entities, under the Public-Private Partnership model (PPP).

Vacant houses would be granted to the developer or property management company on a fixed rental basis in which firms will rent them to the Lower Income Group (LIG), the Economically Weaker Section (EWS), students and others.

Similarly, the government also has a different model, in which the developer may develop his project and build housing as specified. In this scenario, the developer will also get 50% more FSI free (Floor Space Index) with no charge. Thus, helping in reducing the overall cost of the construction.

The developer would, however, have to seek regulatory permission for rental to be cheaper than the existing market cost.

Lochan Sehra, Urban Development and Urban Housing Secretary, remarked: “The central government has formulated the ARHC scheme and the state government is looking forward to replicate it in Gujarat.”

In the opinion of real estate analysts, if the government had approved heavy subsidies for development in this category, the scheme would have been worked stronger.

The post Government is expected to announce its latest Affordable Rental Housing Complex (ARHC). appeared first on .

ICRA expects the combined sales volume of the completed and under-structured inventory to decrease by 40-60% due to Covid-19 for the current year. The preference for a completed inventory is therefore expected to continue to favour developers with a greater share of these projects.

It anticipates that expenditure on ongoing projects will decrease by approximately 30% in FY21 due to the pandemic. The development of the project had also been affected by decreased labour force participation and disruptions in the raw material supply chain, which are attributed to ongoing localised lock-downs on services which are not essential.

New launches, which were already in decline since the focus on deliveries was increased, are likely to be delayed further.

In the Year 2021, ICRA expects consumer collections to decrease by approximately 35%-40%. Committed receivables from booked orders were also affected because payments based on milestones were postponed because of the previous halt to construction work. Projects for the self-funded segment were more likely than the home-loan-funded segment to experience a disruption in collections as banks also pay the developers.

Pay cuts/employment losses, in some situations, led to the re-assessment of purchaser credit score by HFCs, thereby affecting incremental payouts. The sharp decline in home loans will, however, to some degree boost housing demand, with the interest rate for the first time in 15 years falling below 8%, the company said.

The post ICRA predicts overall real estate inventory to decrease by 40-60%. appeared first on .

Though the lockdown hasn’t prevented queries regarding new houses, developers at Hyderabad say most prospective customers are now calling with additional requests — from a higher discount rate of somewhere between 15% and 20% to compensation schemes, if they want to withdraw the deal later on. Another common request: relaxation in payment schedules.

“We get a decent amount of calls per day for our three projects up for sale but far fewer than average. At least 50% of these possible customers ask us to ease payment schedules after the deal has been concluded. And that’s predicted as everybody is now careful regarding their finances,” said Tapas Patel, CEO of Om Sree Builders and Developers, a prominent Secunderabad real estate company.

Though working to satisfy this request, Patel says giving a discount is not an option at least before all sectors recover. Developers all over the city consent. Reason: The uncertainty of building a higher rate once the lockout is released. Industry insiders claim they still get feelings towards an upward revision in the price of cement, steel and other raw material, shortly after the market resumes.

“It is going to take a toll on the builders anyway. But giving discounts, more than what is normally offered is out of the question, no more than 2% to 5%. The profit margins are now quite low,” Manbhum Constructions director Ashwin Rao said. He’s confident the city’s residential market should start looking up gradually but progressively in the next six months.

The post Homebuyers demand an additional discount along with ease payment schedules. appeared first on .

Special guidelines and legislative measures will soon be issued for the real estate industry, including the Real Estate Legislative Act (RERA), to counter this crisis, said Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Housing and Urban Affairs.

“We are caught in an unimaginable scenario that has engulfed the whole world in its grip. In these critical days, we need to take action to help us restore our economies and all industries and business sectors. We need to look at the circumstance for the long-term benefit of both our workers and the country,” he said.

Mishra has been in discussion with, Rajeev Talwar, Chairman, Naredco, Niranjan Hiranandani, President, Naredco, Ashok Patni, Vice President (Central), NAREDCO and Parveen Jain, Vice President, Naredco, among others.

