Real Estate Bill will protect consumers, regularise transactions: Venkaiah

Stating that the Government believes in public private partnership, Naidu said that it does not intend to add one more ‘table’ to the many that already exist in the trail of obtaining necessary approvals and on the contrary seeks to simplify the approval process by taking the States on board.

He was speaking at the ‘Stakeholders Consultation on Real Estate (Development and Regulation) Bill and Single Window Approval System’ here. “The Bill will also enable domestic and foreign investment flow into the sector,” Naidu added.

The BJP Government is set to bring out a revised Bill, after talks with all stakeholders. The Bill was earlier introduced in the Rajya Sabha in August 2013. Post that, a report was tabled by Standing Committee on Urban Development in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha in February 2014.

“It is applicable to residential real estate i.e. housing and any other independent use ancillary to housing, but the Standing Committee has suggested that it be extended to include commercial real estate as well,” K B S Sidhu, Joint Secretary (Housing), Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, said.

The Committee also suggests inclusion of all real estate agents (including secondary sale) within the ambit of the Bill, apart from increasing responsibility of promoters towards structural defects from 2 years to 5 years, among others.

State regulatory bodies will not be outside the ambit of the Bill, Sidhu added. Business Line