However, this news did give me a strong feeling of deja vu. When I googled the phrase ‘India real estate regulatory bill’, I came across a newspaper article from 2006 saying that a real estate regulatory bill was expected to be passed in the 2006 winter session of Parliament.

I also came across another article from 2008 that said a real estate regulatory bill was expected to be passed in the 2008 winter session of Parliament. Not just that, I also also came across a draft of a model bill dated September 2009 with a covering letter from a government official attached.

The letter said that the bill should be put up on the web by November 9, 2009, and comments invited from the public. So, I wouldn’t keep my fingers crossed too hard.

Nonetheless, if and when this bill does become a law, it will be a huge improvement for house-buyers in India. Many, if not most, of the problems associated with buying a house at every step could be solved substantially.

For example, right at the beginning of the process, buyers face the problem of getting trustworthy information about the identity of the promoter and basic facts regarding the legal and approval status of the land and the project concerned.

The new law will mandate that each project be registered with and approved by the Real Estate Regulatory Authority and that all information filed with the authority be made available on its website.

No project can be announced or advertised before this registration. This alone will be a huge impediment to so many unhealthy practices.

The draft bill also mandates that the developer stick to the announced specifications and plan, and it lays down penalties if they don’t. Currently, these things are just part of a one-sided agreement that developers typically present to buyers as fait accompli.

Around the country, buyers’ biggest troubles arise from long delays and from developers transferring money from one project to another. The new law tackles this. Registration of a project is for three years and is then extendable for specific reasons twice for one year each. After that, the law allows for what appears to be a handover of the project to some other entity like an association of the buyers.

As far as fund diversion is concerned, the draft law is less than satisfactory. It mandates that 70% of the funds taken from buyers be kept in a separate audited account and paid out only for project expenditure. This is strange, because the 2009 model law said that 100% of the funds should be thus isolated.

Real estate developers in Noida, such as ATS Infrastructure, The 3C Company and Earth Infrastructures, which have about 11 residential projects between them in the city and its surroundings, have either bought land or signed joint development agreements in Gurgaon over the last six to eight months.

The development underscores the problems the real estate sector has been facing in Noida since May this year when farmers’ protests over low prices for their land snowballed into a political issue, leaving projects and buyers stranded.

“Noida Authority now has no land left in its bank to sell to developers,” said Shiv Priya, executive director at Amrapali Developers, a real estate firm scouting for land in Gurgaon. According to property research firm PropEquity, Gurgaon registered a rise in sales of residential units at a time when the market was down in most parts of the country.

Home sales in Gurgaon in the July-September quarter rose 34% from the year-ago period while that in Noida dipped 36%. “The sentiment of buyers has been affected in Noida because of which sales have fallen,” said Anshuman Magazine, managing director of CB Richard Ellis, a commercial real estate services firm.

Developer ATS recently bought a 14-acre plot of licensed land in Gurgaon’s sector 109 forRs 150 crore and signed a joint development agreement with the Chintels group for another 10-acre plot in sector 106. Similarly, 3C Company has signed an agreement with Orris Infrastructure to jointly develop a 47-acre plot in Gurgaon’s sector 89. 3C, which was active only in Noida until now, is planning a group housing project there.

Gurgaon, which is on the southwest of the national capital, had wooed the information technology industry with its gleaming buildings and swanky malls in the late 90s. “We also got a good feedback from many of our existing customers about setting up a project in Gurgaon, which is why we have signed a joint development agreement,” said Brijesh Bhanote, director, sales and marketing, at 3C Company.

There is no new prime land available in Noida, he added. Anckur Srivasttava, chairman of property consultancy Gen-Real Property Advisers, said developers are waiting for the political uncertainty to reduce post state elections next year. Sales of residential apartments in Noida plunged after angry farmers started blocking housing projects.

The agitation, which started in a certain area of Greater Noida, became a larger movement with farmers across the city seeking higher compensation. The issue was settled after a high court ordered the city development authority to pay higher compensation to farmers.

The authority was also asked to return 5% of the farmland it had acquired after March 1997. Property firm Earth Infrastructures, which operated mainly in Noida, has started a residential project on a 10.5-acre plot it bought in Gurgaon’s sector 112 earlier this year.

Group Bookings negotiates a group price with various builders and presents a discounted deal on its website. The potential buyers show interest in the deal to avail the discounted price. Group Bookings does not charge anything from the home buyers and all payments are made by the buyers directly to the builder.

“We have been providing the benefit of group discount to the customers, but now we have also convinced the builders to offer additional discount during the festival period, thus giving double benefit to the customers” said Sandesh Wadhwa, Business Head at Group Bookings. He negotiates with the builders on behalf of the home buyers to get maximum discount for them. He also added “We create a win-win situation for the builders as well as the home buyers. The buyers get double discount – festival discount as well as group discount and the builders are able to sell their inventory in bulk”.

