Real estate projects involving 10,000 housing units locked in litigation, loan default and penal action by the urban development authorities are likely to be revived following the initiative taken by the real estate sector regulator, the Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (UP RERA).
The revival of the real estate projects will be a big relief for the homebuyers and lenders.
The UP RERA has taken up cases of 17 housing projects worth around Rs 2,000 crore that are stuck for various reasons, including siphoning of funds, loan defaults, bankruptcy of promoters and financial impropriety.
“The regulator will meet all defaulting promoters, bankers, financial institutions, and agents to prepare a road map for the revival of projects. Some of these projects belong to builders like Ansals and Supertech',” said UP RERA Chairman Sanjay Bhoosreddy
Yogi Adityanath, soon after taking oath as chief minister of UP in 2017, had announced to address the grievances of thousands of home buyers in Noida, Ghaziabad and other places in the state.
The home buyers had made full payment to the real estate developer but were not given possession of the flats by the developer. Many real estate companies were either bankrupt or had diverted the money of home buyers to some other projects. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the last over six years, continuously monitored the situation and directed the officials to draft a road map to control the situation.
The distressing trend started in the state with leading realtor Amrapali Group going bankrupt. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) initiated insolvency proceedings against two big players – Supertech and Logix City Developers.
Apart from Noida and Ghaziabad, Bhoosreddy said new housing projects were proposed in smaller towns, including Jhansi, Bareilly, Moradabad, Agra, Mathura, and Vrindavan. This indicates the growth in the organised real estate sector.
Of the nearly 2,056 projects underway, more than 50 per cent are under development in the eight National Capital Region (NCR) districts of UP, especially Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad, Meerut, and Hapur.
In the non-NCR districts, Lucknow accounts for 400 or 20 per cent of the total projects underway. Since its inception, UP RERA has issued 8,575 recovery certificates of over Rs 3,000 crore against defaulting builders and developers. RERA was implemented pan India in May 2017.
“Till date, about 3,470 projects have been registered with the UP Real Estate Regulatory Authority. In 2023, nearly 125 new projects have been registered so far. Last year, 225 projects were registered,” he said.