The government can consider RERA amendments to make them more effective: Urban Affairs Secretary.

By Abhay Shah, Realty Quarter

The government may consider changes to the RERA real estate law, if required, to make it more effective, Durga Shanker Mishra, Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary, said on Monday. He said that the Ministry for Housing and Urban Affairs will quickly adopt the model tenancy law for Cabinet approval at NAREDCO’s real estate Conference and then the same will be circulated to States for execution.

Mishra said the 2016 Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, which went into effect on May 2017, gives consideration and importance to this previously unregulated and black money-known sector. The secretary said all stakeholders will be consulted by the Center on the implementation of RERA in all states. The government will introduce amendments if necessary, he said, to render it more efficiently. Speaking of the model tenancy law announced in the budget, Mishra said the draft was already published on the internet and more than 500 suggestions were obtained. “We will approach the Cabinet very quickly for approval, and then the model law will be passed on to states,” he explained.

Mishra said the tenant’s legislation is most favourable to the tenant, not to the owner; hence apartment owners don’t want to let out their house. According to the 2011 census, 1.1 crore houses were vacant. The model law proposed would improve rental housing, said the secretary and asked builders to consider renting their unsold apartments.