New Delhi: A bill seeking to regulate the&nbsp;real estate sector, bring in transparency and help protect&nbsp;consumer interests was passed by the Rajya Sabha today.&nbsp;
Moving 'The Real Estate (Regulation and Development)&nbsp;Bill, 2015' for consideration and passage, Urban Development&nbsp;Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said it aims to protect the&nbsp;interests of buyers and bring more transparency in the sector.&nbsp;
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The Congress had extended its support to the Bill, which&nbsp;was passed by a voice vote in the House. It is touted as a&nbsp;major reform measure to regulate the vast real estate sector&nbsp;and bring order in it.
"The Bill is need of the hour," Naidu said, responding to&nbsp;clarifications by members saying it can see further changes in&nbsp;the coming times. He also sought the support of AIADMK&nbsp;members, who had opposed the measure.
He said the bill would prohibit unaccounted money from&nbsp;being pumped into the sector and as now 70 per cent of the&nbsp;money has to be deposited in bank accounts through cheques.&nbsp;
"There will be no discrmination of any kind on basis of&nbsp;religion, region, caste, creed or sex and gender and we will&nbsp;include that in the rules," Naidu said, responding to members'&nbsp;clarification, adding "there has to be single-window clearance&nbsp;for all approvals."
The Bill also provides for imprisonment of up to three&nbsp;years in case of promoters and up to one year in case of real&nbsp;estate agents and buyers for any violation of orders of&nbsp;Appellate Tribunals or monetary penalties or both.&nbsp;Naidu said it proposed that a minimum of 70 per cent&nbsp;collections from buyers should be deposited in separate escrow&nbsp;account to cover cost of construction and land.
It will help establish state-level Real Estate Regulatory&nbsp;Authorities (RERAs) to regulate transactions related to both&nbsp;residential and commercial projects and ensure their timely&nbsp;completion and handover, the Minister said.&nbsp;
Appellate Tribunals will now be required to adjudicate&nbsp;cases in 60 days as against the earlier provision of 90 days&nbsp;and Regulatory Authorities to dispose of complaints in 60 days&nbsp;while no time frame was indicated in earlier Bill, he said.
"It brings in only a regulation and not strangulation.&nbsp;This Bill is not against anyone...Real Estate Bill will renew&nbsp;investors' confidence and ensure timely completion of&nbsp;projects and create more opportunities. In this way, it will&nbsp;help in achieving the target of 'Housing For All'," he said.
"Government has done its best to accommodate the views and&nbsp;suggestions of various stakeholders and different political&nbsp;parties in the matter. It is our collective responsibility to&nbsp;protect the consumer, encourage the developer and ensure&nbsp;orderly growth of the sector," Naidu said as he sought support&nbsp;of all sections for passage of the bill in the Upper House.&nbsp;
He said the objective of 'housing for all' can only be&nbsp;achieved if construction sector is supported to grow orderly&nbsp;in an atmosphere of mutual trust and confidence, credibility,&nbsp;efficiency, accountability and transparency and timely&nbsp;execution of projects.
Real Estate sector is the second largest employer in the&nbsp;country, next only to agriculture and accounts for about 9 per&nbsp;cent of GDP and the construction sector supports 250 ancillary&nbsp;industries.
"Such an important sector, over decades has been marked by&nbsp;lack of trust and confidence between the consumers and project&nbsp;developers. In the process, this sector has acquired certain&nbsp;notoriety, adversely impacting investment climate and hurting&nbsp;the interests of lakhs of home buyers every year," he said.&nbsp;
Naidu said about 10 lakh people buy houses every year with&nbsp;an investment of about Rs 3.5 lakh crore. As per available&nbsp;information for 27 major cities including 15 capitals, 2,349&nbsp;to 4,488 new housing projects were launched every year between&nbsp;2011 and 2015.
"Thus in these 27 cities during these last five years, a&nbsp;total of 17,526 projects were launched with a total investment&nbsp;value of Rs 13,69,820 crore.&nbsp;
"Delay in implementation of housing projects due to lack&nbsp;of transparency and accountability has been the bane of real&nbsp;estate sector in our country. This results in huge cost and&nbsp;time overruns, resulting in increased cost of houses. This is&nbsp;a matter of serious concern in the context of every citizen&nbsp;aspiring to own a house of his or her own," he said.
But for reasons like lack of regulation in this sector,&nbsp;the consumer has been reduced to a state of helplessness, he&nbsp;said, adding "the consumer shall be the king as had happened&nbsp;in sectors like telecom after a regulatory mechanism was put&nbsp;in place. There is an imperative need for consumer to be the&nbsp;king in real estate sector also.
"When there is a king, there got to be a queen also. The&nbsp;queen obviously is the developer. And there shall be a happy&nbsp;marriage between the king and the queen, for both to live&nbsp;happily ever after.&nbsp;Naidu said a total of 76,044 companies were involved in&nbsp;the real estate sector, which has unfortunately been seen in&nbsp;poor light on account of unscrupulous activities of some&nbsp;developers.
The Bill provides for registration of all real estate&nbsp;projects with Regulatory Authorities to be set up, requiring&nbsp;developers to disclose project information including details&nbsp;of the promoter, project, lay-out plan, land status, status of&nbsp;approvals, agreements along with details of real estate&nbsp;agents, contractors, architects, structural engineers.&nbsp;

The Real Estate Bill, pending before parliament since 2013, which aims to protect the interests of property buyers from unscrupulous promoters and regulate the real estate sector.&nbsp;was on Thursday approved by India's upper house of parliament

Rajya Sabha passes Real Estate Bill

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Rajya Sabha passes Real Estate Bill

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