Real Estate Act comes into force today, only 13 states notify rules

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The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act , 2016, or RERA, aims to protect home buyers and encourage genuine private players

The much-awaited Real Estate Act comes into force from Monday with a promise of protecting the right of consumers and ushering in transparency but only 13 states and Union Territories (UTs) have so far notified rules.

The government has described the implementation of the consumer-centric Act as the beginning of an era where the consumer in king. Real estate players have also welcomed the implementation of the Act, saying it will bring a paradigm change in the way the Indian real estate sector functions. The government has brought in the legislation to protect home buyers and encourage genuine private players.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2016, (RERA Act), was passed by Parliament in March last year and all the 92 sections of the Act comes into effect from 1 May. “The Real Estate Act coming into force after a nine-year wait and marks the beginning of a new era,” Housing and urban poverty alleviation (HUPA) minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said. The minister said the law will make “buyer the king”, while developers will also benefit from the increased buyers’ confidence in the regulated environment.

“The Act ushers in the much-desired accountability, transparency and efficiency in the sector, defining the rights and obligations of both the buyers and developers,” Naidu said. The developers will now have to get the ongoing projects that have not received completion certificate and the new projects registered with regulatory authorities within 3 months from Monday.

Under the rules, it is mandatory for the states and UTs to set up the authority. However, only 13 states and UTs have so far notified the rules. The states that have notified the rules are Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharasthra, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.

The housing ministry had last year notified the rules for five UTs—Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, and Lakshadweep, while the urban development ministry came out with such rules for the National Capital Region of Delhi. The other states and UTs will have to come out with their own rules.

A HUPA ministry spokesperson said the ministry has been taking up the matter with all the states and UTs for implementation of the Act, requesting them to ensure action as per the provision of the Act within the time limit. The ministry had earlier formulated and circulated the model rules to the states and UTs for their adoption and it is their responsibility to notify the rules, the spokesperson said. Those states which have not notified the rules will face public pressure and even people could approach the court in the matter, he added. On reports that key provisions have been diluted by some states, he said it was pointed out to those states and they have assured the ministry that it would be corrected.

The Indian real estate sector involved over 76,000 companies across the county. Some of the major provisions of the Act, besides mandatory registration of projects and real estate agents, include depositing 70% of the funds collected from buyers in a separate bank account for construction of the project. This will ensure timely completion of the project as the funds could be withdrawn only for construction purposes. The law also prescribes penalties on developers who delay projects. All developers are required to disclose their project details on the regulator’s website, and provide quarterly updates on construction progress. In case of project delays, the onus of paying the monthly interest on bank loans taken for under-construction flats will lie on developers unlike earlier, when the burden fell on home buyers, said real estate service provider JLL India CEO and Country Head Ramesh Nair.

RERA also states that any structural or workmanship defects brought to the notice of a promoter within a period of five years from the date of handing over possession must be rectified by the promoter, without any further charge, within 30 days, he added. If the promoter fails to do so, the aggrieved allottee is entitled to receive compensation under RERA, Nair said.

Other highlight of the Act is imprisonment of up to three years for developers and up to one year in case of agents and buyers for violation of orders of appellate tribunals and regulatory authorities. As per industry data, real estate projects in the range of 2,349 to 4,488 were launched every year between 2011 and 2015, amounting to a total of 17,526 projects with investments of Rs13.70 lakh crore in 27 cities, including 15 state capitals. About ten lakh buyers invest every year with the dream of owning a house.

Real estate industry bodies Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (CREDAI) and National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) said the implementation of this law will bring paradigm change in the way Indian real estate functions. They expect property demand to rise but supply may get affected in the near term. “It will bring a paradigm change in the real estate sector. It will protect buyers who have purchased flats in the past. The regulator under the RERA should find ways to help complete ongoing projects and provide relief to home buyers,” NAREDCO chairman Rajeev Talwar said.

CREDAI president Jaxay Shah said RERA will increase transparency in the sector and boost confidence of both domestic and foreign investors. He, however, said there will be some “teething problem” initially in implementation of this law. Asked about the impact on prices, Shah said, “Supply will dip during this year but demand will improve as buyers will have increased confidence about investing in the property market” The real estate prices will remain stable now but rates could rise by 10% in the next six months, he added.

Source: http://www.livemint.com/Companies/5P2gvJ8eUojc1vz0fgR2hJ/RERA-comes-into-effect-tomorrow-only-13-states-notify-rules.html

GST bringing realty shake-up

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Retailers, both of physical stores and e-commerce entities, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies and those in consumer durables have started rejigging their warehouse strategy.

This is in preparation for the national goods and services tax (GST), with the government working to an April 2017 deadline. All this could mean a shake-up in real estate, say analysts. A rough calculation suggests these businesses could look at reducing their warehouse count to half, while stepping up the total space acquisition in select destinations, once GST comes into play. In the next two to three years, businesses could see significant cost reduction due to the revised strategy.

