Real Estate Bill: Who protects the Builders?

New Delhi: Real Estate Bill has brought cheers to lacs of buyers all across the nation. The bill has been pushed to bring more transparency and boost the morale of the Byers community but the question is that, are all problems for buyers alone? Aren't the developers suffering from their own share of problems? 

There are a few alarming aspects that need to be highlighted about the bill. Yes, it does endeavour to protect buyers from unscrupulous builders who sell them apartments. And not just real estate, it's for any other sector as well that there would always be a mix of good and bad. So who protects the builders? 

A builder can go to jail for delays in completion or handing over of a project to buyers. There could be builders who delay just because of bad planning or other frauds and they should be punished. But what if the delay is purely because many of the government approvals that need to come after the project construction has started or when project is completed, do not come in time.

Should the approving authorities not be made accountable for this delay and be brought to book in such cases. And we have seen many such cases in the recent past.

If the project gets delayed for whatever reason, or if the builder is imprisoned, it’s eventually the home buyer who has to suffer. His wait for his dream home then gets longer. He just wants his house. Period.

So here’s a plan. The government has been talking about a single window for real estate project approvals for ages. It is even working on one as I write this and we know it’s easier said than done. So, why not put a single window structure in place first, test it out, streamline it and then think about bringing in a regulator.

The bill also proposes to ask all currently under construction projects to register with the regulators. How will that happen? Where will the manpower to process such vast amounts of information come from? Are they equipped?

While the bricks for the single window are being laid, why not work on creating a formal structure for a regulatory authority in the meanwhile?

Some planning and foresight at this stage will surely go a long way and will ensure that this new all-powerful body does not become another roadblock for the sector.