The state of real estate:

-

The state of real estate:
------------------------------
The principle of buyer beware has never been an adequate protective measure in real estate. Lack of transparency, information asymmetry and a maze of transactions have put consumers in an unfairly disadvantageous position. Even the most vigilant among them find home buying an agonisingly risky venture. While many countries have improved their regulations and climbed up the global real estate transparency ladder, India has been sliding steadily. From a poor 41st position in 2010, it has slipped further to reach 48th among the 97 countries reviewed. Self-regulation has clearly failed. Realising the urgent need to protect home buyers, the Union Cabinet has recently approved the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill. This legislation, first conceptualised in 2011, is applicable only to residential projects. The full text of the updated bill has not yet been released, but the details circulated by the government indicate that it has largely retained the original objectives. A State-level regulatory authority will be set up, and developers will have to disclose all the details of their projects and submit approvals obtained to the authority, which in turn would make them public. Developers can advertise projects only after getting clearance, and must compulsorily deposit 70 per cent of the amount collected from buyers in a separate bank account. This would help prevent misuse of funds. Penalties for non-compliance include imprisonment.

The new draft includes the activities of real estate agents. The proposed legislation has also improved on the previous version in terms of applicability. Now, projects on plots larger than 1000 square metres in size will be covered by the new rules; this reduced threshold will help bring a greater number of projects under monitoring. Some may argue that new regulations would increase the time and costs of projects, and burden buyers. This objection is invalid since the bill is about presale checking, and projects cannot commence without clearance. Second, the gains clearly outweigh the costs. Regulatory measures are common even in mature property markets. For instance, the Property Misdescriptions Act 1991 in Britain makes it a criminal offence to provide misleading or false information. Benami holdings abound in the real estate sector and clean up measures must address these. Perhaps the use of UID numbers — which is insisted upon even in disbursements of subsidies for the poor — should be made mandatory for property deals to track the money trail. The risks involved in property transactions would further reduce when land record management, building approval systems and enforcement mechanisms are also improved.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Biography :

-
Image
Personal Life & Legacy : Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel tied the knot at the age of 18, to Jhaverba, who was twelve years of age then. Following the traditional Hindu customs, which allowed the bride to stay with her parents until her husband had a decent income and an established household, the two stayed apart for a few years until Sardar Patel had definite income to fall back on. Along with Jhaverba, he set up a house in Godhra. The couple was blessed with a daughter, Manibehn, in 1904, and a son, Dahyabhai, two years later. In 1909, Jhaverba, who was suffering from cancer, underwent a major surgical operation. Though the operation was successful, Jhaverba’s health continued to decline. She passed away the same year. Patel was against remarrying and instead raised his children with the help of his family. Patel’s health started declining in the summer of 1950. Though he was taken care of intensely, his health worsened. To recuperate, he was flown to Mumbai, where he
Read more

20. BALASUNDARAM :

-
Image
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY: THE STORY OF MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH by Mohandas K. Gandhi Part-2. 20. BALASUNDARAM : The heart's earnest and pure desire is always fulfilled. In my own experience I have often seen this rule verified. Service of the poor has been my heart's desire, and it has always thrown me amongst the poor and enabled me to identify myself with them. Although the members of the Natal Indian Congress included the Colonial-born Indians and the Clerical class, the unskilled wage- earners, the indentured labourers were still outside its pale. The Congress was not yet theirs. They could not afford to belong to it by paying the subscription and becoming its members. The Congress could win their attachment only by serving them. An opportunity offered itself when neither the Congress nor I was really ready for it. I had put in scarcely three or four months' practice, and the Congress also was still in its infancy, when a Tamil man in tattered clothes,
Read more

Sivananda's Personality - 15.

-
Image
In 1949, opening a cupboard, the Master’s attendant found a bedsheet bitten by a rat, and inside the sheet were four of its newborns. They had hardly opened their eyes. He took them to the Master. When the Master saw the baby rats, his heart was flooded with compassion. He felt greatly pained that they should have been disturbed. He asked the attendant to put them back immediately in the same place and condition, lest their mother should miss them. This was done. But in a day or two, the mother rat got killed by a cat. Soon after, the little ones also died. When the Master saw the dead rats, he felt sad and did Maha Mantra Kirtan for a pretty long time for the peace of the departed souls. His attendant also joined him in the Kirtan. The Master fed ants with sugar, birds with rice, monkeys with gram, fish with bread. He kept water in pots for birds. "This will develop mercy and cosmic love," he said. "It will soften the stony heart
Read more