The Greater Noida Authority, locked in a standoff with several villages in Noida Extension over acquisition of farmland for constructing apartments, succeeded to end the deadlock with one village on Saturday. Buoyed by the breakthrough in Patwari village, the authority said it was a matter of time before other villages turned around.

Squaring off with the Greater Noida Authority, at least 16 villages have gone to the Allahabad High Court (HC), demanding that farmland acquired there for constructing flats be scrapped, halting work at nearly 50 housing projects valued at Rs 37,500 crore.

The villagers have argued before the court that the land acquisitions should be scrapped as the authority neither paid them the compensation it promised nor fulfilled several other assurances, including handing them plots in return for their land.

On July 26, the Allahabad HC asked the farmers and the Greater Noida Authority to end the impasse out of court, adding that a larger court bench would hear the case on August 17 if, by then, a settlement is not reached.

The court order set off feverish negotiations by government officials with the farmers, culminating in Saturday’s breakthrough.

Under the deal struck with farmers of Patwari, they will now withdraw their case in court.

In return, the Greater Noida Authority agreed to pay an additional compensation of Rs 550 per sqm to the farmers. This is over the Rs 850 per sqm at which their lands were acquired in 2008.

The authority announced to give each farmer residential plots eight per cent the size of their acquired land. Earlier, it had promised to give plots six per cent the size of acquired land.

The plots will be at good locations connected by roads not less than 12m wide. Allotment will be done through a draw of lots in Lucknow.

The authority also agreed to a demand of the farmers not to acquire abadi ( inhabited) land and, if such land has already been acquired, return those to villagers.

Under the agreement, 10 per cent seats will be reserved for farmers’ children in all schools and colleges to be set up on their land. Concrete roads, sewerage network and other infrastructure will be developed in villages on a par with urban sectors.

The deal was brokered by Gautam Budh Nagar MP Surendra Nagar, Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Thakur Jaiveer Singh and MLA D. P. Yadav, all from the ruling BSP. A press conference was addressed jointly by them along with MLC Jitendra Yadav, Greater Noida CEO Rama Raman and chairman Mohinder Singh to announce the deal.

“We talked to the farmers on all issues in a cordial and amicable manner to reach a consensus. We have agreed to almost all their demands and the farmers, too, are happy,” Mohinder Singh said.

“Their biggest demand was not to acquire abadi land, to which we agreed,” he added.

Nearly 250 farmers signed the deal with the authority. Government officials were confident that with Patwadi farmers on their side, other villages will follow suit in the coming days.

The authority will now submit a copy of the agreement before the Allahabad HC.

Emerging out of the meeting, Patwari chief Resh Pal Yadav said: “We are happy with the deal. We did not want buyers to suffer who have invested huge money in flats. But we were under no pressure to reach a deal.”

Several Patwari villagers, however, claimed the deal was inked by farmers who were not the litigants and the actual petitioners were not taken onboard.

Suresh Yadav, a farmer, said: “We are not at all happy. We are holding a panchayat tomorrow to discuss the situation. Whatever has been done has been done under political pressure.”

The court order came in some 250 petitions that were clubbed as they involved hundreds of farmers spread across 10 villages where some 3,000 hectare of land was acquired by the Greater Noida Authority.

The petitioners had accused the Greater Noida Authority and the state government of arbitrarily bypassing the prescribed procedure for acquisition by unlawfully using an “urgency” clause, when the land in question was actually given away to builders and developers to build swanky residential complexes.

A division bench comprising Justice Amitabh Lala and Justice Ashok Srivastava said that the farmers and the administration were free to hold fresh negotiations and strike a deal, if possible by August 12.

“In case no settlement comes through by August 12, then the matter would heard by a larger bench with effect from August 17″, a senior court official told reporters in Allahabad.

Alleging payment of very low compensation against their land, farmers claimed that even as their land was taken away at a throw away price, builders and developers were making huge profits by charging exorbitant rates from applicants.

They had taken the cue from a few recent orders of the court to return the acquired land to the farmer in certain other parts of Greater Noida.

There too the administration had applied the “urgency” clause to do away with the proceedings under section 5 of the Land Acquisition Act that entitles the land owner to raise his objections against the acquisition.

Meanwhile, an impleadment application moved jointly by a number of builders and developers who wanted to be heard by the court before it took any decision on the issue, was turned down by the High Court.

The order leaves in the lurch thousands of applicants, who had invested their lifetime savings in the housing projects.

The bench comprising justices R K Agrawal and Sunil Hali released the petitions filed by farmers of Deola village and referred the matter to the Chief Justice with the request that it be placed before the “appropriate” division bench.

