New Realty Bill to bring brokers to task, protect home buyers

The upcoming Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill has one vital input that aims at protecting the interests of home buyers. It will bring real estate brokers into the ambit of the regulations, with those brokers providing wrong information facing the risk of punishment.

The ministry has also agreed to remove the minimum threshold area clause from the Bill that would have left a large part of the realty sector unregulated.

"In many cases it is the brokers who misrepresent the facts. So, it is not completely fair to penalise just developers. After consultations with various stakeholders, the ministry is planning to bring even brokers under the ambit of the law," a senior government official from the ministry of urban development told MAIL TODAY. According to sources, the ministry is also working on preparing guidelines for the brokers to ensure best practices.

"Also, we are planning to remove the minimum threshold of 4,000 square metre," the official said.


"The draft Bill in its current form has some serious flaws. For example, the minimum threshold for regulation is set at 4,000 square metres of land, which is too high," Vakil said.

"This will only cover larger projects and townships and will leave a substantial part of the development and the smaller developers unregulated. Where would the consumers of such projects go for redressal," Vakil added.

In the earlier draft the Centre had set the minimum threshold as 1,000 sq mt. However, it increased this by four-fold later.

According to sources, the ministry is already talking to various stakeholders and is in the process of giving final touches to the Bill.

The government is set to push the Bill through during the upcoming Budget session of Parliament.

Extensive consultations have also been lined up to ensure that the Bill can be introduced soon.

Courtesy: Mail Today