HOME BUYERS’ INTEREST
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Assam will set up a permanent Real Estate Regulatory Authority and an interim tribunal by January 30 next year to protect interest of home buyers.
The regulatory authority to be set up by the State will frame regulations and rules as per the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA).
The RERA came into effect on May 1, 2017, exactly a year after it was passed by Parliament. As per the central legislation, developers, projects and agents have to mandatorily register their projects with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority. Any unregistered project would be deemed to be unauthorized by the regulator.
Once the Real Estate Regulatory Authority is constituted in the State, real estate builders and developers will not be able to sell residential or commercial units in a project, ongoing or new, unless those are registered with the regulatory authority.
The RERA also calls for mandatory registration of real estate agents and calls for developers to set aside 70 per cent of the funds collected from buyers in a separate escrow account to ensure that projects are completed on time.
The decision to set up a permanent Real Estate Regulatory Authority and an interim tribunal by January, 2019 was conveyed to Union Minister of State (independent charge) for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Puri by the Assam Government officials during a review meeting on progress of urban missions in the Northeast in Agartala on Saturday.
Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and Sikkim have established interim real estate regulatory authorities. The Assam and Tripura governments have notified the Centre about their progress in terms of implementation of real estate regulatory authority rules. However, interim real estate appellate tribunal has been established in Tripura only.
Puri, who chaired the meeting, said the RERA, 2016 is a landmark legislation aimed at protecting the interest of home buyers. All states in the Northeast need to urgently implement the Act so that its benefits reach all stakeholders, he said.
According to Puri, construction of more than 2.3 lakh houses have been sanctioned for the urban poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY-Urban) in the region in the past four years. Construction of about 1.16 lakh houses have already been started.