Maharashtra RERA blacklists 644 residential projects

MahaRERA, the authority under Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, in Maharashtra, has blacklisted 644 housing projects in the state for not meeting project deadlines.

The authority has prohibited them from being sold, advertised or marketed in the state.

These projects were supposed to be completed and handed over to homebuyers in 2017 and 2018.

Even though most of the projects are being developed by local developers, one big name on the list is Lavasa Corporation promoted by HCC whose registration expired in 2017.

"The validity for MahaRERA registrations for the following projects has expired.

"The promoter shall not advertise, market, book, sell or offer for sale, or invite persons to purchase in any manner any plot, apartment or building, as the case may be, in any of these projects," MahaRERA said in a recent notice.

As much as 43 per cent or 274 blacklisted projects are in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), followed by 29 per cent or 189 projects in Pune; rest 28 per cent  or 181 projects are in smaller cities, including Nagpur, Nashik, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Satara, Ratnagiri, and Sangli, said a report by Anarock Property Consultants.

At least 85 per cent or 547 projects are small-sized, with average of 70 units per project.

"Unfortunately, 80 per cent of the units in these 644 projects are already sold out. Of the total 644 projects, 16 per cent were to be completed by 2017, while 84 per cent had 2018 as their completion timeline," it said.

Anuj Puri, chairman, Anarock Property Consultants, said, “This move by MahaRERA sends out a strong signal to errant developers who have being delaying projects incessantly.

"Homebuyers have been waiting to get possession since 2017 or 2018."

Puri said no clarity has been given by MahaRERA on how and when these projects will be completed.

MMR has at least 496 projects (launched in 2014 or before) that are either delayed/stuck as on date, while Pune has nearly 171 delayed/stuck projects.

As on date, 29,884 real estate projects have been registered under MahaRERA in the state, of which 24 per cent or 7,245 projects are already completed.

Maharashtra was the first state in the country to implement the RERA Act from May 2017 and set up a RERA Authority.

Bureaucrat Gautam Chatterjee was made first chairman of MahaRERA.

In February this year, Ajoy Mehta, the principal advisor to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, was appointed the chairman of MahaRERA.

Maharashtra is the frontrunner with the maximum number of projects and agent registrations, setting a high benchmark for other states to emulate.

As of July 4 2020, Maharashtra saw the registration of 25,604 projects and 23,999 agents.

Housing sales in Maharashtra saw a spurt in the third and fourth quarters of the financial year 2020-21 after the state government cut stamp duty paid on property transactions.

It was cut to 2 per cent till December last year and 3 per cent till March this year.

Another report by Anarock earlier this year said 65,539 cases have been disposed of by state RERAs as of April 24.

Quoting data by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, it said of these, nearly 40 per cent (about 26,510 complaints) were resolved in Uttar Pradesh alone, followed by Haryana with 13,269 cases and Maharashtra (9,265 cases).

The three states cumulatively accounted for nearly 75 per cent of the total disposed cases under RERA in the country.