Tuesday 4 January 2022

The Sad reality of Indian Real Estate!

Wherein we are all aware of various scams going on, there are few hidden scams which we are not aware of! One of them, woefully being the Real Estate Industry in India, specially the residential ones. This blog is completely based on my and my circles personal experience which i believe should be bought into limelight for every citizen of this country as well as abroad to not stay aloof.

To erect a home, you need to erect a house! That is where the real estate builders have an ode to perform. But unfortunately, ranging from naive to big shots in the industry, all have benevolently ruptured into a cuckoon of corruption and scamming leading to customers pivoting themselves in a position where they either give up or pay a massive premium to pull out of the ties. Lets have a look into the ways these Real Estate Builders try to forge their services and lay out innumerable vindicates to justify their forgery:-


Image credit- ndhrs.com

1) Government rules and Act of God:-

                                                           These builders have a very orthodox way of giving excuses in the name of Government policies and Act of God to hide their failures. They tend to bestow excuses specially in times of Covid and also the GST/Demonetization/ NGT tribunal for pollution to wrap up their course and tactically claim to have work haulted. Wherein if you see the real picture, these events wont delay any work by more than 6 months. If you visit the construction site, you will always see few labours working. Shockingly, when everything is up and running, and no interventions are actually put in place, you wont see labours working in the construction site, that too during peak working hours and days. That clearly suggests the intention of the builders and some other dispute that could have a bitter smell.


Image credit- nrilegalservices.com


2) Dispute between partners or land:-

                                                           During the purchase of the property, these sweet gullible will have your heart! They will claim that everything is good, everything is on track, everything is on time, the land is at the best and most safe location, company is very dedicated for future projects and business to come in. During the course of development, they will all of a sudden claim that there has been a dispute, RERA (Real Estate Regulation Authority) has some issues with this property, the partners have moved to court against each other and the project has no deadline. So under a nutshell, your investment has no direction and timeline of return. On asking for refund, they will claim that investment has been made and that money cant be given back. Instead the offerings they provide is a a different level which is mentioned in the next point.


Image credit- getyarn.io

3) "Sir we cant deliver the previous project but we have a new one where we can adjust your amount and fool you by charging almost double of the actual price and would adjust your investment for the non delivered project" :-

                                     They wont deliver the existing project and come up with another project whose price they will hike by 100 percent and enhance agreed of adjusting the previous amount. With no guarantee of that project also being delivered on time (or even delivering), they will again start selling dreams of your own house. On top of that in the name of Pradhan Mantri Yojna and Din Dayal Upadhayay Yojnas of Government, they will ask you for a major amount to be paid in cash (reason known to all). For people who work hard and are honest tax payers, their IT return doesn't allow for so much of cash withdrawal as well. Moreover this makes honest tax payers promote corruption.


Image Credit- blog.ipleaders.in


4) RERA (Real Estate Regulation Authority) was not present before 2016:-

                                                             RERA was introduced as a body on 1st May, 2016. So any property where investment has been made before that, builders have a solid excuse of passing the bait to RERA and Government for the previous properties. They claim to have applied that particular property for RERA registration and that doesn't get approved in years wherein it doesn't take more than 6 months for RERA to approve if there are no disputes against the land or property, But these builders keep on giving reasons for RERA approval wherein in reality they don't even apply for RERA registration.


For all these reasons, the ultimate loss is being faced by the customers. These mostly occurs with properties where the possession date is 2-3 years or more from the time of purchase. Neither will they ever refund your amount which you have invested and you are left with no other option than to go ahead with some other properties of the builder where they take advantage of your helplessness. They take that as n advantage to charge almost double of the actual price of the other properties. As we all know the legal system, that takes a lot of time, effort and money to be spent and in this busy world, people don't have that time and money to invest for so much of a hassle. So its always advisable to be very careful and sharp while choosing any residential property for your living. Market research, price comparisons and knowing about the real estate industry as a whole are few of the key components to decide for the best property.




Best methods to choose the best property for yourself and your family:-


1) Make sure the property is RERA approved.

2) Its always better to go ahead with ready to move in properties instead of future possessions. But we also know that ready to move in costs high. Even if you prefer to move ahead with future possession properties, do ensure that the construction is not stopped and never go for a property whose construction has not even started.

3) Make sure you don't go for any cash transaction as you wont have any record of that payment and you cant have a bait to fight.

4) Compare prices through different portals like 99 acres or Housing.com before getting into your purchasing decisions. 

5) Always ensure you have 5-6 builders to compare prices, possession timeline and quality.

6) Never be fooled by the number of properties a builder has or their revenue. Its not a big deal to forge facts and show a virtual picture. Always use your own brains by checking on the construction status and check reviews of the builders online as well as offline with their existing customers. 


With years of fighting and dealing with these, i can definitely help you out with any property that you plan to purchase. Do drop me an email at dasshivarjun.iipm@gmail.com if you need reviews or suggestion for real estate purchases.