Panaji
Top players in Goan realty Friday maintained that the Real Estate Bill passed by Rajya Sabha Thursday is expected to clean up the system.
This is because the bill is aimed at making builders more responsible towards buyers. But, they lamented that the bill doesn’t talk about making government departments more responsible towards real-estate sector in terms of transparent and speedy approvals.
CREDAI's Goa unit President, Dr Jagannath (Desh) Prabhudessai, said, “The bill is a healthy sign, as it is will result in good relationship between the builder and the buyer. Builders in Goa are already following a lot of regulations in the bill. For instance, we mention carpet area in the agreement we have with buyers. We even mention what all, like common passage, lift and staircase etc, we include in the super built-up area”
In many states of India, builders keep the agreement ambiguous by using words like “loading” in the agreement, which doesn’t clearly talk about the carpet area. Prabhudessai said such practices aren’t followed by most builders in Goa.
The bill talks about builders quoting prices basis carpet area and not super built-up area. Moreover, the bill defines carpet area as ‘net usable floor area’ of an apartment, excluding the area covered by its walls, which makes it very difficult for builders to include common facilities like garden, gym, stair-case in the carpet area while selling the flat to buyer.
The bill also says that builders will not book any flats unless they have taken all regulatory approvals.
KulaSekhar, designated partner, Milroc, said, “Yes, definitely, the real estate bill will clean up the system. But, the bill hasn’t said anything about making government departments more responsible towards the real estate sector”
Making government departments more responsible would have helped because often they take a lot of time for approvals which ultimately ends up increasing the cost of project. But, these are still early days.
The bill will go to the Lok Sabha and only when passed by it will it become law. But even then, various state governments will have to formulate their own real estate law based on central government’s law. It is expected that this whole process will take around six months.
The bill requires builders to deposit 70% of the money they receive from buyers in a separate bank account through cheques thereby allowing them to use the remaining 30% for whichever purpose they deem fit. Builders opined that this is a good move as it will make sure that money received from buyers will only be used for project, but will pose operational problems in the short run. Until now, most builders don’t maintain such level of discipline while dealing with money received from buyers.
