Before RERA, Indian real estate was, by most accounts, the largest unregulated sector outside agriculture.
Builders could collect 30 to 80% of a project’s cost before construction had even been sanctioned. Possession could slip for years with no statutory penalty. Funds raised for one project could quietly fund a different one entirely.
That’s genuinely not how the market works anymore, and I don’t think it’s controversial to say regulation improved this industry.
What’s changed more recently, sometimes called “RERA 2.0” in industry conversation, tightens this further in several states: a three-account escrow structure where funds are released only against independently certified construction milestones, QR codes on advertisements linking directly to a project’s official registration record, and faster target timelines for dispute resolution.
Genuinely good developments. Here’s what I think still doesn’t get said enough.
Regulatory action on a developer’s past project doesn’t automatically flag their next one. RERA registers and regulates individual projects, a promoter’s delay history on Project A doesn’t show up as a warning label on Project B. Checking a developer’s full portfolio, not just the project in front of you, is still work the buyer has to do.
Verification habits haven’t caught up with verification tools. The official portals are more accessible than ever, but plenty of buyers still verify a project through a broker’s WhatsApp forward or a builder’s own microsite instead of the actual .gov.in RERA record.
And sustainability claims sit almost entirely outside RERA’s scope. “Green,” “self-sustained,” “wellness-focused” none of that is independently verified by the same system that checks your carpet area and payment schedule.
None of this is a criticism of RERA, it’s a reminder that regulation protects you best when you actually use it, and that some categories of claim still need your own verification, not the system’s.Have you personally checked a developer’s RERA complaint history before, or has it always been the project registration alone?