MahaRERA calls for quality guidelines for realty projects

The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA), a real estate regulatory body, will propose a discussion paper on quality guidelines for realty projects in the state.

“These directives will help monitor the quality of housing with a view to safeguard interests of homebuyers in order to get houses of good quality”, said Ajoy Mehta, Chairman, MahaRERA while addressing an event recently.

Mehta said, "In Maharashtra, 1.6 crore citizens are waiting for homes and about 14 lakh homes are under construction. The government recognises the importance of the real estate sector and good housing. While the foundation of regulation will remain the same, emphasis will be on timely construction, delivery and quality of housing in order to make good housing available to all.

Appreciating NAREDCO Maharashtra's efforts to organise the Real Estate Forum, Atul Save, the state state’s Housing Minister, said, "The government understands the importance and contribution of the real estate sector in the State's development. The government aims to ensure good housing to every person and in order to achieve this it will sort out all issues of the sector."

Sandeep Runwal, President of NAREDCO Maharashtra, said, "When the real estate sectors in countries like China and the USA are struggling, in India it has emerged as a bright global spot. In Maharashtra, infrastructure projects are driving the state’s growth while RERA is striving for transparency and quality development. In these interesting times, we foresee a seamless growth, thanks to the policies of the state government and issues pertaining to the sector getting addressed in real time."

Meanwhile, Runwal announced the launch of an ambitious RealTech Fund (RTF) with an initial corpus of Rs 50 crore to propel technology innovations in the real estate sector and promote entrepreneurship.

Dr Niranjan Hiranandani, vice-chairman of the national NAREDCO body, lauded India's prominence globally as an emerging economy and the real estate sector's contribution in the growth story. Calling Maharashtra’s strides in ensuring ease-of-doing-business, transparency through RERA implementation and infrastructure development phenomenal, Dr Hiranandani said, "Housing and infrastructure development in the state have grown significantly. With more urban infrastructure projects underway, the State, especially Mumbai, needs focus on housing, which can be achieved by the state's real estate sector's aspirations to deliver houses to every person. We need a further slew of pro - housing initiatives like reducing stamp duty and registration charges to boost housing demand."

Rajan Bandelkar, President, NAREDCO National, said, "The previous decade was for IT and telecommunications and but now it is of the real estate sector. This is mainly due to the Central and State Government's focus on housing for all and making commensurate policies." During the event, two new state chapters of Karad (Satara district) and Akola were unveiled as a measure of spreading its wings. NAREDCO Maharashtra also announced another flagship event Homethon 2023, slated to be held from November 24-26.

According to a JLL report, residential sales value in Mumbai is projected to exceed Rs. two lakh crore by 2030. The report states that mid-segment projects still account for most of the market activity in Mumbai. However, with changing customer preferences, there is an increased focus on upper mid and premium segments.

Mumbai has been the fastest-moving city in terms of its home purchase affordability index score and became an affordable market with its threshold hitting 100 in 2021.