Mumbai’s real estate market seems to be benefiting due to factors like the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act or RERA and the falling property prices. These aspects have contributed towards growth in residential sales volumes in the MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Region) to the tune of 19%. This increase is a first since the year 2010 and this just shows how impactful these factors have been. This increase in property sales was observed between July and December, 2017 as per reports. RERA has been swiftly implemented by the Government in Maharashtra. The real estate industry was now witnessing more regulations and transparency alike. With MahaRERA becoming fully functional, real estate developers have begun to adjust business operations in adherence to regulatory guidelines. 79% of judgments for complaints in a particular time period were finally in favor of homebuyers as far as MahaRERA is concerned. This has been unearthed by several studies which also showed how buyers had to wait it out for 5-7 years till Courts delivered judgments based on complaints made by them. However, things are changing fast and this time period has reduced to only a few weeks or a month at the most. RERA is thus making more buyers confident about purchasing properties in Mumbai. The performance of the realty industry has been better in Mumbai and other major cities. Realty developers have also offered lucrative discounts for the first time since the year 2010 in the MMR and other zones. Mumbai also saw a fall in prices for the very first time in almost a decade or even more! The weighted average prices in Mumbai real estate have come down by around 5% on a year-on-year basis. Along with this base price reduction, there are discounts and freebies like waivers on stamp duty, rent assurance for 24 months, zero charges for preferential locations, gifts and zero floor rise charges. Real estate developers are now focusing on finishing their existing real estate projects post RERA and new launches have come down by 23% as a result. Several markets like Navi Mumbai and Thane witnessed de-growth in new launches as compared to the Central Suburbs of Mumbai and some other zones. However, the good news is that unsold inventory has reduced over the last year by approximately 25%. Maharashtra is also the sole Indian State to execute all four RERA stages, namely the notification of the rules of RERA, launching the online portal for real estate developers to register and for buyers to view all project information, establishing the permanent regulatory authority and establishing the RERA appellate tribunal. Mumbai and Bangalore are now the only cities where all these stages have been implemented swiftly. Chennai, Ahmedabad and Noida are yet to establish their appellate tribunals while Gurgaon, Delhi and Hyderabad do not have their online portals or appellate tribunals yet. Kolkata is the only major city which has not seen implementation of any RERA stage.
Mumbai real estate benefits from fall in prices and RERA
