A law to regulate the housing sector in the country is being formulated. The Union Ministry for Housing has prepared a draft Bill, which has been referred to the Law Ministry for its opinion, Mr S.K. Singh, Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Housing, said on Thursday.
He was interacting with mediapersons on the sidelines of a real estate and housing investment conclave organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
Mr Singh said that once the Bill gets cleared by the Law Ministry, it could be sent to the Union Cabinet for final approval, after which it would be introduced in the Parliament. The Bill would be based on the Concurrent List of the constitution.
Without giving a definite timeline as to when the Bill would be introduced in the Parliament, Mr Singh said that the government does not aim to create a regulator who will control the prices of real estate but it will ensure transparency in the business practices of realty companies.
The regulator will make certain that all the developers and real estate companies are registered with a government body. It will also ask the companies to publish all the details regarding project clearances from municipal bodies before taking bookings from the customers, Mr Singh said.
Mr Firdose Vandrevala, Chairman and Managing Director of HIRCO Development Pvt Ltd, said that the real estate industry does not have a good public image, therefore better industry behaviour is required, “The behaviour will come from certainty of punishment and not from more stringent laws,” he said.