Hindustan Unilever, Nestle, Johnson & Johnson and Shoppers Stop are among those to have begun work on consolidating their warehouses, according to a source. These companies will take up mega space, in millions of square feet, to set up ‘mother warehouses’, he said. In the online space, top companies such as Flipkart and Amazon have been on an expansion spree for warehouses and fulfillment centres in the past two years, primarily to suit the complex tax structure through the country. Now, however, they won’t feel the need to have warehouses in every state and can strategise accordingly, Vijaya Ganesh Thangavel, managing director, Land & Industrial (India), Cushman & Wakefield, told this newspaper.

For instance, Max Fashion, a prominent retailer, has eight warehouses totaling 400,000 sq ft. The number is likely to come down to four after GST, says chief executive Vasanth Kumar. “The number will get firmed up once we know the full GST details and the implications such as the reverse logistics needs,’’ he said. Post GST, their warehouse count will be down but the total space covered could go up to around 600,000 sq ft by 2018 “to meet future business needs, as well our rate of growth at a 30-plus per cent CAGR (compounded annual rate)”.

If a typical e-commerce company was taking 300,000 to 400,000 sq ft in metros and tier-1 cities for warehouses, 100,000 sq ft in tier-2 and 40,000 to 50,000 sq ft in tier-3, the plan now will be to go for million sq ft space and more, away from big cities and in fewer locations, primarily where real estate cost won’t be prohibitive, says Thangavel of Cushman. Distribution centres, smaller in size in the range of 40,000 to 50,000 sq ft, could be set up closer to cities.

The biggest trend now is that prominent developers are getting into the warehouse space, which has mostly been a domain of local land owners till recently, according to Thangavel. Along with realtors, a new breed of advisors are coming up, only for warehouse planning. Also, warehouse parks are being set up for large structures. While the exercise of restructuring the warehouses will take a couple of years, he projects a cost reduction of at least 10 to 15 per cent by 2019-2020. Estimates are that big companies which have on an average one warehouse in every state, totaling to anything from 20 to 25, might look at eight to 10, pan-India post-GST.

“We understand that a few of the larger companies have started consolidating their warehousing requirements in strategic locations, in anticipation of GST, with a view to bringing efficiency into their supply chain,’’ said Rami Kaushal, managing director, Consulting and Valuations, CBRE South Asia.

Besides retailers and FMCG companies, even pharmaceutical companies would look at rationalising the number of operational warehouses and swap these for better quality and larger format ones, he said.

“Implementation of GST is expected to lead to rationalisation of warehousing demand, leading to lower logistics cost and reduced delivery time of manufactured goods,’’ Kaushal explained. The current complicated tax structure meant that choice in setting up inventory and distribution centres were based on the tax regime, rather than on operational efficiency, he said.

GST, when implemented, will free the decisions on warehousing and distribution from these tax considerations, according to Kaushal. ”This would enable occupiers to create larger hubs, servicing two or more states from a single location, which would help optimise inventory costs and increase efficiency.’’ This shift in operational planning would ultimately result in a hub and spoke model being adopted by many of the occupiers, he added.

Industrial warehousing space is estimated at approximately 800 million sq ft across the country and is expected to grow by nine to 10 per cent annually. A few sectors such as e-commerce, modern retailing and FMCG are expected to grow at about 20 per cent annually in the short term, according to CBRE.

A recent JLL report listed the National Capital Region, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad as top warehouse hubs. These eight city hubs together had a cumulative supply of organised Grade-A and Grade-B warehousing space of around 97 mn sq ft in 2015; this is expected to grow to around 116 mn sq ft by the end of 2016. It added that GST will result in emergence of new hubs such as Belgaum, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, Goa, Guwahati, Indore, Jaipur, Kolhapur, Lucknow/ Kanpur, Ludhiana, Nagpur, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi, Vapi and Vijayawada.

 

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/gst-bringing-realty-shake-up-116090801173_1.html

Indian real estate may attract $2 bn investment from Japan

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JapanJapanese developers and private equity investors are looking to enter Indian property market and could invest at least USD 2 billion over the next three years in residential as well as industrial projects, says JLL.

 

Realty consultant JLL India said in a report that the country is emerging as major investment destination for Chinese and Japanese developers.

 

China’s biggest developer Wanda has signed an MoU with Haryana government earlier this year and more developers from China and Japan are expected to enter the Indian realty market, it said.

 

Private equity investors from these two countries are also looking at entering India’s real estate sector, it added.

 

“Japanese developers are keen to explore strategic partnerships and enter into joint ventures with Indian builders, and are particularly interested in industrial projects. There is likely to be an inflow of at least USD 2 billion in investments from Japan into the Indian real estate market over the next three years,” JLL India Chairman and Country Head Anuj Puri said.

 

After 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) was allowed into the real estate industry, it was only a matter of time before foreign developers made big investment announcements, he said.

 

“One of China’s most prominent developers, Dalian Wanda Group, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) earlier this year with the northern state of Haryana to develop Wanda Industrial New City’. The investment of USD 10 billion, phased out over the next decade, is a very significant outlay by any Chinese company in India,” Puri said.

 

Other Chinese developers are also interested in India and most likely to follow suit, he added.

The RICS-JLL survey this January had shown that 62 per cent of the respondents felt that institutions from Japan and China could come knocking to the Indian real estate market in 2016.

 

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Indian-real-estate-may-attract-2-bn-investment-from-Japan/articleshow/52763657.cms