NEW DELHI: Though real estate developers and experts across Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad welcomed the Uttar Pradesh cabinet’s decision to approve the recommendations of the Amitabh Kant Committee on delayed projects, saying that the step would directly benefit nearly 2.40 lakh homebuyers in the NCR, homebuyers believe that the move alone will not solve the decade long crisis.
Lakhs of buyers who have invested their hard-earned money and are waiting, either for possession or for registration, believe that the local authorities should specify their issues individually and take necessary measures to address them.
Investors claim that there is little clarity over projects of big builders as they are under litigation. Neither is there any clarity over the registration of flats that have been taken possession of 4-5 years or even before. The buyers rue that several issues have persisted since land allotment for various real estate projects in Noida, Greater Noida and Greater Noida West.
Now, many big realtors, who had launched a series of projects, have gone bankrupt; their projects under litigation and the future of homebuyers is in limbo. Now it appears that the authorities concerned are taking measures to provide some relief, although without concrete action yet.
“I purchased a flat in 2010 in Amrapali Dream Valley; still waiting for a handover. I have paid the full amount and hopefully, I will get my flat in 2024. The bigger question is whether my flat will be registered; I heard that I will only get possession; registry will only take place when local authorities allow it. I will be staying in my flat without a registry,” said flat buyer Rajiv Kumar.
Another homebuyer said that thousands of families have been living in Supertech Ecovillage - I housing society for 5-10 years and are still waiting for registration. “It’s been nearly 10 years since I got possession of my flat. Shockingly though, I am still waiting for the registration. Since the case of my society is under litigation, more delay is likely.
Due to this, the rate of flats in our society is lower in comparison to other societies,” he said. Associations advocating buyers’ welfare want the fresh policy to minimise the woes of flat-owners stuck in the impasse. They want registration of flats, and possession, besides measures towards relief of buyers.
Founder member of Noida Extension flat owner welfare association, Indrish Gupta, discussed major issues faced by investors and flat owners, their demands, and prospects for the future.
Excerpts:
What are the major issues faced by investors/flat-owners?
The whole issue started with the land allotment policy. Earlier builders were getting land possession by paying 10% amount and when they became defaulters, the authorities did not take appropriate action and stopped the registry of buyers. We had approached the Chief Minister in this regard, but there has been no solution.
Later we approached the committee of Amitabh Kant and put across our issues. The main recommendation of the committee was to delink registries from the outstanding amount of the builders. Though the government accepted the majority of the recommendations, it did not accept the delink of registration from builders’ dues. This policy will hardly benefit the suffering flat-buyers. The government should plan something concrete to resolve the issue permanently.
Founder member of Noida Extension flat owner welfare association, Indrish Gupta.To what extent are the new policies beneficial for investors?
The new recommendations are partially beneficial. The majority of old projects are excluded as they are under litigation. Also, authority is demanding a certain proportion of the due amount from builders which is almost impossible for them to deposit. Only a handful of builders and their investors will benefit from it.
What are our main demands now?
Our main demand is to start a registry of buyers who have paid the full amount for their flats. If there is any dispute with builders, authorities should settle it internally. Policymakers should understand that opening registration will help government exchequers. As per the Supreme Court in the Amrapali case, extraordinary problems need extraordinary measures. The registry of buyers should not be stopped as they have paid in full to builders. Instead, action should be taken against the realtors.
