Real estate developers should inculcate “transparency, trust building and time adherence” as envisaged under the RERA law for the growth of this industry, said Gautam Chatterjee, former Chairman of MahaRERA.

He was speaking at a webinar organised by realtors body NAREDCO on the occasion of completing 24 years and entering to the silver jubilee.

Chatterjee, who was the founder Chairman of Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA), noted that there has been a paradigm shift in the sector with the enactment of RERA law in 2016.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016, known as RERA, has formalised the sector and brought it under a much needed regulatory framework. He noted that the sector has bounced back after the second wave of the COVID pandemic and there is renewed investors interest.

“But the interest is especially in projects that are led by trusted developer implying that trust is a key factor that can shape decision making of the customers going ahead,” Chatterjee said.

There has been an uptick in the consumer sentiment, he said, adding that the demand has risen for affordable housing as well as arger homes.

The fast development of infrastructure like highways, metro projects and others will ensure that the real estate industry gets an option to spread its wings to the outskirts of city limits as well, Chatterjee said.

Going forward, he stressed that builders need to inculcate and internalise the “three T’s of RERA — transparency, trust building and time adherence.” Transparency means removal of information asymmetry and opaque practices in the sector, he said.

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Chatterjee pitched for online disclosures in public domain, besides bringing in accountability and financial discipline, and empowering people to make informed choice.

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“Trust building bridges the trust deficit, which has been one of the pains of the sector. So trust building will breach that trust deficit between promoters and buyers and provide speedy grievance redressal,” he said.

Chatterjee also emphasised on the timely completion of registered projects, which has a real pain point of the past.

Moreover, he said the Naredco as an association and its members should effectively deal with the legacy issues of stalled projects.

Chatterjee also talked about bringing professionalism, skill and expertise across the board. He also advocated use of technologies in a big way in the sector, enabling the developers to plan their projects properly and avoid piling up of unsold inventories.

“Using technology to help gather interpret, create reports based on industry data pertaining to real estate, because we know how we are faced with the problem of large unsold inventories in the project which delay project completion…” and it is seen that many times this large level of inventory is a result of faulty planning or lack of information regarding the ground situation,” he said.

Niranjan Hiranandani, Vice Chairman of NAREDCO and Rajan Bandelkar, President of NAREDCO also participated in the webinar.

Bandelkar informed that the membership of Naredco has crossed 10,000.