Curbing creative liberty to facelift real estate-II

Track2Realty Exclusive: That small builders and fly-by-night operators in the business are the reason why the government is so concerned with the misleading advertisements. Often they advertise the project launch without even getting the mandatory license and in some cases home seekers hard earned money is lost.

With no entry barrier in the business, a clause against the misleading ads have been mooted to check such malpractices, reveals a Housing Ministry source requesting anonymity.

Sachin Sandhir, Managing Director, RICS, South Asia agrees that the proposed regulatory bill is biased and hence being opposed by the sector in its current form. There are a number of other loopholes such as this in the proposed bill.

The bill fails to address some key issues such as valuations, real market value and a number of other details. He, however, maintains that the jail term will deter the fly-by-night-operators within the built environment, who dupe customers.

“As per the guidelines, the advertisements should give correct information about the project. Many times there is a deviation from what is marketed and what is actually built. Often consumers want basic information. A mark of authentication would be to publish the licence number of the developer along with the advertisement. Organised developers are already doing this. Some state governments have already made it mandatory for developers to publish their licence numbers in their advertisement. It is a healthy practice and would bring transparency in the market,” says Sandhir.

But the developers also question that when the long pending demand for industry status to the housing sector, which is the second largest provider of the employment in the country, is not being granted why is sector is still absurdly getting a tag of highly unorganised.

They assert if the government’s intentions are right and growth oriented, a holistic solution of industry status is the way forward rather than knee jerk reactions like jail for misleading ads.

It is believed that any draconian provision of jail for advertisement would only hamper the growth of the sector, since the line that bifurcates in the collective consciousness between misleading and aspirational is very thin.

Moreover, if advertisements are being defined as how realistic it should be, then there should be a strict provision for all sectors to check any false commitments and wrong information through advertisements.