The petitioners had moved the court with the contention that 107 hectares of their land had been acquired by the state government, which had denied them an opportunity to raise objections by invoking the “urgency clause” thereby depriving them of adequate compensation.

Meanwhile, hearing on petitions of farmers from nearly a dozen villages of Gautam Buddh Nagar, challenging acquisition of about 3,000 hectares of land, is likely to commence before a division bench headed by Justice Amitava Lala later today.

An application has also been moved by the “Noida Extension Flat Buyers’ Welfare Association”, formed in the wake of recent judgements quashing acquisition of hundreds of hectares of land in the area, which has sought to be made a party in the case.

People who purchased flats in Noida extension have formed an association and approached the High Court to take into account their interests as well. The petitioner association has appealed to the High Court to ensure that the interests of the investors who have invested their hard earned money in the real estate projects should not suffer.

Allahabad High Court Thursday after hearing the plea of the Flat Buyers Association adjourned the petitions filed by farmers of Haibatpur, Bisrakh jalapur, Roza Yakubpur village, challenging the acquisition of land in Noida extension.

In a related matter the division bench comprising Justices Amitava Lala and Ashok Kumar Srivastava directed to prepare a list of pending challenges mentioning the date of notification, and date of acquisition of all the related matters.

Allahabad High Court has listed the case of land acquisition of Dadri district’s Ghodi Bachedi village on July 26 alongwith other petitions challenging land acquisition in the area. Petitioners – the farmers of Ghodi Bhacheri village from Dadri had approached the court challenging land acquisition by government by relying on urgency clause to do industrial development, but no such development ever took place, claimed the petitioners.

Petitioner stated that land was acquired from them for industrial development so that villages can get employment. However, even though the land was acquired in the year 2005-06 for industrial development, no development took place so far.

1. Supertech Ecovillage 1 & 3
2. Valencia Homes
3. Arihant Arden
4. Nirala Estates
5. Elegant Ville
6. Amrapali Spring Meadows
7. Amrapali Leisure Valley
8. Amrapali La Residentia
9. Patel Neotown
10. Eros Sampoornam
11. Ajnara Le Garden

Please feel free to add more names to the list.

Post your project details to know its status and whether it is affected or not.

Farmers are demanding 50% of their land’s market value as cash compensation, settlement of abadi land disputes (returning to farmers wrongly acquired abadi land or, in some cases, freeing encroached areas from farmers) and allotment of developed land (5% of the total land acquired) plots as part of rehabilitation benefits.

On May 16, hundreds of farmers of Sorkha Jahidabad, Sarfabad, Baraula, Parthala, Kakrala, Salarpur, Gadhi Chaukhandi, Bahlolpur and Morna reached the builders’ sites in sectors 74, 75, 76, 78, 79, 117, 116 and 113 and stopped work. Noida authority had sought from farmers one month’s time to address the issues. The authority said it would hold special camps and allot the 5% plots.

There has not been much progress but officials put up a brave front.
“We have held hearings in three villages to solve abadi land disputes, which will lead up to allotment of developed land plots. As for the demand of greater compensation, we have communicated the matter to state government. Lucknow will take a call.”
Farmers are not impressed. Farmer leader Naresh Yadav said, “The authority has not respected its deadline. There is only one week left before our deadline expires. I don’t think they will be able to concede our demands in a week. We held a meeting on Sunday last and decided in case our demands are not met, will stop work at sites and resort to an indefinite agitation.”

He said, “Land was acquired from us at R400 per sqm and sold to builders for R10,000 per sqm. The acquisition was principally done for industrial development and, midway, the land use was changed to that of so-called planned development. Our objections were not listened to.” There are more than 800 claims of 5% plots. No such allotment has been done since 2005, he said.

Farmers, apart from cash compensation, also get plots (5% of the total land acquired) in developed sectors through lottery and after payment of development charges as part of a rehabilitation plan.

Acting on a batch of petitions by farmers, a division bench comprising Justice Sunil Ambawani and Justice S S Tiwari set aside the acquisition of 589.13 hectares of land in Patwari and Dewla villages, falling under Dadri tehsil of Gautambuddh Nagar district.

The land was acquired by the state government through notifications in March 2008 and May 2008 for building residential complexes in Greater Noida area neighbouring Delhi.

The order came barely a fortnight after the Supreme Court had struck down acquisition of 156 hectares of land by the state government in village Shahberi in the area, saying the authorities were “subserving” private builders in the name of public interest.

The apex court had on July 6 upheld the Allahabad high court order which had quashed the land acquisition by the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority under the urgency clause of the Land Acquisition Act and directed that the property be returned to the farmers.

The authority and builders had moved the apex court challenging the high court decision.

Click her to know the status of Projects Affected in Patwari, Dewla villages in Noida Extension after Allahabad HC order of 19 July