The minister said he was having discussions today via a video conference with 2,600 real estate developers throughout the country.

“We addressed some problems that are prominent during the lockdown and steps being taken to overcome those issues. I would like to thank all ministry officials and numerous developers and stakeholders who have come forward as responsible people to lead their workforce and look after them properly,” Mishra said.

NAREDCO has sought $200 billion through government relief to ease the COVID 19 impact. It has also demanded that all NCLT operations be stopped for the next six months. The aim is to have a breathing room for firms who have suffered massive losses owing to quickly falling stock prices, which has left high net worth businesses vulnerable to foreign investors taking control, the consequences of which may be disastrous for India.

The realtor’s body has also recommended partially lifting the lockdown on the construction site to start the work while observing all the guidance issued by the government to ensure people’s safety.

The post Housing Minister: Real Estate will soon get special regulatory measures to get restored the industry. appeared first on .

Britain’s construction industry experienced the sharpest decline in activity following last month’s financial crisis, a survey revealed on Monday, despite seeing far less pressure than other sectors that are affected due to coronavirus pandemic lockdown.

Also reported last week’s figures from financial data provider IHS Markit and the Chartered Institution of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), indicating the British business sector as a whole is shrinking at the highest pace in more than 20 years. 

The construction Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) plunged to 39.3 in March from 52.6 in February, its lowest since April 2009 and way below the average forecast of 44.0 by economists. The 13-point monthly decline has been the highest since the survey started in 1997, and the index is expected to worsen.

“The industry is trapped in quicksand and sinking more,” said CIPS group director Duncan Brock.

Britain’s government did not allow general construction activity to reduce the spread of coronavirus – unlike its order for most shops and restaurants to remain near to the public, and for workers in many industries to stay home if possible.

Nevertheless, IHS Markit said construction firms recorded stoppages last month when they sought guidance to keep staff 2 meters apart where they might be safe to do so, as well as a significant decrease in new orders.

“The survey respondents commented widely on concerns about the feasibility of proceeding with current projects as well as starting new work,” said Tim Moore, IHS Markit economist. “Meanwhile, construction supply chains are expected to concentrate primarily on providing vital activities such as infrastructure maintenance, safety-critical remedial work and public service support in the weeks ahead,” he said.

Last week, for the manufacturing and services industries, IHS Markit’s composite PMI fell to its lowest record at 36.0 in March, and Monday’s all-sector edition including the construction industry was also a record low at 36.3.

The post PMI: UK construction industry experiences the steepest decline in activity in March 2020. appeared first on .

The Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) has provided a deadline extension for all residential buildings throughout the city, taking into account the lockdown declared by the state and the union governments. Much of the mass exodus of migrant workers who decided to return to their hometowns before the coronavirus outbreak, the continuing construction projects had come to a halt.

“The supply chains for construction materials have been affected owing to the lockdown and the workforce may have moved back to their home states. It will take some time to resume work for real estate projects throughout Karnataka under these conditions,” said the circular issued by KS Latha Kumari, secretary at K-RERA.

The authority has extended the deadline by three months for all RERA approved projects whose completion date (including the amended completion date) expires on or after March 15. The time period for all statutory enforcement pursuant to the 2016 Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act and the rules and regulations — due in March, April and May — is extended until June 30, 2020.

“All complaints listed before the K-RERA and the adjudicating officer for hearing until April 14 have been postponed except in the urgent cases. That is to keep away litigators, lawyers and visitors from gathering together. In any situation, the next date of the hearing will be posted on the website of the authority,” the circular said.

More than 3,800 projects are currently listed under RERA. Such projects which are not registered with RERA and fail to reach their own deadline to complete the work would incur penalties from the regulatory authority.

MS Shankar, Forum for People’s Collective Efforts secretary said the extension was appropriate. “We have absolutely no objections. However, the state government would also have been considered with respect to home buyers by asking the builders not to put stress on the monthly payments,” he said.

The post K-RERA allows three months deadline extensions on all RERA projects. appeared first on .